The Maple Leafs had a day off in Denver on Thursday.

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The Maple Leafs refused to use a gruelling, road-heavy schedule as an excuse for Wednesday's 5-2 loss in Vegas. Both Auston Matthews and Mitch Marner referred to the result as "a wake-up call."

"Maybe we were just hoping for an easy game," said Matthews, who is in his first season as the team's captain. "We weren't ready to go out there and really just grind and compete against a good team that plays hard."

The schedule seemed to favour the Golden Knights, who lead the Pacific Division, entering the game. Vegas is in the middle of a stretch of home games and had not played since a Sunday win over the New Jersey Devils. The Leafs, meanwhile, played Sunday in Pittsburgh and Monday at home against San Jose before flying West on Tuesday.

"A great challenge for us and we didn't come close to it," said centre John Tavares. "Starting with the leaders and myself, we've got to do a better job of being at the level we need to be and the level of detailed execution that we have to have."

The Leafs outshot the Knights 16-8 in the first period, but a few breakdowns ended up in the back of their net as the Knights built a 3-0 lead.

"I just thought we were pretty flat at the start and that's a good team over there," Matthews said. "They're [a] standard of the league and I just don't think we really came out ready to play."

The Leafs appeared to have decent energy despite the late start time – 7:22 pm PT / 10:22 pm ET – but their focus was lacking.

"Our intentions were right in the first period," head coach Craig Berube said. "We had chances. We were skating, I thought. But you can't give a team like that five odd-man rushes in the first period and think you are going to win the game. That is really what I take out of it. You have to have better structure. The guys have to reload harder. You can't give up odd-man rushes as we did in the first period. It cost us the hockey game."

The Leafs claimed wins in five straight games coming out of the 4 Nations Face-Off break, but there have been signs of slippage lately. Toronto blew a 2-0 lead against the last-place Sharks on Monday before falling in a shootout. That result came on the heels of a wild 6-5 overtime win in Pittsburgh, which Berube labelled as too "high event" for his liking.

"The last couple games really haven't been great by us," Marner acknowledged.

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Berube pulled Joseph Woll after he allowed three goals on seven shots on Wednesday night.

"I mean, if you asked him, he probably wants the first two goals back," said Berube, who gave Woll a pat when he got to the bench.

It was the first time Berube has pulled a goalie this season.

"It's not Joe's fault," Marner said. "We didn't help........

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