I’m envious of anyone who went to bed after 20 minutes, able to rest their head on the pillow believing the Maple Leafs just might be starting to put their game together early in this young season.
The Leafs stormed out to a 3-0 lead inside nine minutes in Vegas. Jack Roslovic opened the scoring on a soft goal past Adin Hill from the side of the net, following a good forecheck by Roslovic and Auston Matthews inside the opening minute. Coming onto the ice late after Brandon Duhaime was shaken up and slow to the bench, Easton Cowan followed with an opportunistic, clinically finished breakaway goal after a shot-block and breakaway pass from Chris Tanev. The third goal was a dirty one from the McKenna-Paul-Sissons line, as a Darren Raddysh one-timer, set up by Gavin McKenna’s feed into his wheelhouse, deflected off Nick Paul and into the net.
There was a little good fortune involved, but the Leafs were playing fast and getting pucks to the net with purpose. Shots were 8-2 Toronto when they took the 3-0 lead. Coming off the comeback win over Nashville, the vibes were high.
From there, there wasn’t much to like about the Leafs’ game. They hadn’t yet played this type of game — leading by multiple goals, let alone that early, let alone against a good team in a tough building on the road — and I was really curious to see how they would manage it from there. It’s early days, of course, but they couldn’t have scored much lower on that test.
Their greatest difficulty was slowing the game to the desired pace and keeping it sufficiently low-event with a 3-0 lead in hand. Good teams, on the road and spotted that kind of lead, can grind the game down to a slog and wait for their chances as the opposition starts taking gambles up ice while pushing from behind.
That means clamping down in the neutral zone and managing the puck sensibly given the game state. The Leafs were poor in both areas. The neutral zone was a wide-open freeway at times, including on Vegas’ first two goals. The Leafs also turned over a bunch of pucks in bad spots, whether it was Kirill Marchenko at the offensive-zone blue line on Vegas’ third goal or the many examples along the defensive-zone half walls.
After the Leafs took the 3-0 lead, they were outshot 40-16. They calmed their game down some in the third period, but the main reason they grabbed a point was Sergei Bobrovsky, who deserved his first win as a Leaf for this performance. He was excellent in net and saved nearly two goals above expected (40 saves total), which might even undersell his performance relative to the eye test. That included a ten-bell glove save on a backdoor play for Vegas on the power play midway through the second period, at which point the Leafs were extremely fortunate not to have surrendered four unanswered goals in roughly 10 minutes of gameplay.
In the end, this loser point came largely thanks to Bobrovsky.
Post-Game Notes
- The gifted goals remain a big problem for the Leafs through five games. The 3-1 goal starts with an offensive-zone draw for the Tavares line and is in the Leafs’ net a few seconds later after Mark Stone freely steps into a slapper off the rush. The 3-2 goal also starts behind the Vegas net vs. the Tavares line and is in the Leafs’ net a few seconds later after a stretch pass straight through the middle, when the Leafs should’ve been set up to handle it inside their structure with their neutral zone forecheck; it ultimately leads to a backdoor tap-in rush play in the blink of an eye. The turnover in that area of the ice vs. Eichel and his line just can’t happen in the build-up to the 3-3 penalty shot goal. Make teams earn offense the hard way.
- No system or structure will look good when a team stops skating and winning battles, but it was also obvious that the Leafs simply aren’t fully on the same page yet in several areas of their five-on-five game.
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That includes their breakouts, where there are too many defensive-zone half-wall turnovers as players look for the bump pass into the middle but either fail to connect or don’t have the support in place. In their 1-2-2 in the neutral zone, they left some enormous gaps through the middle tonight.
