A poor start in all three periods, a disjointed group and porous defense left the Toronto Maple Leafs reeling against the Vegas Golden Knights on Monday.
LAS VEGAS — Rarely do the opening minutes of all three periods define a hockey game, but it did for the Toronto Maple Leafs on Monday.
“We just got beat by a team that was better than us tonight in all facets," Maple Leafs coach Sheldon Keefe said following his team's 3-1 loss to the Vegas Golden Knights.
The Maple Leafs were sluggish right out of the gate. And for much of the first period were unable to generate any sustained possession of the puck.
Perhaps most troublesome for the club was that this occurred after the Leafs were granted a full reset just 3:16 into the game. Former Leafs forward Phil Kessel, who was playing in his NHL record-tying 989th consecutive game, had the game-opening goal overturned by a lengthy challenge for offside, following a Toronto time-out.
Still, that did not stop Vegas from continuing to attack and Nicolas Roy was able to score the game-opening goal for his team just 46 seconds later.
"It took us too long to get active in every period," Mitch Marner said. We gave [up] a lot of chances off the rush, a lot of turnovers in the neutral zone."
The Leafs had their moments.
They tied the game in the second period after William Nylander took a feed from John Tavares and Nicolas Robertson to beat Logan Thompson.
But they were unable to do much after that.
Marner hit the post, and Auston Matthews continue to go through his scoring motions after his shot from in close bounced off Vegas goaltender Logan Thompson narrowly changed course before hitting the post.
It sucks," Matthews laughed. "It's frustrating for sure but I think we're getting the chances and I just need to go in. That's the biggest thing. You get one to go in and you just kind of relax a little bit over the last two, three games we're definitely, you know, offensively been more in a rhythm and had a lot of good looks."
And while Matthews is stuck on one goal in seven games, the team's play defensively, particularly against the Golden Knights, did not help.
Just 42 seconds into the third period, Toronto's defense was nowhere to be found.
Maple Leafs goaltender Ilya Samsonov made a save in close from Vegas forward Jack Eichel to start the frame. He made another difficult save on Brayden McNabb before Chandler Stephenson was able to poke the puck loose from the goaltender and score the game-winner.
"I thought he battled, a lot of times it was guys getting in behind him," Keefe said. "Tough night for him but we didn't do a good enough job in front of him."
Samsonov finished with 30 saves on 33 shots, many of them were of the high-danger variety. It was his first loss as a Maple Leaf after opening the season 4-0-0.
Justin Holl was one of a handful of players who just struggled to get the puck out of their own zone. But he certainly wasn't alone as every skater on the ice had a hard time.
If there was any good news to glean from the game, it was that John Tavares was healthy enough to return late in the game after taking a Rasmus Sandin point shot off his leg.
Initially carried off the ice by a couple of teammates, Tavares emerged on the bench to help the team with a late power-play opportunity when the club was down 3-1.
"He's a warrior, Marner said. "He wants to be on the ice to help our team win and made a couple of big draws on the end."
There was no update on his status beyond Monday's game, but Tavares returning is a positive sign for the captain who has been enjoying some early-season success. His assist on Nylander's goal increase his point total to eight (three goals, five assists) and he remains the club's top producer in the early going.
But the one thing that has stood out about the way the Maple Leafs have dropped their three games this season has been "transition". They've used that in explaining losses against the Montreal Canadiens, Arizona Coyotes and now the Golden Knights.
Good goaltending can only take you so far. There were real issues with the Leafs as far as the shot quality they gave up against the Golden Knights and how their forwards cut through Toronto's defense so easily.
"That's a concern. It was too easy for them to do that tonight," Keefe said.