LAS VEGAS — Brad Treliving paced up and down the T-Cell Enviornment press field with a cellphone pressed to his ear as his flat-footed Toronto Maple Leafs have been getting mopped 5-2 by the Vegas Golden Knights, a professional contender for the Stanley Cup and a real-life instance of what large mid-season swings can do for a roster.
The enlargement Knights weren’t a hockey group till the second season of Toronto’s Auston Matthews–Mitch Marner–William Nylander period, and so they have already received 10 extra post-season collection than this Maple Leafs core.
“That’s a very good group over there. They’re the usual of the league. And I simply don’t assume we actually got here out able to play. Possibly we have been hoping for a straightforward recreation,” captain Matthews stated, following a second straight loss. “Fairly dangerous recreation total.
“We weren’t able to go on the market and actually simply grind and compete in opposition to a very good group that performs arduous. So, yeah, I don’t know the way a lot we will take away from this recreation.”
We’ll take this away: The Maple Leafs weren’t aggressive sufficient on the ice and, with the clock ticking all the way down to the commerce deadline, have but to get aggressive off it both.
Jack Eichel, Tomas Hertl, Noah Hanifin, Ivan Barbashev, Brandon Saad, and Brett Howden all both scored or arrange objectives en path to the house facet’s dominant, goalie-chasing 5-0 lead Wednesday.
Each a type of gamers was acquired by Vegas’s cutthroat, go-for-it-every-year entrance workplace by way of commerce. And most of these strikes have been made in-season.
One after the other, each Maple Leaf who wears a letter on his sweater trotted out after this lopsided loss to probably the greatest opponents they’ve confronted in weeks and shut down any notion of journey or fatigue as an excuse.
“It was an amazing problem for us, and we didn’t come near it,” John Tavares stated. “Beginning with the leaders and myself, we obtained to do a greater job of being on the stage we should be, and the extent of element execution that we have now to have. Simply too free.”
“Final couple video games actually haven’t been nice by us,” Mitch Marner added. “Hung our goalies out to dry, and we gotta be higher.”
Marner and Matthews described Wednesday’s actuality test as “a wake-up name.”
And with the managers of Toronto’s most severe opponents — Tampa Bay and Florida — already taking the bat off the shoulder this week, Treliving can be on excessive alert.
He’s urgent. We see it.
That the GM’s finest and costliest participant spoke simply hours earlier of his need for a roster increase earlier than Friday’s deadline solely reinforces the strain to answer the Panthers’ and Lightning’s strikes, restricted belongings be damned.
The Maple Leafs, as Elliotte Friedman experiences, are one of many golf equipment exploring a deal for Carolina’s Mikko Rantanen. However they are going to solely make the deal if the facility ahead comes with a contract extension in place. That may enhance the Leafs’ leverage with pending UFA Mitch Marner.
However such a blockbuster will likely be pricy, significantly with the Canes wanting instant roster assist and never merely futures — and with the less-cap-restricted Panthers additionally rumoured to be within the combine.
The secondary choices to a difference-maker like Rantanen are drying up quick, and it’s a vendor’s market.
Does Treliving spend a first-round decide on a third-line pivot like Philadelphia’s Scott Laughton? Does he re-engage St. Louis’s Doug Armstrong and up his supply for Berube favorite Brayden Schenn? Is Brock Nelson even accessible?
Right here’s a greater query: If the Maple Leafs have seemed flat and uninspired in current losses to San Jose and Vegas, how will they reply Saturday in Colorado if Treliving doesn’t inject some exterior life by way of commerce over the subsequent 36 hours?
• Zach Whitecloud wanted all of three seconds to be taught that Matthew Knies is a southpaw.
Whitecloud, you’ll recall, knocked Knies out for a pair video games with a debatable hit in November that gave the facility ahead a suspected concussion.
Nicely, Knies took a quantity and the 2 foes squared off instantly on the opening draw:
“He instructed us that he was going to see if he may get that, clearly, with the hit that occurred final time we performed them. So, he sort of gave us a heads-up,” Marner revealed.
Good on each guys — neither of whom is a frequent fighter — for settling their very own rating.
“I believed it was nice,” Morgan Rielly stated. “A fantastic participant and an essential piece to what we’re doing. And a younger man making a press release like that, I believed, was highly effective.”
“That is maturity by him,” Matthews added. “Hoping to get a bit bit extra power from our bench and a bit extra life from that. That wasn’t the case, however nice job by him.”
Berube appreciated each Knies’s need for redemption and the timing of the lean.
“I give him lots of credit score to do this and get it out of the best way early after which go play hockey,” the coach stated.
• When Ilya Samsonov returned for the Leafs’ 2024 stretch run and commenced stacking wins, Joseph Woll misplaced his A recreation and, finally, the starter’s gig for Sport 1 of the playoffs.
Woll’s save share fell to .884 in March and April final season, and he’s off to an excellent rougher March on this one.
Woll “didn’t seem like himself,” Berube stated, in Sunday’s 6-5 scrambly time beyond regulation win over the Penguins.
He seemed even shakier in Vegas, turning into the primary goalie within the Berube period to get pulled because of poor efficiency.
“Just a bit wake-up name to the group,” Berube defined of the change.
“In the event you requested him, he most likely wished the primary two objectives again. The (Jack) Eichel shot is a fairly good shot — a ripper prime shelf. So, I don’t know what he can do on that one.”
Woll, who didn’t communicate post-game, gave up three objectives on the sport’s first seven photographs and has now surrendered eight on 41 photographs since his coach introduced that he’d choose to establish one goaltender at The Man to begin the post-season.
With Anthony Stolarz a protected guess to begin Saturday in Colorado, the strain falls on Woll subsequent to rebound from a few powerful outings subsequent week.
“It’s not on him,” Rielly stated. “It’s by no means one man, which is the beauty of group sports activities. Shifting ahead, it’s on us to rally and play higher for him.”
• “Relentless” is how Auston Matthews describes a busy street schedule that sees the Maple Leafs making three lengthy journeys to the Pacific time zone between mid-January and late March. To not point out clocking time beyond regulation on the 4 Nations Face-Off.
“Getting all of our West Coast journeys in right here within the final two months of the season,” Matthews quipped.
“Yeah, simply been dwelling out of the suitcase for the final month or so, but it surely’s been advantageous. Typically, that’s simply the best way it really works out, I assume.”
What does Matthews miss about not being in Toronto?
“I miss my canine quite a bit,” the captain smiled, pondering of his mini Bernedoodle, Felix.
“It’s been powerful. I haven’t been seeing him round an excessive amount of for the final short while. Being at house is good, with the ability to sleep in your individual mattress and stuff like that, however that’s simply the character of taking part in within the NHL.”
Toronto has been pressured to lean method too closely on the likes of Philippe Myers, Conor Timmins, and Simon Benoit this week, whereas Rielly and Oliver Ekman-Larsson are getting harder assignments.
One other stark reminder that this roster wants one other defenceman in addition to one other ahead throughout the subsequent 36 hours.
“Crucial participant,” Rielly stated. “There’s been instances the place we’ve carried out a very good job, and clearly, there’s been instances the place we’ve missed him.”
• The Maple Leafs’ much-lauded video group misplaced a uncommon coach’s problem and obtained dinged for a delay-of-game penalty after arguing that Tanner Pearson interfered with Stolarz whereas jamming house a second-period rebound.
Value a Hail Mary, because the rating was ratcheting to 5-0 and basically placing a comeback out of attain.
“It was a 50/50,” Berube shrugged. “I believed the puck was beneath him.”
