Campbell Shuts the Door on Vegas

 

The Toronto Maple Leafs ended October on a winning note and looked to start November off the right way. Last night the Leafs played host to the Vegas Golden Knights. Vegas would find themselves playing with seven regular players out of the lineup but as we saw from the Penguins game earlier in the season it does not matter who is out of the lineup no game is easy. Jack Campbell would get the start for Toronto and tending the goal at the opposite end would be Robin Lehner. The last time Robin started a game in Toronto was in 2018 as a member of the Islanders and he would walk away with a thirty-six save shutout.

 

Right from the very start of this game Toronto was the better team and it did not take long for the Maple Leafs to grab control of this contest as with just ten seconds played the Leafs had a dangerous scoring chance as Matthews would send a pass to Nylander, but Lehner would get enough of the shot before the puck would hit the mesh stopping the play. Chances for the Leafs would continue to pile up and if you are a Vegas fan this first period was frustrating for you to watch because the Knights literally could not get anything going in the offensive zone, in fact it would take over ten minutes for Vegas to register their first shot on goal. Just under two minutes later the fans in attendance would see a familiar site. Mitch Marner would open the scoring pulling off a move that you would normally only see in a video game. On the opening goal John Tavares would be behind the Vegas goal and we would see a sample of his great vision as he would feed Marner with a beautiful pass and Marner would spin around the defender and backhand the puck into the net for his second goal of the season. For me of course the goal was nice but seeing Marner’s celebration for this goal shows me that the frustrations that started this season are behind him. With the Leafs leading 1-0 they kept the pedal down looking to grow their lead, but Lehner would continue to shut the door and despite outshooting their opponents 13-4 Toronto only lead 1-0 after twenty minutes of action.

 

Period two would start exactly like the first did with the Leafs pressing the action forcing Vegas to play most of the period in their end of the rink. This strong play by Toronto would lead to a Leafs powerplay as Michael Bunting would be hauled down by Brayden McNabb. The powerplay cashed in the other night against Detroit thanks to the second unit but this time it would the teams top power play as Marner would drop the puck back to Nylander, now instead of taking a shot like most teams Nylander would then find an open lane and send the puck over to Auston Matthews who was left all alone. You would think after being in the league for a handful of years already that teams would know you should not leave Matthews alone to shoot but I guess teams still need to learn because Auston would make Vegas pay as he would fire a shot beating Lehner on the glove side and doubling Toronto’s lead with his second goal of the season. This goal would tell Vegas that they were going to be in for a long night because once again the Golden Knights were unable to get anything of value going in the Leafs end.

Toronto would run into some penalty trouble of their own in this contest finding themselves a man down on three occasions. Now going into Saturday’s matchup against Detroit there was all kinds of talk about the Leafs powerplay struggles and rightfully so but at least during Toronto’s power outage they were still able to manufacture zone time and accumulate some chances. The Vegas power play on the other hand was no where to be found for much of the evening most of the man advantage was spent in the Golden Knights end as Toronto would have several shorthanded scoring chances but Robin Lehner’s solid play in goal kept his team within reach all be it barely. In the final minute of the second period with Vegas stuck in their end Vegas would see their night go from bad to worse as Morgan Reilly would send a centering pass to Auston Matthews all alone in front of the net and Vegas I thought you would learn after his first goal not to do that but Matthews would send the puck into the roof of the goal for his third of the season second of the game, and this would also be Auston’s fortieth multi goal game of his young career putting him three behind Alex Ovechkin. Thanks to Auston’s second goal of the game Toronto would head to the dressing room with their lead now tripled.

Toronto would put this game away for good early in the final period when if the first two minutes just like the first William Nylander would receive a stretch pass this time from Michael Bunting and Nylander would get the better of Robin Lehner this time around as Nylander’s wrist shot would go passed the blocker side for his fourth goal of the season. On this goal TJ Brodie would collect a secondary assist on this Nylander goal which for him is a terrific way to cap off the evening as this game would be the 700^th career game for the Chatham Ontario native.

The rest of regulation would see Toronto continue to frustrate their opponent not giving the Golden Knights any offensive zone time and mercifully for Vegas the final horn would sound, and the Leafs would start November on the right note thanks to a 4-0 win giving Jack Campbell his first shutout of the season. After the game during his post game availably it was mentioned that Campbell’s agent and Kyle Dubas have begun talks on a contract extension. Jack of course answered as expected saying he is only focused on playing games but added that he would like to stay here and remain with the organization. So, things will be interesting as these negotiations continue but if Dubas can get Reilly to take a hometown discount to stay here I am sure that he and Brandon Pridham can produce an offer that is fair for both the team and the player.

 

Toronto’s home stretch will continue Thursday night when the defending Stanley Cup Champions the Tampa Bay Lightning come into town for this first time since the league shutdown due to Covid when the Leafs would beat the Lightning 2-1. Sheldon Keefe yesterday morning when meeting with the media said that this week with Vegas, Tampa, and then Boston all paying a visit to Toronto that this was going to be a real opportunity to see what type of team the Leafs have. With a 4-0 shutout win over Vegas this week has gotten off to a good start but hopefully the Leafs can keep things going against Tampa. One question you can also fairly ask is what about Justin Holl? In both games he has sat out the new pairings have looked good, and the team has looked better defensively. So, does Holl draw back in on Thursday? We will have to wait and see.