McCabe booed lustily as Panthers top Leafs - Panthers 4, Leafs 2

TORONTO - Motivational carrots were everywhere Tuesday night.

There was a pre-game ceremony honouring Canada's recent gold medal victory at the world junior championship. There was the home crowd booing the highly anticipated return of a former defenceman. And, most importantly, there was an important two points to be gained in the standings.

But, for whatever reason, the Toronto Maple Leafs came out flat in what was an uninspiring 4-2 loss to the Florida Panthers.

"There's no reason," said Leafs forward Nik Antropov. "We had the crowd there for us. It was a good opportunity to catch them. We can't play at home like that."

Despite a pre-game warning from their head coach, the Leafs sleepwalked through the first period. Florida scored the opening two goals as Toronto trailed 2-0 for the 16th time this season. The team is now 5-9-2 when down two goals to none.

It was not until the third period, when the Panthers were up 3-0, that the Leafs began to mount a comeback. By then, it was too late.

"We didn't show up for most of the game," said Leafs head coach Ron Wilson. "I was not very happy with the effort . . . we've got to find a way to find the passion and the energy."

While Leafs rookie Luke Schenn came back after missing 12 games with torn ligaments in his knee, the Toronto crowd welcomed back longtime Leaf Bryan McCabe. Unlike Schenn, who was cheered during the pre-game introductions, McCabe received a not-so-warm homecoming.

Not that it was totally unexpected.

Once a popular Leaf who had scored 19 goals and 68 points in 2005-06, McCabe had served as the whipping boy for the team's failures in his final two seasons in Toronto. Despite changing jerseys, fans still treated him with scorn.

McCabe was booed when he first stepped on the ice. He was booed whenever he touched the puck. And he was booed when his name was announced for assisting on a Florida goal.

"It was fine. I got it much worse when I played here," joked McCabe. "All in all, it was a good trip."

It was not until the centre ice video screen thanked McCabe by showing some of his on-ice accomplishments that the crowd managed a spattering of applause. Those may have been the only cheers heard in a first period that saw the Panthers take a 2-0 lead after outshooting the Leafs 16-8.

Toronto goaltender Vesa Toskala, who made 20 saves, was tested early and often.

The Panthers had outshot Toronto 10-0 when they had a goal disallowed because a video review showed that the net had become dislodged on the play.

Florida, of course, kept attacking. And at 10:16, Stephen Weiss ripped a wrist shot on the power play over Toskala's glove hand. Florida went up 2-0 about seven minutes later on a wrist shot from Ville Peltonen.

"Coach was saying, 'Make sure you're mentally ready,' " said Toskala. "And we weren't. We just didn't have our legs. They came with speed and had a good cycle game in our own end. And we were chasing them around."

In an attempt to spark his listless team, Wilson juggled all four of Toronto's forward lines in the second period. But the Leafs, who went down 3-0 on a goal by Michael Frolik, failed to wake up.

It was not until the final period when the Leafs finally found the back of the net.

Five minutes after Toronto's Alexei Ponikarovsky scored on a power play, Florida's Gregory Campbell answered back. The Leafs scored again on a short-handed breakaway goal by Jason Blake.