Toronto Maple Leafs right wing Ryan Reaves (75) celebrates a goal by Toronto Maple Leafs center David Kampf (64) during the first period of an NHL hockey game against the Vegas Golden Knights at T-Mobile Arena Thursday, Feb. 22, 2024.
Published Thursday, Feb. 22, 2024 | 9:31 p.m.
Updated Thursday, Feb. 22, 2024 | 10:47 p.m.
Whatever team is playing in gold sweaters right now is not the Golden Knights, from Bruce Cassidy’s perspective.
“We’re losing our identity a little bit,” Cassidy said.
For the first eight minutes, they played inspired hockey and looked in control. After that, it went off the rails.
The Golden Knights gave up four goals in the first period to kickstart at 7-3 loss to the Toronto Maple Leafs at T-Mobile Arena on Thursday for their fourth straight loss at home.
In a stretch where each loss has been more confusing than the next, this one might be the most bizarre.
It was the first game playing without captain Mark Stone since he suffered an upper-body injury Tuesday that will keep him out week to week. Cassidy stressed the importance of defense going forward, now having to play the foreseeable future without Stone and Jack Eichel at the same time.
Defense was optional in the first period with both teams combining for 37 shots; 23 of them were by way of the Maple Leafs. Adin Hill saw 20 of those, and his night was done after the 20th. Hill was on the hook for three goals in 4:20 with Toronto up 3-0, and being pulled in favor of Logan Thompson.
Seeing his first action since a 29-save shutout in San Jose on Monday, Thompson was charged with four goals on 23 shots.
Cassidy said he liked the start, but after that, the Golden Knights were light on pucks and made too many egregious mistakes for them to get out of the hole.
Vegas has been outscored 20-10 during this four-game losing streak at home, one loss shy of tying the team record.
“We’re getting easier and easier to play against,” Cassidy said.
William Karlsson, Jonathan Marchessault and Michael Amadio scored for the Golden Knights (32-19-6) in their final game before a five-game road trip that starts Saturday in Ottawa.
Toronto had six different goal scorers, with Max Domi scoring twice. It took until the third period for Auston Matthews, the NHL’s goal leader, to get on the board. He scored his 52nd goal of the season on a deflection moments after a Vegas power play.
The Golden Knights cut the lead to 6-3 with two goals in 26 seconds early in the third period, and was close on multiple occasions to scoring again with hitting the post twice in a matter of 20 seconds. But after Vegas failed to convert on that power play, Matthews’ goal ended the comeback hopes.
“We need to be better in front of our home crowd,” defenseman Alex Pietrangelo said. “I thought we had a good push, but when you’re down by four goals it’s tough to come back from that, but we did claw back.”
Pietrangelo said it was small mistakes that were costly. The Golden Knights have made a constant talking point of defending as a unit of five, considering their biggest strength en route to the Stanley Cup last year was 5-on-5 play.
But special teams haven’t hurt the Golden Knights in this stretch. They didn’t give up a power-play goal Saturday against Carolina, and they killed both of Toronto’s power plays in this game. Even strength is where they’ve been hampered. Three of Toronto’s goals, both of Domi’s goals, came from Toronto’s bottom six.
While the Vegas bottom six holds the most inexperience right now, especially a fourth line that has a combined 14 games of NHL experience, both Pietrangelo and Cassidy agreed that’s no excuse for that.
“It’s up to the guys that have been here, done it, that have the resume to lead this team,” Cassidy said. “We talked about our leadership group over and over again about how good they are. Well, time to be good. Right now.”
Reinforcements could potentially be on the way when the Golden Knights start their road trip in Ottawa on Saturday. Cassidy said after morning skate that Eichel could travel after undergoing surgery for a lower-body injury in mid-January. How close he could be to rejoining the team, let alone practice and play, is anybody’s guess. But that’s the smallest bit of encouraging news right now.
Despite battling back in the third period, Cassidy said it looked like “men against boys” for the 10-15-minute stretch in the first period that decided the game. The Golden Knights won’t play at home for another two weeks.
That’s a bit of time to figure out how exactly to fix this.
“Teams want what we have. We’re the defending champs. They want to be that so they’re coming at you,” Cassidy said. “We have to acknowledge the mental part of that.”
Danny Webster can be reached at 702-259-8814 or [email protected]. Follow Danny on X at twitter.com/DannyWebster21.
