TORONTO

David Clarkson saw red on Monday, but would not let any anger at a possible line change spew to the surface.

When the Maple Leafs emerged from a hard-to-watch video session preceding their first practice after four straight losses, the pricey winger was wearing the rouge of a checking line, with Carter Ashton and Trevor Smith. Nikolai Kulemin had switched positions with Clarkson on the second line with centre Nazem Kadri and Mason Raymond.

Either coach Randy Carlyle was just compensating for Monday’s absence of injured forwards Jay McClement and Joffrey Lupul or Clarkson is about to be the first high-profile Leaf to pay the price for the team’s losing ways. Carlyle’s comments seem to indicate the latter.

“We haven’t seen the mix of Kadri and Clarkson be effective enough for us ... We’re not creating enough,” Carlyle said. “We waited to do an analysis over the three games (on the recent road trip) and felt there wasn’t enough there. You always try to put people together we think are going to fit.”

Though the Leafs and Clarkson were adamant at the start of the season that he wouldn’t be heavily pressured to reproduce his 30-goal year in New Jersey to justify the seven-year contract at $5.25 million US per season, overall results after 17 games have varied. Clarkson has five points and is a minus-3, his most noteworthy act as a projected leader earning him a 10-game NHL suspension.

Clarkson has remained upbeat through his slow start, though admitted the shutdown job initially given him was an unfamiliar one. How his role unfolds on a new line remains to be see.

Ashton has not scored in 30 NHL games and has one assist, while the change can also be spun as a little reward for centreman Smith, who has seven points in almost as many games this year as Clarkson.

“I haven’t spoken to him (Carlyle). I don’t know what it will be,” Clarkson said of Tuesday’s lineup against San Jose. “I feel good. A lot of it’s bearing down and putting the puck in the net. We have to get confidence as a team. There isn’t one individual you can look at in here. We have to find a way to do it as a team.”

Carlyle had to do some shuffling to compensate for the loss of centre Dave Bolland (ankle), Lupul (groin) and a sore McClement, hurt in Saturday’s loss in Montreal. He did put Clarkson back in blue to be with the second power play unit.

Kadri knows he has got some work to do as well to mesh with Clarkson or Kulemin, who has also shown himself capable of 30 goals man in the past.

“That’s what you do when things aren’t working,” Kadri said of being separated from Clarkson. “You make adjustments. It’s an 82-game schedule and I can definitely see us getting back together in the future.

“But right now, with the guys we have, it’s tough to put lines together. Guys are dropping every single day and we’re not the only team it’s happening to. We have to get healthy and then maybe have a little more freedom with line matchups.”

After the seeing damning video evidence, Carlyle worked the Leafs for an hour to underline their litany of mistakes at both ends of the ice in the flawed road trip.

“There are things we need to address and we’re not going to hide behind that,” Carlyle said. “The stress level is high, almost to the boiling point at times.

“But our job is to show leadership. If we’re going off on the players on a continual basis, they’d become numb. Screaming and hollering, we’ve done enough of that at times. Now is the time to accentuate the positives they bring and to correct and coach the negatives out of them. We believe the corrections are adaptable.”

Toronto’s early-season success has protected its East Division playoff status for the present, but another three games in four nights presents itself at the end of the week.

“We just have to get back to what we were doing,” Kadri said. “We obviously know we can win and beat some good teams (the Sharks are particularly hot right now after their 5-0 homestand). It’s a matter of putting 60 good minutes together.”