Maple Leafs crushed by Mammoth in Utah

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The Leafs will meet Mitch Marner for the first time on Thursday in Vegas against the Golden Knights.

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Published Jan 14, 2026 • Last updated 2 hours ago • 4 minute read

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Auston Matthews of the Toronto Maple Leafs battles for position in front of the net with John Marino of the Utah Mammoth during the first period of an NHL game at the Delta Center on Jan. 13, 2026 in Salt Lake City, Utah. Photo by Chris Gardner /Getty ImagesArticle content

Bring on Mitch Marner.

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The Maple Leafs’ first meeting with their former teammate is up next after Toronto had nothing going in a 6-1 loss in Salt Lake City against the Utah Mammoth on Tuesday night.

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Out of gas after beating the best team in the National Hockey League, the Colorado Avalanche, in overtime in Denver on Monday, the Leafs didn’t put up much of a battle as their four-game trip continued at the Delta Center.

The Leafs’ 10-game run with at least one point (8-0-2) is finished. They had not lost in regulation since Dec. 21 in Dallas against the Stars, the game that was assistant coach Marc Savard’s last with Toronto before he was fired.

Three takeaways:

MARNER NOT MISSED

The absence of Marner hasn’t really been a topic of conversation around the Leafs this season, has it?

We’re not forgetting about the ink and air time that was consumed by all things Marner during the off-season as the new reality set in.

Gone was one of the top scorers in Leafs history — Marner is sixth now on the franchise list with 741 points, having been passed by captain Auston Matthews — in a sign-and-trade with the Vegas Golden Knights last summer.

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Also gone: A player in Marner who was not able to make a difference for the Leafs in the playoffs despite numerous trips to the postseason. Given some of the angst as Marner’s time in Toronto was coming to an end last June, you’d think the Leafs were losing a player who helped them win a Stanley Cup or two.

Still, it’s bound to be an emotional meeting on Thursday night in Vegas, where the Leafs for the first time will see Marner up close and personal in the Golden Knights’ colours. Next Friday, the emotions will be cranked up several degrees when Marner skates at Scotiabank Arena for the first time in anything other than a Leafs sweater.

“Defended against him a lot of years, so I’m quite experienced,” Leafs defenceman Jake McCabe told media in Salt Lake after the game. “Mitchy is obviously very crafty. I’ve switched teams and you play buddies and it’s always a little bit different the first night, but looking forward to it.”

Matthews had little interest in talking about Marner once training camp and the preseason was done, and in the months that followed, there was no real reason to discuss Marner.

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Yes, the Leafs struggled to find their way through the first couple of months. There’s no denying that. Before they beat Colorado on Monday, the Leafs had not been in a playoff spot since Nov. 7.

The Leafs were full marks for going on the run that ended in Salt Lake, and now find themselves on the right side of the wildcard hunt. They managed to recover without Marner. For the most part, the Leafs have made the necessary improvements to keep their heads above water in the playoff race.

Marner has had a good season with the Golden Knights, recording 46 points (10 goals and 36 assists) in 44 games going into a Vegas road game in Los Angeles against the Kings on Wednesday night.

And while the Golden Knights are in first place in the Pacific Division with 54 points, that’s just one more than the 53 amassed by the Leafs, who have played two more games. Toronto has won 23 games. Vegas has won 21.

The Golden Knights have nothing on the Avalanche, Dallas Stars and Minnesota Wild, who are sitting comfortably in the top three spots in the Western Conference.

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There’s no doubt it’s going to be strange for the Leafs to face Marner twice in eight days. Once the game in Toronto is over next week, normalcy will continue for the Leafs, not unlike the way it has gone for the first few months without Marner.

FLUSH IT, QUICK

There were no positives for the Leafs to take out of the loss to the Mammoth.

Utah took it to Toronto from the opening faceoff and had built a 4-0 lead through 40 minutes. After Calle Jarnkrok, filling in for an injured Nick Robertson (lower body, day to day), scored for the Leafs in the third period, Utah beat Dennis Hildeby twice more to put any doubt about the final result to rest (not that anyone thought the Leafs were going to rally).

The Leafs had defensive lapses that mostly were absent during their 10-game streak. The Leafs’ troubles came into focus when the veteran defence pair of Brandon Carlo and Morgan Rielly fell over each other in the sequence that led to Dylan Guenther’s second goal, which made it 3-0.

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Would the result have been different had John Tavares scored on a breakaway early in the second period when it was 1-0 for Utah? No, probably not, not with the way the Leafs were playing in general.

“You’re not going to hear me make excuses about the schedule,” McCabe said. “Their whole team played with a lot of pace and I felt they were on top of us all night, pressuring us on the forecheck.”

Said Oliver Ekman-Larsson: “It’s the same for everybody. We’re not going to have (the schedule) as an excuse. We have been playing some good hockey.”

DEFENDING THE BEAST

We wouldn’t have expected Leafs coach Craig Berube to throw Hildeby under the bus, and sure enough, Berube had no interest in doing that afterward.

Hildeby, who otherwise has been sharp, wasn’t able to cover up his teammates’ warts on Tuesday. He was busy, facing 40 Mammoth shots; in 51 minutes 14 seconds of five-on-five play, the Leafs were outshot 38-13.

Hildeby got little-to-no support. He was self-critical afterward, but he was not at fault for the loss.

“The second (Utah goal by Dylan Guenther), I guess you’d want that one back, but I don’t put anything on him,” Berube said. “This is a team loss. We’re all accountable for it. We’ve got to be better. We weren’t good enough.”

tkoshan@postmedia.com
X: @koshtorontosun

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Maple Leafs crushed by Mammoth in Utah

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