Leafs Postgame: Saveless In Salt Lake (5-4 Utah)

Goaltending was apparently optional in Salt Lake City tonight, as the Toronto Maple Leafs and Utah Mammoth very much took the over on total goals. Toronto found themselves in an early bind, almost managed to pull off a multi-goal comeback, but ultimately fell just short, finishing their western road trip with a 0.500 record.

The Rundown

This game started out pretty back-and-forth, with Toronto getting the first truly dangerous chance of the game on the powerplay, only for John Tavares’ eighth-minute shot to not fully trickle past Karel Vejmelka. The Mammoth were instead the first to strike. Taking in a drop pass from Jack McBain, 2023 1st round pick and NHL sophomore Daniil But slipped a puck past Morgan Rielly before going top shelf on Anthony Stolarz to give his team the lead late in the opening period.

Almost immediately in the second, the Mammoth picked up insurance. Vincent Trocheck made it a 2-0 game just a minute into the period following a Toronto turnover, completing a pretty passing play with Logan Cooley. Just a couple minutes later, the Maple Leafs had an opportunity to get back in the game with a powerplay, but immediately gave up a shorthanded tally, as the Mammoth rushed down the ice, didn’t convert on their first shot, but a Stolarz poke check sent the puck straight to a pinching Mikhail Sergachev.

The Leafs salvaged the powerplay shortly after, with a gritty John Tavares effort to retrieve the puck turning to a pass to an open Auston Matthews to get Toronto on the board. Goals stopped for a while, but then we got another flood – Dylan Guenther fired what felt like a stoppable snap shot from distance to make it 4-1, Jack Roslovic responded by cleaning up a loose puck in the slot to make it 4-2, and MacKenzie Weegar went five hole to restore Utah’s three-goal lead, all in the span of about five minutes.

Toronto dragged themselves back into the fight in the third. Tavares released a wicked wrister off the wing to bring the game to 5-3 with thirteen minutes remaining and four minutes later, with a delayed Utah penalty, Gavin McKenna ripped home his second fo the season. The Leafs kept pushing right down to the final seconds, with Tavares and Kirill Marchenko both nearly tying the game in the final seconds, but ultimately went home empty-handed.

Notes

• Unfortunately, I think we may have just watched Anthony Stolarz’ worst game as a Toronto Maple Leaf. To his credit, he took ownership of it in postgame, saying he wished he had a few of them back. As much as I’d love to give him the doubt benefit because I’d have zero interest in doing an NHL goalie’s job, it’s impossible to disagree. It’s difficult to feel like this game isn’t winnable if he has something close to a median performance. To Stolarz’s credit, he stuck around for the third period and stopped the bleeding. Build on it and come back better next time.
• I saw a good amount of griping about Kirill Marchenko last night, particularly since he wasn’t able to finish off the last scoring chance of the game. Personally, I thought this was a strong performance from him and a sign that he’s starting to get out of the “little bit adjusted” phase of joining the team. He’s rushing the puck with his early confidence again and he set up a couple of dangerous plays during the pushback stretch. I’m confident it’ll translate long-term.
• Over on the Utah side, Toronto GM John Chayka took a lot of grief when the Coyotes drafted Barrett Hayton fifth overall in 2018. Was it still too high? Probably, especially if you were open to taking a defenceman and could’ve had Quinn Hughes, Evan Bouchard, or Noah Dobson in the seven picks beneath him. But Hayton has at least become a solid regular NHLer, and felt like he was in on every Mammoth play last night. He’s an unrestricted free agent this year, so maybe keep that name in the back pocket.
• A night to forget for the McKenna-Paul-Sissons line at 5v5, who in six minutes time together, were 0% at every shot metric. No, that’s not an exaggeration. They went 0-12 on attempts, 0-5 on shots on goal, and 0 to 0.5 on expected goals. They all got redeemed on special teams, though – McKenna had a 6v5 goal on a delayed penalty, and Paul and Sissons were part of the Toronto PK units that limited Utah to just one shot in five and a half minutes.
• I had doubts about giving John Tavares the PP1 spot back right away given how well McKenna fit on Saturday. He basically willed them to two powerplay goals tonight. More than happy to be proven wrong on this one.
• The gap between 5-on-5 and special teams was a repeated trend for Toronto in this one, in fact. Just look at the late-game push; the Leafs had Utah on their toes with late powerplays and pulled goalies, but had their worst period by attempts, shots, chances, and expected goals at 5v5 in the third. The key was to keep Utah away from the default state.
• It feels like Auston Matthews and John Marino had a pact to stay away from each others’ hot nights. The Leafs controlled 72% of the 5v5, shot attempts and 93% of the expected goals with Matthews on the ice, while Marino had splits of 77% Corsi and 91% xG. The two played about two minutes against each other at 5v5 and… nothing happened. Not a single shot attempt. Just the passage of time.
• The fact that Toronto feels a little empty-handed after splitting a road trip against two high-end contenders and a very good Utah team shows that there’s something more to this group than last year. I’m still not sure this is a great team, but they’re talented and they’re fun again, and that matters.

Up Next

The Maple Leafs return home on Thursday, taking on the Buffalo Sabres. Buffalo have yet to win at a pace akin to their Atlantic Division victory last season and have some meaningful voids on the injury front, but have continued to control play in their games, making this no easy fight. Puck drop will come at 7:00 p.m.

Numbers Game

Top Performers	Bottom Performers	Top Opponents
1. Auston Matthews (3.65) 1G, 1A, 4 SOG, 93% xG	1. Jake McCabe (-1.86) 0G, 0A, 0 SOG, -2, 32% xG	1. John Marino (3.92) 0G, 0A, 1 SOG, +3, 91% xG
2. Krill Marchenko (2.32) 0G, 1A, 2 SOG, +1, 80% xG	2. Anthony Stolarz (-1.85) 23 saves, 5 GA on 3.15 xGA	2. Mikhail Sergachev (2.62) 1G, 1A, 2 SOG, +3, 55% xG
3. Jack Roslovic (1.86) 1G, 0A, 2 SOG, -2, 73% xG	3. Easton Cowan (-1.72) 0G, 0A, 0 SOG, -3, 24% xG	3. Dylan Guenther (2.54) 1G, 1A, 2 SOG, +2, 70% xG

Shots On Goal	28-26 UTA	Faceoffs	28 for 54
5v5 Shot Attempts	43-30 UTA	Hits	17-14 UTA
5v5 Expected Goals	1.89 – 1.01 UTA	Blocked Shots	15-10 TOR
Best Period (xG)	5v5: 2nd (51%) All: 1st (70%)	Powerplay	2 for 5 (11 shots)
Worst Period (xG)	5v5: 3rd (18%) All: 2nd (36%)	Penalty Kill	4 for 4 (1 shots)

Table 1: Game Score via Dom, HockeyStatCards reccomended for full-game results
Table 2: Derived from NHL.com and Natural Stat Trick
Heatmap: via Natural Stat Trick