Toronto Maple Leafs team captain Auston Matthews may have spoken for the club’s entire fan base when speaking to TSN’s Mark Masters before the Leafs first meeting with Mitch Marner, after the former linemate sent a puck in Matthews direction during warmups.
“I’ve had enough of the Mitch questions for the day.”
The result of the Leafs game against the Vegas Golden Knights on Thursday was more important that the telenovela at the T-Mobile Arena, and it appeared as Toronto was hyped up to defeat the Golden Knights and snap their five-game winning streak, but unfortunately the Leafs displayed their continuing inability to lock down a game with the lead, surrendering a two-goal lead with 11 minutes left in the third period in a 6-5 overtime loss to Vegas,
Toronto held leads of 3-1, 4-2, and 5-3 after Scott Laughton scored midway through the third period, but the Leafs, who did not play on Wednesday, seemed to be less energetic against a club that had played in Los Angeles the night before. After Mark Stone narrowed the lead to 5-4, Vegas appeared to tie the game on a Pavel Dorofeyev’s third of the game, but a Leafs video review request revealed that a Golden Knight was off-sides.
Toronto held onto the precarious one-goal lead, but with just seven seconds left in regulation and one Leafs defender without a stick, Jack Eichel fed a pass to an uncovered Tomas Hertl in front of the net to tie the game. Eichel then completed the comeback with his 17th goal in overtime to hand the Leafs another bitter defeat and a lost point.
“I thought we played a good game, we just let it slip away. That’s obviously the frustrating part,” Matthews said after the game. “We want to be a team that can finish when we are in a position to close things out and make sure we are getting it done.”
The difference between last year’s club that won the Atlantic Division and the club that finds itself two points out of a playoff spot is their inability to lock down leads. That was something they displayed last season and showed particularly on the road, where they had the second-most wins on the road (25). This season, the Leafs have the second-worst road record at 7-11-3, and have played five fewer games on the road than at home. That difference has more to do with the absence of their best shutdown defender, Chris Tanev, and less with a peripheral player who was hardly noticeable in the game, but managed a pair of assists.
Toronto lost winger William Nylander in the first period after the Leafs leading scorer caught a rut in the ice along the boards after scoring his 17th of the season. Berube said after the game that the injury was a recurrence of the same lower-body ailment that kept him out for six games, so it is highly unlikely that Nylander will be in the lineup for the finale of the four-game road trip in Winnipeg on Saturday.
Just a little note courtesy of Steve Simmons of the Toronto Sun. If you are one of the few who still holds Marner is some regard, the fact that the pending free agent blocked a trade to Carolina for Mikko Rantanen was his right, but the narrative that he wanted to finish the season with Toronto and was still open to staying with the Leafs was complete balderdash, as Simmons indicates that Marner knew he was leaving and knew that he was heading to Vegas, because his parents traveled to Nevada during the Leafs’ last trip west last season to shop for houses.
The premise of Simmons piece that eventually Leafs fans will forgive Marner as they forgave Mats Sundin for his blocking a no-trade and signing as a free agent with Vancouver in 2008 is flawed. Sundin, for all of his detractors, did lead Toronto to two Conference Finals in 1999 and 2002.
Marner’s legacy is that of a self-centered choke artist, someone who was controlled into adulthood by one of the worst examples of a hockey dad, who crumbled under any kind of pressure, and had his camp bully reporters and commentators because of their criticism. His return to Toronto next Friday should be greeted with disdain and booes that make the reception for Brad Marchand seem like a friendly reception, and afterward, his name should be stricken from any consideration of the pantheon of all-time great Leafs.
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