Marner calls for Maple Leafs to 'just relax' amid slump

Toronto Maple Leafs forward Mitch Marner is calling for his team to stay calm after dropping three of their past four games.

After the Maple Leafs were blown out on home ice in a 5-1 loss to the Seattle Kraken Thursday, Marner turned his attention to Saturday's game against the Detroit Red Wings.

"Just relax. I mean, we're a great team. We know that," Marner said of how the team can bounce back. "It's a divisional rival that we beat in their building last so we've got to come hungry, pushing them."

The Maple Leafs allowed five or more goals for the third time in four games on Thursday, with Matt Murray allowing five goals on 26 shots against the Kraken. Head coach Sheldon Keefe, however, pointed to team mistakes as the reason for Toronto's latest loss.

"We made some big mistakes," Keefe said. "The breakaway [allowed to Jared McCann] is a big mistake. The game is already 2-1, you can't make that mistake. That's one that we'd like to have back. It's a tough game to play when you are constantly pulling the puck out of your net. I thought that took the life away from us a little bit but I'm not going to overthink that part of the game.

"We didn't do enough offensively to really gain traction and keep ourselves afloat."

Toronto outshot the Kraken 9-3 in the first period and 27-26 on the night, but a four-goal second period allowed the Kraken to pull away.

"We have to do a better job, obviously, of executing those details, especially in certain moments of the game to continue to give us a chance and be right there," captain John Tavares added. "Especially when we did a lot of good things in the first half."

The Maple Leafs remain second in the Atlantic Division, 11 points back of the Boston Bruins for the division's top seed.