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Jim Hiller is coaching hard on mixing and matching his personnel and making situational adjustments to his lines, but the big piece he needs to sort out quickly is the consistency of the overall structure of their five-on-five play, starting with the breakouts. They flash stretches of the fast-skating, structured game they’re aiming for, but they’re still too inconsistent and disconnected overall. - Adding to the frustration tonight was Bo Groulx’s highly questionable penalty midway through the third period, contrasted with Oliver Ekman-Larsson getting slammed to the ice by Jeremy Lauzon on a late hit, leaving the game with an apparent head injury, and receiving no call.
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This was a nightmare-fuel game for OEL amid a difficult start to the season overall. He took multiple bad penalties, got walked a few times, absorbed some big hits, and ultimately left injured.
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If OEL misses time — and it’s worth noting that he’s played at less than 100% quite often as a Leaf — the Leafs will either have to call up Dakota Mermis or move a right-handed defenseman to the left side. The OEL-Stecher pairing has struggled enough that it would’ve been time to insert Nick Blankenburg for Stecher even without an injury-related adjustment, but hopefully, OEL is okay. The Leafs aren’t particularly deep on the blue line, and, funny enough, they’re now thinnest on the left side. - A big thank you to Sergei Bobrovsky, not just for salvaging the point but for his stops on Mitch Marner in overtime and the shootout. That would’ve been an exhausting news cycle if either chance had gone the other way. While the Leafs’ goaltenders haven’t outright stolen a game yet, you can’t say they haven’t given the team a chance to win in all five games so far.
- Kirill Marchenko was the only Leaf to score in the shootout — where he’s one of the best shooters in the league — but this was his worst game as a Leaf. He struggled with turnovers, including the costly giveaway at the offensive blue line on Vegas’ tying goal. Even still, he had the game on his stick a few times in the third period and overtime but couldn’t bear down and finish.
- Despite Hiller talking about increasing Easton Cowan’s ice time as part of the L2 promotion, despite praising his play tonight post-game, and despite Cowan scoring a nice goal early, he still finished ninth among Leafs forwards in time on ice at a shade over 14 minutes.
- I’m curious to see whether the Leafs start with Matthews-Nylander in Colorado, as they’ve finished that way in the last few games, or return to Marchenko-Matthews-Roslovic / Cowan or McKenna-Tavares-Nylander / McKenna or Cowan-Paul-Sissons.
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Anthony Petrielli’s argument for Cowan-Paul-Nylander and McKenna-Tavares-Sissons in the middle six is looking stronger by the game, though, if we’re being honest. Based on his first five games, Paul looks up to the challenge. - So far, the Leafs’ fourth line is struggling to generate enough of the north-south, energetic offensive-zone shifts you’d hope to see from the unit to help the team build or regain momentum. They’ve yet to concede a goal (or score one), but the ice is generally tilted the wrong way when they’re out there. They were fortunate not to cost the team the game tonight; the third-period Groulx penalty, while soft, came after Teddy Blueger failed to get a puck deep at the red line. They were out-attempted 5-0 at five-on-five tonight, although they should’ve had at least a shot on goal in the third when Groulx grabbed a loose puck in front and stickhandled to his backhand instead of quickly pulling forehand and shooting.
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The PK utility is there, and Duhaime in particular has been useful when spotted onto other lines for defensive-zone draws or high-leverage situations, but the Leafs need a little more from this overall unit soon, or they’ll be forced to explore different options. - Partly related to the above point, I found the Leafs’ physical response lacking in this game. Vegas was noticeably more physical, especially after their slow start, and the Leafs didn’t really push back. They were outhit 27-13 despite getting largely outpossessed in the game. Jeremy Lauzon was also teeing off, and no one gave him so much as a sideways look.
- It stings to play three teams the Leafs should hate to lose to for obvious reasons — Montreal, Ottawa, Vegas — and walk away with just one point. But it could also have been worse than to grab a point to start a tough road trip. Colorado awaits Saturday, and the Leafs will need to find another level quickly in terms of a 60-minute performance.
Game Flow: 5v5 Shot Attempts
Heat Map: 5v5 Shot Attempts
