The House will always win in Vegas, especially when the Golden Knights get visitors walking through the door like a bunch of rubes.
This was hardly the swaggering road-tested Maple Leafs who showed up Wednesday, the NHL’s third-best away team skunked by the No. 3 home side at T-Mobile Arena. With big players and heavy shooters, the Knights cruised to a 5-2 victory.
From the recent high of a five-game win streak, the Leafs are two days out from the league trade deadline, losing back-to-back and giving up five goals in two of their past three games. No wonder coach Craig Berube was seen yelling at his shell-shocked bench to “wake up” during a time out.
The night started with an opening-faceoff fight, Matthew Knies unwilling to let Zach Whitecloud forget the high hit that cost the Leaf winger two games with a head injury in November’s 3-0 win in Toronto. Knies’ got some punches in and his initiative should’ve sparked the Leafs, but thoughts of another shutout lasted less than five minutes as the carnage on The Strip began.
A few Leafs lost sight of the puck after Jake McCabe’s shot was blocked at the Vegas line, no one picking up Brandon Saad driving the net or Tomas Hertl, who buried the rebound.
The surprising offensive surge of Knights’ winger Brett Howden continued on their second goal, the Leafs looking flat-footed off the rush. Howden nearly added another on his quest for 20 via a breakaway, putting it just wide. An early Toronto power play that could’ve mitigated the damage was defused by Aiden Hill, who has been strong in goal since backing up Jordan Binnington for Canada at the 4 Nations Face-Off.
Jack Eichel one-timed a man advantage rocket to send Joseph Woll to the bench after just seven shots, his second shaky start this month. Anthony Stolarz held the Knights off for a bit, though it took just 17 ticks to add to their lead in the second period. A fierce forecheck paid off in Noah Hanifin’s goal, then Tanner Pearson poked in a loose puck from Stolarz’s glove that the Leafs unsuccessfully challenged for interference, their first such reversal in 10 reviews back to last season.
After killing the ensuing minor, Toronto finally got on the board. Auston Matthews, who’d been stopped on a short-handed break, drew a high sticking call before knocking in his 100th career power play goal, the third Leaf in franchise history to do so, adding to an 11-game points streak. Mitch Marner stole the puck from Ivan Barbashev for his 19th, just missing his 20th before time expired.
After a day off, the Leafs will practice in Denver for Saturday’s game against the Avalanche, possibly with an addition or subtraction to the roster. In retrospect, consider it a negative the Leafs came off the road, where they’d won four straight and 13 of 16, for a home shootout loss to last place San Jose then flew out right after for this three-game western U.S. swing.
X: @sunhornby