Canucks: 3 takeaways from a 3-1 letdown to the Leafs

Of all the spit and bile projected towards the Vancouver Canucks following the Saturday night throttling from the Toronto Maple Leafs, the most damning words came from a defenceman from the Canucks’ past. And I’m not talking about Brent Sopel, who emerged from the peanut gallery to suggest the team had given up on management. It was from long-time rearguard Kevin Bieksa. From his perch in the Sportsnet studio, shots were fired as he calmly posited what was becoming clear over the past weeks: the Canucks are fun to play against. 

On Monday night, the Canucks did everything in their power to prove him wrong. They played with desperation as a cohesive unit, committing two forecheckers every play and frequently creating turnovers. Alex Edler, (perhaps on the receiving end of a text from Bieksa) led the team in hits (7) and set a physical tone that rippled throughout the lineup. There was pandemonium in front of Leafs netminder Frederik Andersen all night, and by the end second period, he had faced 27 shots on goal compared to 7 against Braden Holtby. For forty minutes, the Canucks had effectively shut down the same team that skated circles around them just two nights ago.

However, as good teams do, the Leafs found a response.

With the game still tied in the third and momentum-shifting for Toronto, superstar Auston Matthews wired a wrister on a faceoff set-play past Holtby. Eleven seconds later, Quinn Hughes had trouble handling a bobbling puck and was soon stripped by Ilya Mikheyev, who found Alex Kerfoot crashing the net.

It was the finishing blow in a game where the Canucks were clearly the better team. Travis Green recently said that “easy plays look hard for us right now”. On Monday night, the Canucks made losing look like the most difficult task in the world.

The Canuck leaders stepped up in a big way

As mentioned earlier, defenseman Alex Edler turned back the clock and played his best game of the season. No longer roleplaying as baby-sitter for rookie defenseman Jalen Chatfield, he was a man possessed, playing physically all night and jumping up into the rush often.

Also noticeably engaged was JT Miller. He’s been deservedly roasted these past few nights for some lackadaisical defensive play, but tonight was a force on both ends of the ice. At one point in the second period, Miller went sprawled fully parallel to the ice just to break up an outlet pass from Morgan Reilly to Matthews. Later in the third, Miller was unlucky not to get the Canucks within one with this seeing-eye wrister on the powerplay. Overall, it was a positive development for Miller after a tough week, and I expect him to be a force for the four-game tango with the Calgary Flames.