The Leafs' 10-game streak of taking at least one point has been ended by a painful 6-1 loss to the Utah Mammoth in Salt Lake City on Tuesday night. The Leafs, who were 8-0-2 before the Utah blowout, hadn’t lost in regulation since December 21. The hot streak moved Toronto into a wildcard playoff spot for the first time in the better part of the season.
Tuesday night’s game was the second half of a back-to-back, after the Leafs took a meaningful 4-3 win over the red-hot Colorado Avalanche. The team is on a four-game road trip, which will all be played in six days, before heading back to Toronto.
The Avalanche are first overall in the Western Division and the league, which is why the 4-3 overtime Leafs victory was so impressive, and somewhat surprising. The win snapped the Avalanche’s 17-game home win stretch. Toronto played a complete, well-rounded game from all ends of the roster, so it's possible the hard-fought game simply burned out the team.
Did the Leafs get crushed? Yes, but don’t let the loss distract you from Thursday’s highly anticipated game against Mitch Marner and the Vegas Golden Knights. This will be the first meeting between the Leafs and the former key piece of the core four, since being traded last off-season.
Toronto’s slow start to the season led critics to quickly conclude that the lack of success was due to Marner’s absence. However, those comments have been hard to come by during Toronto’s recent improved performance. The two teams’ stats are easily comparable at this point in the season. Toronto has played 46 games and has 53 points, while Vegas has played 44 games and has 54 points. The difference is the Leafs are fifth in the Atlantic, and the Golden Knights are first in their Pacific Division.
Matthews's game was also heavily criticized in the first half of the season, without Marner by his side to feed him assists, although he has also improved in recent weeks. The Toronto star is now at 22 goals and 15 assists, whereas Marner has just 10 goals but 36 assists.
It took time for Toronto to figure out how to successfully fill the right-wing position. Constantly shuffling around lineups and moving players, but they finally seem to have it, and the wins reflect it.
The first matchup between Toronto and Marner comes Thursday night on the Strip.