Maple Leafs 7, Canucks 3: Another barrage of goals against leaky Vancouver
Canucks #Canucks
Jason Spezza plays on the Toronto Maple Leafs’ fourth line. Jason Spezza scored a hat trick on Thursday night against the Vancouver Canucks.
Led by the veteran forward’s eighth career three-goal night, the Leafs beat the Canucks 7-3 at Scotiabank Arena in Toronto.
The Leafs beat the Canucks in their three-game set because they’re deeper — Spezza is also making just $700,000 this season — and because they just took care of their details better.
And doing a better job of taking care of details has been a talking point too often for the Canucks in the first quarter of the season.
“We have to execute better,” Canucks captain Bo Horvat said, flatly, during the second intermission on Sportsnet.
That and get more scoring chances.
“I’m not going to sugar-coat it, we weren’t good enough,” Horvat told the media post-game. “We need to come to play Saturday night.”
“It’s not our goaltender’s fault. We’re giving up too many grade-A opportunities,” he added.
“We’ve got a lot of guys in the room who’ve played a lot of important hockey and know what it takes to win.”
It’s hard to play smooth hockey when you’re chasing the game, and the Canucks did far too much of that in their first game in Toronto on the season.
The Leafs got two goals from Auston Matthews, plus singles from John Tavares and Mitch Marner, while the Canucks goals were scored by Horvat, Tanner Pearson and J.T. Miller.
According to Natural Stat Trick, the Canucks had just one scoring chance at even strength in the first period, compared to 10 for the Leafs.
Pearson whacked the puck in from the side of the net for his goal, a greasy tally that every team wants to see, but hard to qualify as a true scoring chance.
They were better in the second period, but in the end the details killed them.
All three Leafs goals in the middle frame came because Leafs forwards shook loose from Canucks defenders.
It’s easy to score when you’re unfettered.
“We hung our goalies out to dry,” Miller said. “I think we understand we can be way better.”
“We’re losing puck battles way too often, and with that comes more time in your end. When you’re tired, there’s more breakdown,” he added. “For the most part it’s about tenacity. They broke out cleaner than us. … We need to work harder.”
The Leafs came into the game red-hot on the power play.
The Canucks took four penalties on the night, but only gave up one goal.
Still, the penalties taken — tripping, high-sticking, slashing and hooking — were about chasing the play and carelessness, things that the Canucks simply can’t risk against a strong offensive team like the Leafs.
Horvat completes the set
The captain’s second-period goal, a vital snipe to keep his team in the game just after Matthews’s second goal, was also notable as it was his first goal against the Leafs.
He’d scored against every other NHL club before Thursday.
For a moment it was a big tally, as Horvat’s goal came just 22 seconds after Matthews had put the home team into a 3-1 lead. It was a sign of life from the Canucks in a period where they did lots right but still fell behind 5-2 after 40 minutes.
It’s hard to find positives in a big loss like Thursday’s, but Pearson’s goal was another case of the Canucks finding a quick counter-strike after their opposition had picked up a goal.
Matthews had opened the scoring at 2:54 but the Canucks stuck with it and Pearson’s goal showed some pluck.
But the rest of the period was the true lesson, as the Leafs turned up the heat and the Canucks didn’t have a response. Spezza put the Leafs into the lead for good with his first of the game later in the period, a rocket slap shot through a screen on a power play.
Struggling stars
Quinn Hughes picked up his 14th assist of the season on the Miller goal, but at even strength the Canucks were heavily out-shot while Hughes was on the ice, continuing what’s been a concerning trend for the sophomore blue-liner.
Hughes said before the game he’s feeling better than he did early in the year, but he also took a pounding again on the night, being the recipient of a number of heavy hits.
No more glass
Following a surge of COVID-19 cases this week among four American teams, NHL brought in new edicts on Thursday morning. Teams were told to remove the glass behind benches to improve air flow, mandated that players can arrive at the arena no earlier that 1:45 before the game’s start, and that teams look to expand dressing room spaces so players can be more physically distant.
The league may also have teams install HEPA filters near the bench areas.
pjohnston@postmedia.com
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