Canucks Takeaways: Shorthanded goals help Vancouver extend home streak vs. Maple Leafs

By Anthony On Mar 5, 2023

VANCOUVER — Beating the Toronto Maple Leafs on home ice never gets old for the Vancouver Canucks.

Seriously, it never gets old because the Canucks keep adding fresh wins at Rogers Arena.

Saturday’s 4-1 victory, when the Canucks embarrassed the Maple Leafs’ mighty power play with the fastest two shorthanded goals in Vancouver franchise history, was their 16th victory in 18 home games against Toronto since the National Hockey League reinvented itself after the 2004-05 lockout.

It has been nearly a decade since the NHL’s balance of power shifted in Canada and the Maple Leafs became good (but only in the regular season) and the Canucks became bad (except in the 2020 playoffs), but it always looks like 2011 when Toronto visits Vancouver.

On Saturday, the team with 15 regulation wins all season beat the one with only 16 regulation losses by scoring three straight third-period goals. The decisive ones were both shorthanded on the same Toronto power play, as Elias Pettersson beautifully finished a two-on-one with J.T. Miller to break a 1-1 tie at 6:49, 44 seconds before Miller buried a breakaway wrist shot behind goalie Matt Murray after an all-world lead pass from Pettersson.

Nils Aman added a clinching goal for Vancouver at 12:34, tapping in a terrific backdoor pass by Brock Boeser after Aman and Phil DiGiuseppe forced ex-Canuck Luke Schenn into a turnover near the Leafs’ net.

Canuck goalie Thatcher Demko was outstanding, stopping 36 of 37 shots that included a first-period breakaway by William Nylander when the Maple Leafs were badly outplaying the home team.

The thousands who buy tickets in Vancouver to cheer the Maple Leafs always yell and chant regardless of the result, and the rest of the sellout crowd cheering the Canucks goes home especially happy. The atmosphere Saturday, as it usually is for this fixture, was electric.

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“Some of the people warned me that there’s going to be a lot of Leafs fans,” Canucks coach Rick Tocchet said. “I didn’t know it was that many. But I’m kind of used to it; when I was in Arizona, there was a lot of visiting fans out there, too.”

Tocchet said in his pre-game media availability that games like this are like the playoffs for the Canucks. They have to be because for the seventh time in eight seasons, the Canucks won’t get the real playoff games. And for the seventh straight season, the Maple Leafs will be playing Stanley Cup playoff games. At least four of them.

REAL GOALTENDING

The Canucks’ horrendous penalty killing rate of 67.7 per cent, which has a chance to become the worst since the NHL began tracking that stat in 1977, has received much attention this season. Not so much the equally-bad goaltending, which was still last in the league before Saturday’s game with an .876 save percentage in all situations.

But since Demko returned from a three-month absence due to a torn groin, he has stopped 104 of 111 shots over three straight starts, two of them wins against superior teams in the Maple Leafs and Dallas Stars. That’s .937 goaltending from Demko, who not only has returned to full health but returned to last season’s top-five NHL form after struggling badly at the start of this season.

Three games is a tiny sample from Demko. The Canucks would like to see about 15 more of these performances over their final 20 games, although Tocchet vowed the team will not overplay him. But the West Coast had almost forgotten what elite goaltending looked like, and the difference it makes.

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TANK STANK

Even with many in Canucks Nation hoarse from screaming about the Filip Hronek trade on Wednesday, some tankists still had the energy Saturday to complain on social media about the team winning with Demko in net a third straight game. Each loss, of course, enhances the Canucks’ draft-lottery odds and the slim chance of getting hometown superstar-in-waiting Connor Bedard in June.

But let’s remember the lineup that Tocchet iced on Saturday included eight players who have spent time in the American Hockey League this season. The Canucks traded away leading goal scorer Bo Horvat, just dealt key defenceman and leader Schenn for a third-round pick, and were missing seven injured players on Saturday, including four defencemen who would be lineup regulars.

And as far as Demko goes, the rehabilitation of his game — following the rehabilitation of his injury — is probably the single most important need regarding an individual player between now and the end of the regular season. He is their franchise goalie, and has three years remaining on a $25-million-US contract. Whatever success the Canucks hope to have next season, Demko needs to be driving it.

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HUGHES AND HISTORY

Canuck Quinn Hughes’ two assists on Saturday made him the fastest defenceman to 200 assists in NHL history. He hit the double-century in just his 263rd game — one game earlier than American Hall-of-Famer Brian Leetch reached the threshold 31 years ago. When former general manager Jim Benning somehow found Hughes still available with the seventh pick of the 2018 draft — it was probably Benning’s happiest day on the job — he described Hughes as a Brian Leetch-type player. Guess he was right.

SCHENN NIGHT

It’s not often that players whose tenure with a team ends at 121 games and less than two seasons gets a tribute video, but Schenn deserved his moment during the early TV timeout on Saturday. The Canucks’ game-presentation staff rolled some of his greatest hits, literally, while the crowd roared its thanks, four days after his trade to the Maple Leafs.

Only Schenn could speak with emotion about his regret at leaving one team and his gratitude at joining another, and genuinely mean both. He is a special kind of leader. And when people are done complaining about the Hronek trade, they might wonder — after Curtis Lazar was also traded for a draft pick — who is going to lead the Canucks by example, having learned what it takes to win in other organizations.

QUOTEBOOK

Tocchet: ‘I’m proud of them because it’s not just play out 20 games and let’s wait for next year. These are important games. Every day we come in we’re trying to become the team we want to be. We can’t waste practices and we can’t waste games.”

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