Maple Leafs’ seven-game winning streak ends with thud against Vegas

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If you don’t believe the idea that a hockey team tends to be flat in its first home game following a long trip, we give you the Maple Leafs.

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A seven-game winning streak disappeared at Scotiabank Arena on Tuesday night as the Leafs couldn’t get much going in a 6-2 loss against the Vegas Golden Knights. 

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Had the Leafs won, it would have marked just the sixth time in franchise history that the team had an eight-game winning streak. Instead, the Leafs, who won all four games in the Western U.S. on their trip last week, started a five-game home stand with a thud.

Toronto will attempt to get back on proper footing when the Arizona Coyotes visit on Thursday. 

Leafs coach Sheldon Keefe wasn’t around to see the end of the game. At 17:46 of the third period, he was tossed not long after a weak tripping call on Mitch Marner got him incensed. 

One positive came in the form of William Nylander’s 48th assist of the season. That set a career-high for the Leafs’ leading scorer, as he had 47 last season. 

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The Leafs, who outscored their opponents 38-17 during their winning streak, didn’t give Vegas goaltender Adin Hill a ton of work. Auston Matthews had just three shots on goal and Marner’s 10-game point streak ended.

It was a tough night, to say the least, for the Leafs defence pair of TJ Brodie and Morgan Rielly. The duo was on the ice for each of the three Vegas goals, which all came at five-on-five. Not quite a fun night on the job for Rielly in his first home game after his five-game suspension ended last week. 

To start the third period, Keefe had seen enough, and put Jake McCabe with Brodie while moving Simon Benoit to play alongside Rielly.

For whatever reason, in the second period, neither Brodie nor Rielly noticed Ivan Barbashev slip in behind them into the neutral zone following a faceoff in the Vegas end.

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Barbashev was spotted by former Leaf Michael Amadio and sent in on a breakaway, and used a forehand deke to beat Ilya Samsonov at 9:11.

Next was a goal by Mason Morelli at 12:20. Morelli found some open ice in front of Samsonov, while Max Domi stood nearby and failed to notice the Golden Knight. A deflection by Morelli on a shot by Shea Theodore put the visitors up 2-0.

There was some brief Leafs joy at 17:45 when Tyler Bertuzzi, fresh off his hat trick in Colorado on Saturday, beat Hill from a sharp angle.

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It wasn’t two minutes before William Karlsson restored a two-goal Vegas lead at 19:09.

Leafs captain John Tavares, usually responsible, made a no-look backhand pass behind the Toronto net and the puck went to Jonathan Marchessault. The latter quickly fed Karlsson, who appeared to surprise Samsonov with a shot along the ice, going five-hole. No matter, it was a shot that Samsonov should have stopped. Neither Rielly nor Brodie could help prevent the chance from happening. 

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A Marchessault goal with nine minutes to play in the third killed the Leafs’ faint hope of a comeback, though Ryan Reaves converted a Pontus Holmberg pass with five minutes left. Alex Pietrangelo scored into an empty net, and Nicolas Roy then beat Samsonov for the sixth goal.

The Leafs didn’t have defenceman Timothy Liljegren, who is day to day with an undisclosed injury after he got banged up against Colorado on Saturday. Veteran Mark Giordano played after missing five games when he was away following the sudden passing of his father. 

With Liljegren out, the Leafs used six left-shooting defencemen. While the defence group has been good for the most part, general manager Brad Treliving continues to try to add a right-shooting defenceman before the March 8 NHL trade deadline.

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“I don’t like it,” Keefe said, before the game, of using six lefties. “But I like that the players just play. You make the best of the situation.”

On Tuesday night, the Leafs certainly didn’t make the best of the situation.

And for one night at least, their domination of teams in the Western Conference took a blow.

The Leafs lost for just the eighth time against teams in the West, falling to 22-6-2, which remains the best mark among clubs in the Eastern Conference.

“Hard to really put a finger on that,” Keefe said. “We’ve done well on the road for the most part and the most recent trip helps a great deal.

“Sometimes you can pull some random things out of 82 games and what does (the record against the West) mean? Probably not a whole lot.”

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