3 takeaways from last night’s disheartening Canucks loss to the Leafs

Remember when the Vancouver Canucks somehow won both games against the Leafs when they first returned to play?

Well, it seems like the Hockey Gods finally decided to turn the tides and reward Toronto for their vastly superior play, as they won 4-1 last night.

The team’s recent struggles shouldn’t come as a surprise to anyone, even after winning three of their first four games after returning to the ice. Those victories were fueled by adrenaline more than anything, and Vancouver has predictably taled off and will likely struggle for the remainder of the season.

Here are three takeaways from the Canucks’ disheartening 4-1 loss to the Leafs last night. Also, be sure to stick around until the end of the article as we have a special announcement to share.

Lethargic play continues

Wednesday’s loss to Ottawa featured some of the most uninspiring hockey played all year long from Vancouver, even if it wasn’t for a lack of effort. The same story was repeated yesterday, especially at the start of the game.

The Canucks only mustered two shots on goal in the entire first period, and actually had as many shots as Toronto had goals at one point in the match.

https://twitter.com/RobTheHockeyGuy/status/1387928540713082882

Similar to Wednesday, Vancouver came out flat in the second and conceded a pair of goals in the opening minutes of the period. Auston Matthews made it a 2-0 game just 51 seconds in, and everyone knew what was going to happen the moment he and Mitch Marner created a two-on-one chance.

Pierre Engvall then made it a three-goal game just two minutes later by beating Braden Holtby on a deceptive wrist shot from the left circle.

No one should be shocked by the team’s lethargic play, but it is strange that they’ve specifically struggled in the opening minutes of the second period when considering the fact that they’ve performed much better in the third. It’ll be interesting to see if this is just a two-game blip or a long-term trend.

Power play stays lifeless

This was touched on in the takeaway for Wednesday’s game too, but it’s worth noting here as well. Although the Canucks’ power play wasn’t as bad as it was in the game against Ottawa, they still struggled to enter the offensive zone at times and maintain possession of the puck.

Toronto had multiple odd-man rushes the other way, and I wouldn’t have known that Vancouver was the one with the man advantage if it wasn’t displayed on TV. It goes without saying that the team sorely misses Elias Pettersson’s presence right now, but one player could only do so much; ultimately, the power play struggles are likely caused by fatigue too, which is the main problem plaguing the team right now.

Of course, I’d be remiss not to mention that J.T. Miller did net a power-play goal, although it wasn’t pretty by any means.

Personally, I’m not too worried about the power play due to the team’s overall fatigue, and the first unit was actually creating some decent chances before the COVID outbreak even without Pettersson driving it.

A fight for… Alex Edler?!??!

Yes, you read that right. Alex Edler got into a fight yesterday.

He definitely didn’t want to engage in one, but Wayne Simmonds left him with no choice, so they dropped the gloves and hilarity ensued.

Apparently, that’s his first ever NHL fight, which happened in his 914th career game. That probably doesn’t come as too big of a surprise given his performance, or lack thereof.

I understand that Wayne Simmonds was trying to send a message and stand up for Alex Kerfoot, but I think he should’ve let up a bit given Edler’s inexperience and the fact that he was already punished by being suspended. Of course, you should take what I just said with a grain of salt because I’m biased towards Edler, but it’s still something to think about.