The Toronto Maple Leafs went into Saturday night’s game against the Nashville Predators with a golden opportunity in front of them. With both the Tampa Bay Lightning and Florida Panthers picking up losses earlier in the day, a win, or even an overtime loss would have propelled the Leafs into sole possession of first place in the Atlantic Division.

Unfortunately, nothing was made of that opportunity. Despite getting out in front with a 2-0 lead after the first period, the Predators went on to score five unanswered goals and hand the Maple Leafs an ill-timed loss, right as the morale around the team was starting to rise again.

John Tavares, who opened the scoring for the Leafs, kept things pretty blunt when asked what the team should take away from a game like that.

“We should be pissed off,” Tavares said. “It was a great opportunity to end a really good week, the way we bounced back from that stretch when things weren’t going our way, it was a really good opportunity go home and finish this trip and this week off really well. So, it should piss us off and help us get ready for another big week.”

None of the players will bring this up publicly, and they shouldn’t, considering karma exists. But, the loss stung especially hard considering the Predators had only scored three goals in their last four games and currently sit 30th in the NHL. You can never let your guard down for any team, and you have to respect even the worst ones considering they’re still made up of the top percentage of hockey players in the world. But, with the opportunity that was in front of them, it’s hard to make much of a justification for the way the game ended.

Still, Tavares quickly shut down any notion that the Leafs may have taken the Predators lightly because of where they were in the standings.

“No, definitely not.” he said.

The former Maple Leafs captain continued to talk about their effort and said that the difference in performance between the first frame and the middle frame was one of the bigger indicators for why they lost.

“We just didn’t have a very good second period,” Tavares said. “Some of our detail and coverage broke down, led to some odd-man rushes for them and got them on the board, got them in the game, got them the lead.”

While a loss to a Western Conference team won’t meet all of the criteria for a true panic mode situation at this stage of the season, the last thing the Leafs need at this point is for their bad habits to continue to seep into their game, especially when they’ve got two more games against the Panthers. These types of losses will never spare any team, no matter how good and consistent they are, so it’s important for them to put this loss in the rearview mirror and focus on the things they did well in their last three games.