After not playing since last Saturday, the Maple Leafs were back in action against the defending Stanley Cup Champions, the Florida Panthers.

Florida was able to control Toronto all game, ending Toronto’s 4-game win streak, and ending their own 4-game skid in the process.

Anthony Stolarz made 19 saves in his return to Florida since winning the Stanley Cup with the team last year.

“Emotions were high, but we obviously would have liked a different outcome especially early on for me,” Stolarz said. “I think I could have made one of those saves early and kept it a little tighter. You look on the other end, and [Bobrovsky] was making some saves to keep them with a two-goal lead.”

Early on, it was all Florida. Pouncing like a Panther does, Florida got on top of the Leafs early, with a goal coming from Alex Barkov within the first five minutes, on the powerplay.

Mackie Samoskevich pushed it to 2-0 at 5:36. He had the puck bounce back to him below the left circle and scored with bodies in front of Stolarz.

Sam Reinhart extended it to 3-0 at 17:04 of the second period short-handed, shooting over Stolarz’s right shoulder from the top of the slot.

Mitch Marner continued his hot streak, scoring on the same powerplay off a great play, getting Bobrovsky to bite early and lifting the puck over his right side.

William Nylander took a high-sticking double minor in the third period, allowing former Leaf Carter Verhaeghe to extend the Panther lead 4-1. Toronto was able to kill off the rest of the powerplay.

Sam Bennett put the puck in the empty net to further extend the lead to 5-1, ending the game.

Overall, this was one of the worst games Toronto has played this year. They are missing half of their forward group, with Bobby McMann leaving the game early with a lower-body injury. With no excuse however, they just weren’t with it during this game.

“We talked before the game and knew 5-on-5 would be tight, but special teams were the difference,” Toronto coach Craig Berube said. “We gave up two power-play goals to them and a shorty. That was the difference in the game. … We have to be sharper, some of the penalties we did not need to take. We were trying to come back and took six minutes of penalties in the third. That makes it difficult.”

Toronto finishes their Florida trip on Saturday against the Tampa Bay Lightning, one of Toronto’s biggest rivals over the last number of years.