Golden Knights report: Team’s skating, goaltending nemeses strike

Maple Leafs win 4-0

RJ’s three stars

■ 3. Maple Leafs right wing William Nylander — He had a goal and an assist and was dangerous with the puck on his stick all night. He had five shots on goal, the second-most of the game.

■ 2. Maple Leafs right wing Mitchell Marner — He had a goal and two assists to double his point total for the year. His spinning score in the first period was a thing of beauty.

■ 1. Maple Leafs center Auston Matthews — The NHL’s leading goal scorer last season tallied twice Tuesday. He has seven goals in six career games against the Knights. He also has three multi-goal games against them, the most by any opponent in franchise history.

Key play

Matthews’ power-play goal in the second period.

The Knights were outplayed in the first period but only trailed 1-0. Matthews’ tally gave Toronto a comfortable lead and it never appeared threatened after.

The play was tough to defend for the Knights because both Nylander and Matthews were skating downhill towards the net. Nylander passed the puck across the offensive zone from the right circle to the left, and Matthews buried the feed for his second goal of the year.

The Maple Leafs’ power-play execution was in sharp contrast to the Knights’, who went 0-for-3 on the man advantage Tuesday and fell to 0-for-18 on the year.

Key stat

Two — The number of times the Knights have been shut out in nine games.

They didn’t score only three times last season. The team is scoring 2.22 goals per game, 28th-most in the NHL. They’ve scored three or more goals five times.

Campbell stands tall

There may be no goaltender in the world the Knights enjoy seeing less than Toronto’s Jack Campbell.

They’ve been stymied by the 29-year-old in their four meetings, including Tuesday’s 24-save shutout. Campbell has stopped 155 of the 159 shots the Knights have thrown at him in his career, for a save percentage of .975. He’s 3-1 in those games.

Hostile environment

The Knights have never won in Toronto’s Scotiabank Arena in four tries.

It’s one of four buildings the team is winless in, along with Montreal’s Bell Centre, Boston’s TD Garden and the league’s newest building in Seattle’s Climate Pledge Arena. The Knights have an opportunity to take Montreal off the list when they play the Canadiens on Saturday.

Knights quotable

“That wasn’t close to good enough. Probably the worst one we’ve had since I’ve come to Vegas I think.” — Knights goaltender Robin Lehner.

Knights’ next 10

At Senators, 4 p.m. Thursday

At Montreal, 4 p.m. Saturday

At Detroit, 3 p.m. Sunday

Vs. Seattle, 7 p.m. Nov. 9

Vs. Minnesota, 7 p.m. Nov. 11

Vs. Vancouver, 7 p.m. Nov. 13

Vs. Carolina, 7 p.m. Nov. 16

Vs. Detroit, 7 p.m. Nov. 18

Vs. Columbus, 7 p.m. Nov. 20

At St. Louis, 5 p.m. Nov. 22

Contact Ben Gotz at bgotz@reviewjournal.com. Follow @BenSGotz on Twitter.