Trip ends with nasty hangover
Leafs hope whatever happened in Vegas stays in Vegas
LAS VEGAS— Crap(s).
Which can refer either to the dicerolling game — in which case, no dice for the Leafs — or vulgar vernacular for terrible and shoddy — in which case, descriptive of the Leafs in their New Year’s Eve marquee encounter with the Golden Knights.
Resembled pigeons did the Leafs, at least in the opening frame. Pigeon is gambling argot for a player new to the tables, naive and unsophisticated and just plain dumb.
Yes, the visitors were up against the shockingly first-place Western Conference team, in their expansion inaugural season. And the Knights boasted a 15-2-1 record at T-Mobile Arena, to say nothing of an even more eye-popping 15-1-0 record when scoring the first goal.
But goodness, perhaps never in this season has Toronto looked so inept and tangle-footed as it did in the first 20 minutes here Sunday afternoon, from which recovery proved impossible — valiantly as Auston Matthews tried with a pair of goals, registering his 99th and 100th career points — as the Leafs went down in defeat 6-3. The Knights scored on their first shot. The Knights scored on their second shot.
The Knights scored on their eighth shot.
And they had plenty more chances in that frame as Freddie Andersen was clearly having a dickens of a time coping with the lively boards, misplaying pucks that caromed around his net. Which is why it would have been useful for the Leafs to get in a practice at the Vegas rink, or at least a morning skate, before the puck dropped on the last game circa 2017. But they had a full off-day Saturday and the 12:30 (local) start Sunday meant nobody went on the ice in the a.m.
“Obviously there’s no sense skating at 7 a.m.,” said Andersen.
A whole bunch of Leafs didn’t appear to be present at 12:30 p.m. either.
Yet another refrain of “start the game on time,” which has been a Mike Babcock gripe throughout the season.
The coach had said, an hour before game time, sizing up these Cinderella Knights (look more like Crusaders, as per the logo): “They play right. They play fast. They’re entertaining. So it’s a good test for our team.”
Guess they flunked it. At least until they scraped the sleep-crust out of their eyes, by which point it was way too late against this barrel-housing opposition.
We all know the Knights are a hard-working team. We all know they’ve made an all-you-can-eat buffet out of scant expansion draft ingredients. And that 25 wins was no fluke. Many of us, however, didn’t properly appreciate the speed they possess and the deft scoring touch.
Twenty-six Ws now and a sevengame win streak, setting expansion records every which way.
A tough one-two, away-and-home juncture for the Leafs, facing the Knights at the end of a five-game road trek (split up by the Christmas break), merely the second-best team in the NHL, and then winging home to confront Tampa Bay at the Air Canada Centre on Tuesday, the best team in the NHL.
“The next two games we play are against the best in the league,” Babcock had observed. “So if you want to be the best in the league, you’ve got to beat the best in the league.”
Vegas, now on an unprecedented year-one seven-game win streak, hadn’t quite atttained these heady heights when last they tangled with the Leafs back at the ACC on Nov. 6, Toronto winning 4-3 on Mitch Marner’s shootout goal.
Not to begrudge the Knights any of their gaudiness — in Vegas, gaudy is good — but three straight goals were pretty much gifted by the Leafs, apparently still in quite a generous mood a week after Christmas.
Vegas jumped out early, just 2:24 into the affair, with a broken-pass bounce off the boards that weirdly stopped Jake Gardiner in his tracks, with Martin Marincin stiff as a statue in the crease as PierreEdouard Bellemare deked to his backhand.
William Karlsson, who’d been on a 17-goal tear, made it 18 less than two minutes later when Roman Polak got caught pinching at the Vegas blue line, creating an odd-man rush the other way, Karlsson chipping the puck over Andersen’s shoulder.
Three-zip at 13:24 when Erik Haula went one-on-on against Ron Hainsey, only Leaf back, that time Morgan Rielly rolling snake-eyes on the pinch. Haula streaked down the right side and used Hainsey as a screen on the shot, glove side.
“I thought the first couple of shifts we were really good,” said Babcock, which was a contrarian view. “And then we were behind the 8-ball.”
Patrick Marleau, with his 15th of the season, gave the considerable Leaf fan contingent — hundreds apparently lured by mixing hockey with New Year’s Eve in Vegas — something to cheer about early in the second, sweeping the puck into the net with his back to Malcolm Subban. Nice touch pass from Brown to set it up. But Karlsson, making it 19 on the year, struck again within three minutes, handed a goal when Marincin — who had a dreadful afternoon — threw the puck around the back of the Toronto net towards Gardiner. Instead, it bounced off the referee’s skate and deflected to Karlsson in the slot.
A question to be asked: Why did Babcock turn to Marincin, called up from the Marlies because of the Nikita Zaitsev injury (believed to be a broken foot), and sit out Connor Carrick, both in Friday’s OT loss against the Avalanche and Sunday against the Knights. Toronto happens to be 16-4-1 with Carrick in the lineup.
Matthews connected for his first off a turnover at the blue line that he orchestrated, coming down the right wing and snapping a wrister just below Subban’s glove. Then Matthews drew Toronto within one, pouncing on a bad rebound off a shot from the point by Rielly, net wide open. Vegas challenged on goalie interference grounds, but the goal stood.
“Just kind of another slow start for us,” said Matthews, who claimed to be unaware of hitting the century mark.
“It’s something maybe we need to sit down as a team and figure out. In the second and third period we ended up playing pretty well. But when we start well and we’re skating through the neutral zone, we seem to win those games.’’
He was impressed by both the Knights and their boisterous fans. “It may have surprised some people, but they’ve got good players, everyone works hard and they’re pretty well-coached. They’re a team that plays right. They’ve got a lot of depth through their four lines and three pairs of D.” Crazy hopping joint too. “This is already one of the coolest atmospheres in the league and this is their first year. Definitely a fun game tonight.’’
Jonathan Marchessault quickly restored the two-goal edge on what was basically a one-on-four rush that Marincin and Andreas Borgman couldn’t handle.
“They went back up two and that killed the momentum,” said Matthews.
Marleau noted the Vegas speed through the neutral zone, the Leafs repeatedly failing to have a third man high to help prevent odd-man wheeling rushes. “We knew they were going to come out strong and fast and they did. It was a matter of us not getting the puck and our forecheck going. Once they started rolling, it makes it that much more difficult to get things going.”
With Andersen pulled for the extra attacker, Karlsson stretched as far as he could for the empty-netter. Hat trick.
“I don’t think I’ve ever skated that fast in my life actually,” said Karlsson, who reached the puck before teammate Reilly Smith. “I really wanted it. I just threw myself at it and saw Reilly doing the same and luckily I hit it first. It’s a good feeling, seeing it going into the net.” First hat trick in Vegas history. You’re welcome.