Toronto Maple Leafs fans on social media expressed disappointment after the team squandered a 3-0 first-period lead and fell 4-3 to the Vegas Golden Knights in a shootout on Thursday.
The Maple Leafs jumped out to a quick 3-0 advantage on goals from Jack Roslovic, Easton Cowan, and Nick Paul. The Golden Knights, meanwhile, responded with goals from Mark Stone and Brett Howden, then Jack Eichel converted a penalty shot to tie the game.
The contest remained level through overtime before going to a shootout. In the shootout, Kirill Marchenko scored the only goal for the Leafs. Auston Matthews, William Nylander, Gavin McKenna, and John Tavares were all stopped by Adin Hill.
Trevor Connelly scored the decisive goal for Vegas in the fifth round to complete the comeback victory.
One tweeted:
“And a choke once again, not surprised.”
Another chimed in:
“Connelly is far better than McKenna.”
Here are some of the other top reactions on X:
“No I don’t feel very good about the season. Most of the players we got via trades look very weak form of themselves. Hiller reminds me of Sheldon,” a third fan wrote.
“It’s unfair we can’t ever win a shootout and hit some many posts and deploy Morgan Rielly,” one X user wrote.
“Pro hockey players who don’t even attempt a shot in shootouts. What is wrong with this team,” another chimed in.
“Why is John Tavares still on my hockey team?” added another.
Maple Leafs blow 3-0 lead in 4-3 SO loss to Golden Knights
On Thursday, the Vegas Golden Knights defeated the Toronto Maple Leafs 4-3 in a shootout at T-Mobile Arena.
The Leafs also lost defenseman Oliver Ekman-Larsson in the game after he took a hit from Jeremy Lauzon with just under two minutes remaining in regulation. No call was made on the play.
Jack Roslovic opened the scoring for the Leafs just 34 seconds into the first period. Easton Cowan increased the lead to 2-0 at 3:20. Nick Paul then made it 3-0 for the visitors at 8:37.
Mark Stone cut the deficit to 3-1 for the Golden Knights before the end of the first period. Brett Howden scored for Vegas to make it 3-2, and Jack Eichel’s penalty-shot goal tied the game 3-3.
The contest remained level through overtime before the Golden Knights prevailed in the shootout.
Edited by Abhishek Dilta
