Keefe: Leafs were 'soft and purposeless' in loss to Rangers

Toronto Maple Leafs head coach Sheldon Keefe had a scathing review of his club's performance after Wednesday's 6-3 loss to the New York Rangers.

"We got exposed today for being a team that was just soft. Soft and purposeless and just kind of playing the game hoping it was gonna work out," Keefe said, according to Sportsnet's Luke Fox.

"This one should bother us greatly," he added.

Toronto stormed out to a 3-1 lead after the first period but allowed five unanswered goals and was overmatched by New York's forecheck. The Maple Leafs have now surrendered multi-goal leads in four of their past five games.

"We took our foot off the gas ... it's becoming something that we really need to stop doing," forward Mitch Marner said, per the Toronto Sun's Terry Koshan.

The Leafs sit in third in the Atlantic Division, six points back of the Florida Panthers with two games in hand. They return to action Saturday against the New York Islanders.