The Vegas Golden Knights (32-19-6) had no answer for Auston Matthews and the Toronto Maple Leafs Thursday night in a lopsided 7-3 loss at T-Mobile Arena. The Golden Knights have lost four of their last five games and are now just two points ahead of the Edmonton Oilers for the second-place spot in the Pacific Division.
The Maple Leafs (32-16-8) entered this contest in the midst of a five-game winning streak, doing so without their No. 1 defenseman, Morgan Rielly. Rielly made his return in this game after being suspended five games for cross-checking Ottawa Senators forward Ridly Greig.
After this victory, the Maple Leafs have outscored their opponents 34-12 in this six-game stretch, with Matthews and William Nylander combining for 16 of them. Matthews picked up his league-leading 52nd goal of the season in this game, giving him 10 in his last five appearances.
The Golden Knights swept the season series with the Maple Leafs in 2022-23, and will get the chance to redeem themselves in Toronto on Feb. 27. The Maple Leafs have the highest points percentage against Western Conference teams this season with a 21-5-2 record (.793%), while the Golden Knights have struggled against the Eastern Conference with an 11-10-2 record (.521%).
As if the injury bug hadn’t bitten the Golden Knights enough times this season, Mark Stone was placed on the injured reserve on Thursday afternoon. Stone sustained an upper-body injury against the Nashville Predators on Tuesday (Feb. 20), with head coach Bruce Cassidy providing no timeline for his return. Daily Faceoff’s Frank Seravalli reported earlier on Thursday that Stone is allegedly dealing with a lacerated spleen, which would be a devastating loss for the Golden Knights at this point in the season.
Related: 3 Golden Knights Who Have Stepped Up in Place of Injured Stars
Despite their injury-riddled lineup, this was still a good opportunity for the Golden Knights to get back into the win column against a Maple Leafs team that was on the second half of a back-to-back. Instead, they were on their heels for almost the entirety of the game and gave up the most goals they’ve allowed in a contest all season.
Defensive Disaster
The Maple Leafs jumped out to an early 4-0 lead in the first period, with Adin Hill being replaced by Logan Thompson after stopping 16 of the 19 shots he faced. It wasn’t Hill’s best start by any means, but that is far too many shots to allow in one period, let alone the first.
The Maple Leafs ended up outshooting the Golden Knights 23-14 in the opening frame and finished with a 42-26 advantage by the end of the game. They also finished with 16 high-danger chances, while the Golden Knights only had seven. This is the second game in a row where the Golden Knights have allowed at least 40 shots, and to echo the sentiments of head coach Bruce Cassidy in his post-game media availability, there’s simply no excuse for how they’ve been playing defensively.
The reality is that the Golden Knights have been with all of their top six defensemen for the last four games, and they’ve been outscored 15-7.
That doesn’t mean that the lack of experience in their current lineup doesn’t present a disadvantage. This was the 15th game in a row that Jack Eichel was unavailable, and they’re undoubtedly missing that elite offensive presence. However, this is an inexcusable point in the season for this team to be “losing their identity”, as Cassidy said, which has been built by their defensive prowess.
While there are numerous moments from this game to pick out, Max Domi’s 5-1 goal was arguably the most egregious error from a defensive standpoint. Maple Leafs defenseman Simon Benoit kicked the puck up the side of the boards towards Chandler Stephenson and Brayden McNabb, and what should have resulted in a turnover became a wide-open lane for Domi to skate end-to-end after they failed to communicate with each other, nearly colliding.
As Domi was sprung free, Stephenson made no effort to track him down and Shea Theodore was left alone to try and cut off the angle. These aren’t the winning habits that they had heading into the playoffs last season, and games like this show that they are not nearly as threatening as they were back then.
This is a team that has had the benefit of the doubt for nearly two months with all of the injuries that they’ve sustained. With such an incredible start to the season, it felt like it was only a matter of time before the core group got healthy and things began to trend in the right direction. Now is the time when things should be coming together defensively, not falling apart.
No Room for Error
There is absolutely no room for error moving forward. As previously mentioned, the Oilers are two points back (68) of the Golden Knights (70) with four fewer games played, and the Los Angeles Kings aren’t far behind either (66).
Their playoff hopes have never been more of a concern than right now, and things are going to have to turn around very quickly before the Golden Knights are considered Stanley Cup contenders again.
The Golden Knights will look to get things back on track Saturday night against the Ottawa Senators, in the first match of a five-game road trip.
