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Detroit Red Wings' Johan Franzen, left to right, Henrik Zetterberg and Brendan Smith celebrate Franzen's goal on the Toronto Maple Leafs during first period NHL action in Toronto on Friday, October 17, 2014.Frank Gunn/The Canadian Press

A couple of reliable old warhorses gave the Detroit Red Wings a leg up in their weekend set with the Toronto Maple Leafs. Well, make that one warhorse and a mule.

Red Wings centre Henrik Zetterberg, 34, finished the night with four assists with Johan Franzen, also 34 and known as The Mule around the NHL, scoring on two of them. It was an efficient schooling of the youthful Maple Leafs, although the 4-1 Detroit win at the Air Canada Centre was not always pretty for either side.

Zetterberg said the game was a nice change from his previous one, a 3-2 loss to the Boston Bruins he called "one of my worst games as a Red Wing."

"Obviously the puck was bouncing our way," Zetterberg said. "I think there were a few 50-50 pucks that all of a sudden just turned up on my stick. Mule and [Gustav] Nyquist were good at finding open spots and I found them."

Now the Leafs have to show they learned something when they travel to Detroit to finish the back-to-back, home-and-home series Saturday night at Joe Louis Arena. However, given that as the night went on the Leafs' play at both ends of the ice deteriorated, this is far from a given.

The reason the Leafs' play at both ends of the ice was bad was their play in the middle, in the neutral zone. Head coach Randy Carlyle said the reason Zetterberg wound up with all those "50-50 pucks" is that the Leafs kept coughing up the puck between the blue lines.

"The true tell sign for us as a coaching staff was we looked at first period and there were 11 turnovers and four offsides," the coach said. When it came to Zetterberg's line, Carlyle added, "the first thing is the number of times they were allowed to get through the neutral ice with us turning the puck over.

"You cannot turn the puck over when you play any team in the NHL. The Detroit Red Wings are a prime example of taking advantage of our turnovers. Then when we did enter the zone we went offside a number of times."

Funny thing, though. It wasn't always the Leafs' youngsters who were victimized by Zetterberg, Franzen and company. Defenceman Roman Polak, brought in to provide some much-needed veteran grit in the Leafs' end of the ice, was beat twice by Zetterberg and will probably draw a seat in the press box at The Joe with fellow veteran Stephane Robidas returning to the lineup.

Zetterberg relieved Polak of the puck midway through the first period at the end boards to set up Franzen's first goal of the season. This wasn't entirely Polak's fault as the Leafs allowed Zetterberg to circle their net after getting the puck and find Franzen parked in his usual territory in front.

Polak could probably plead he was not the sole culprit as well on the next occasion Zetterberg left him flat-footed. All five Leafs on the ice at the time were guilty of not hustling when Zetterberg got behind Polak and fielded a long looping pass from Red Wings defenceman Jakub Kindl.

Zetterberg fielded the pass near the right faceoff dot in the Leafs zone and smartly circled away from Polak. This allowed Nyquist enough time to move into the slot, as no one in a Leaf sweater was inclined to chase him. Nyquist fielded the pass on his skate, bounced it to his stick and put his fourth goal in as many games behind Leafs goaltender James Reimer at 18:16 of the second period.

Zetterberg showed both his smarts and his soft hands several minutes earlier in setting up Franzen's second goal. He out-waited Reimer at the side of the net and when the goaltender finally went down,  put a nifty backhand pass between his legs to Franzen, who was again parked in front without any harassment from the Leafs.

"Two goals were goal-mouth passes so obviously we missed assignments," Carlyle said. "[You] can't blame your goalie for scoring from the crease; tap-ins."

Assist number four for Zetterberg came at 5:51 of the third period and squelched a Leafs comeback that started with a goal by Mike Santorelli 21 seconds into the period. Once again, the goal was the result of the Leafs defence allowing an easy pass to the front of the net. Zetterberg fed Nyquist, who set up Justin Abdelkader in front of the net for a 4-1 lead while Leaf defenceman Cody Franson checked his phone or something.

While Zetterberg's offensive show was going on, the Detroit defenders slowly strangled the Leafs offence through the second and third periods. The Leaf skaters found the going harder and harder in the Detroit zone as the game went on, with the Red Wings keeping them well away from goaltender Jimmy Howard.

Red Wings head coach Mike Babcock said the key for his team was it did the kind of fore-checking in the Leafs' zone that the Leafs were unable to do in the Detroit end.

"We were determined and on the puck tonight and didn't allow their [defence] to make a lot of plays," Babcock said. "Anybody who's played defence knows when your face is in the glass it's hard to make plays all the time, and that's pressure."

The 19,054 fans at the ACC issued their review of the Leafs' efforts at the conclusion of the second period when they booed them off the ice and repeated the chorus at the end of the game.

"We couldn't find a way to beat Howard and they kept coming," Leafs captain Dion Phaneuf said. "We seemed to fall off when they kept coming. The momentum of the game shifted. That is something we have to address and work on."

It also did not help when two of the few Leaf forwards to make any sort of an impact, fourth-line winger Brandon Kozun and third-liner Daniel Winnik, were lost to injuries. Kozun was taken hard into the boards by Red Wings defenceman Kyle Quincey and suffered what appeared to be a leg injury. Winnik left the game limping after blocking a shot, although Carlyle called it an "upper-body" injury.

While Winnik may be able to play Saturday in Detroit, it looks like Kozun could be out for a while. Carlyle said Kozun will stay behind for a magnetic resonance imaging test on his ankle.

"Right now it looks like it could be a high ankle sprain," Carlyle said.

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