Down yet another forward, Golden Knights overmatched in Toronto

By Justin Emerson

Tuesday, Nov. 2, 2021 | 7:35 p.m.

As soon as the lineup came out Tuesday evening before the Golden Knights took the ice in Toronto, it was clear it was going to be a rough night for the visitors.

The Golden Knights have been without Mark Stone and Max Pacioretty for weeks, and William Karlsson joined their ranks when it was confirmed today he’ll miss four to six weeks with a broken foot. That led to a career fourth-liner on the top unit, a waiver claim making his debut, two rookies on the fourth line and a mismatch against the Maple Leafs.

Vegas only gave up one goal in a barrage of first-period shots, but the dam burst in the second as star center Auston Matthews netted a pair and put the game out of reach. Vegas fell 4-0 at Scotiabank Arena.

"That wasn’t close to good enough,” goalie Robin Lehner said. “Probably the worst one we’ve had since I’ve come to Vegas."

The Golden Knights can only ice the players they have available to them, but those players were severely outplayed Tuesday. Coach Pete DeBoer mentioned this morning that without the ability to make the last line change that he’d have at home, he was going to try to distribute the talent more equitably across the four lines.

It led to a fourth line featuring Peyton Krebs, Jake Leschyshyn and veteran Mattias Janmark, and Micahel Amadio, who was claimed off waivers from Toronto on Saturday, on the third line.

Brett Howden was up top with Reilly Smith and Jonathan Marchessault, Karlsson’s typical linemates, certainly an experiment with other centers like Chandler Stephenson and Nicolas Roy available, but DeBoer opted to keep those two in their usual spots in the middle-six.

It lasted less than a period, as Stephenson was between Smith and Marchessault by the end of the first. DeBoer even said after falling behind, the Golden Knights needed to try to overload their top line to sell out for goals. It was less the fault of Howden and more emblematic of the Golden Knights’ problem: with their three best forwards out, they just didn’t have the firepower to hang with a team known for just that.

Case in point: Toronto is one of the most top-heavy teams in the league, with almost half their salary cap dedicated to their four highest-paid players, all forwards: Matthews, Mitch Marner, William Nylander and John Tavares. That quartet is as important to the Maple Leafs as Stone, Pacioretty and Karlsson are to Vegas. Toronto’s core was active, combining for eight points and all four goals.

“Big ask tonight when you look at what we’re dealing with,” DeBoer said. “I think our effort actually wasn’t an issue. I thought we didn’t execute against a team that puts a lot of heat on you, and they put a lot of pressure on us in tough areas, and their best players were on tonight. It was one of those nights.”

There wasn’t an aspect of the Golden Knights’ game that looked good on Tuesday. The power play remains a mess, as another scoreless evening brought the unit to 0-for-18, the only team in the league without a power-play goal. On the first power play of the night, the Golden Knights iced it 18 seconds into the advantage. On the second, Shea Theodore fumbled the puck offside five seconds in, sending him to the bench for Alex Pietrangelo.

Early on they were decent enough in the neutral zone, clogging lanes but not pushing well offensively, looking like they were trying to catch Toronto high and counter the other way on the rush. That disappeared as the period went on with several odd-man rushes throughout the game, and even the defense evaporated.

They allowed 66 shot attempts, the fifth time they’ve allowed that many after doing so only four times last year. They were out-chanced 36-16 at 5-on-5, a 30.8% share that ranks as their second-worst all-time.

“They played better than us, obviously,” defenseman Brayden McNabb said. “We didn’t generate much, especially to start, and we went down and couldn’t really generate much.

“Frustrating game and we know we need to be better.”