Leafs find temporary relief with win over Golden Knights

Mitch Marner scored the only goal of the shootout and the Toronto Maple Leafs defeated the Vegas Golden Knights.

TORONTO – It’s the one F-word that is typically off-limits in a NHL dressing room.

Fragile.

That’s how the Toronto Maple Leafs have felt at times in the last few weeks. It was back again for a stretch on Monday after the plucky Vegas Golden Knights rallied from 3-1 down to tie the game.

“When you haven’t been winning consistently in awhile, and you’re in a game and you’re up and the next thing you know it’s a tied game, you definitely tighten up a little bit and you definitely feel uncomfortable,” said defenceman Morgan Rielly. “I think that’s just human nature.”

“Just staying with it – I think that’s really what it was,” added Nazem Kadri. “When you have a vulnerable team sometimes that’s hard to do.”

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They chased off a few demons on this night.

Frederik Andersen hasn’t been consistent enough over the first month of the season, and wasn’t happy with Deryk Engelland’s tying goal from a poor angle. But he saved one point with big-time stops on James Neal and Erik Haula late in regulation, and secured the other by turning away five shots in overtime and denying all three shootout attempts.

The skills competition was such a big problem for the Leafs last year that it nearly cost them a playoff spot. They went 1-8. It’s been a sore spot throughout Andersen’s entire career as evidenced by a .622 save percentage that is 49th among the 59 goalies to face at least 70 attempts.

There’s value, then, to walking across the hot coals and grabbing two points with the help of Mitch Marner’s shootout winner. Remember this is a team still recovering from the affects of a road trip through California and a disappointing 1-5-0 stretch.

“Any time you’ve been struggling you get in your own way a little bit, mentally,” Leafs coach Mike Babcock said after the 4-3 victory over Vegas. “Especially when you haven’t been a good team for a lot of years and you’re not used to winning all the time. You wonder what’s going on. I knew we were going to win a game, you don’t know when.

“Sometimes you need to go through some of these things so you can get better and yet you never want to be in it when it’s going bad.”

There always seems to be a larger picture at play. Babcock could be seen walking up and down the bench in full throat even when his team held a 3-1 lead on Monday night. He was coaching for the moment, but also in preparation for the mountain still to climb.

They are not off to a disastrous start – though the Leafs (9-7-0) are still looking up at the expansion Golden Knights (9-4-1) in the overall standings – but they’ve displayed enough shortcomings and deficiencies to raise alarm.

Much of it seems mental. How else to explain the number of careless turnovers that have derailed them of late?

The Vegas game proved to be a step forward in that regard as well. This was an evenly contested 60 minutes – the even-strength shot attempts were 50-50 through regulation – and the Golden Knights weren’t gifted too many golden opportunities.

“I think we were happy with the way we skated,” said Rielly. “That game in St. Louis [on Saturday], after a long road trip and after a couple good teams, it’s tough to find your legs. I think that was pretty evident. I think that we got our legs back tonight and skating, we got the puck and we didn’t have as many turnovers as we have in recent history.”

They were fortunate to have Auston Matthews in the lineup after he tweaked an undisclosed ailment against the Blues. He left the morning skate abruptly, but managed to dress for a 98th straight game to start his NHL career – earning a pretty assist by going end-to-end and spinning on the edges of his skate blades to beat Luca Sbisa wide before James van Riemsdyk scored.

Kadri added two first-period goals as Toronto built a 3-1 lead before Reilly Smith, on a power play, and Engelland conjured a little doubt.

“Obviously, he didn’t like [the third goal], but good for him,” Babcock said of Andersen. “That was a good win for him. I believe that shootout is even better for him because you did it and now you get to feel good about yourself. You get to go home and actually sleep good and get up tomorrow and have some zip in practice and stuff like that.

“I think that’s important for us. I think we have a chance to be a better team here on Wednesday.”

They’ll be looking to return with a little more strength and resolve.

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