The Canucks looked fantastic Saturday night. Arrayed in their fresh, retro duds -- black sweaters crested with the classic, flying skate -- the team looked as good as they have in twenty years.
Unfortunately, they also looked like hot garbage. While they may have been dressed for success, Vancouver played like they were adamantly opposed to actually experiencing any. The result was, arguably, their worst loss of the year, a frustrating defeat at the hands of the bottom-feeding Leafs -- a franchise so incompetent that a recent logo update accomplished little more than accidentally adding a butt. And speaking of finding the bottom, I'd say the Canucks did it when I watched this game.
- When was the last time the Canucks put in a good performance in special uniforms? They killed the Millionaires jersey with two awful showings. And they may very well have permanently tainted the flying skate with tonight's mess. You're supposed to wear the duds, not be the duds.
- Fun fact: this was Toronto's first-ever victory at Rogers Arena. Sure, they've won in the building before. But it was called GM Place then. Now, if that sounds like a pretty stupid tidbit based entirely on semantics and wilful ignorance, you're quite right. When I said "fun fact", I meant "obnoxious fact." The Leafs have won in this building before. NHL records aren't based on sponsorship marketing.
- I want to accuse this broadcast of tilting a little in the Leafs' favour -- and I'm not just talking about the decision to play the game at the most convenient time for Easterners -- but such charges ring hollow when Jim Hughson is calling the game. (Plus it's not like the Canucks were giving Hughson much to talk about outside of their slick apparel.) Still, it was clear Hughson isn't as knowledgeable about the Canucks as he once was. He seemed to think they were better than the Leafs -- better than this. Oh, Jim. You've been gone too long. Things are different now.
- I mean, the Canucks are terrible, right? I'm still a fan, but I'm also a realist: right now I'm a fan of a pretty bad team. Consider: the Leafs' first line features Peter Holland between Leo Komarov and Michael Grabner. And yet, the Canucks -- who, for all their issues, are supposed to have a real first line, at least -- got handily outplayed. Embarrassingly outplayed. Outshot 38-19. Truthfully, though, I don't think this game was lost on the ice. I'd look to the bench, where Willie Desjardins continues to make decisions as inexplicable as a vote for Donald Trump. Sending the Sedins out for defensive zone draws? Not only is that a complete waste of their abilities, but Henrik is obviously too hurt to be taking faceoffs right now, let alone the all-important ones in front of his own goalie. That's just moronic. Willie's Canucks look disorganized, and he looks out of his depth, especially in contrast with a coach like Mike Babcock, who got a strong, defensive performance out of his team. The disparaity in coaching was never clearer than on Canuck powerplays, when the Leafs made a blue-line stand, and the Canucks hovered around the neutral zone, seemingly unsure if they were allowed to go in. I swear, at one point, they knocked.
- Speaking of Henrik Sedin, why in the world is he playing? He's hurt. He's so hurt. I get that the Canucks are chasing points, but I'd remind them that Henrik (and his brother, whose effectiveness is severely impacted by Henrik's) has two more years of contract after this one. If you let Henrik grind his abdomen into a fine paste in an attempt to drag his team into the postseason now, one wonders how much he'll have left for a season where the Canucks are doing real things. Give the man an Icy Hot patch and let him go home.
- Did Frank Corrado scuff the Canucks' Jordans or something? That was hardly a warm welcome his former teammates gave him. Both Derek Dorsett and Alex Burrows got into it with the former Canuck blueliner, and it didn't look like the sort of playful bickering you normally see between former teammates. Think of Burrows' battles with Shane O'Brien or Kevin Bieksa, for instance. Those got heated, but you got the sense both parties were playing it up a little. Watching Burrows go after Corrado, however? You'd have thought Frankie sent him a mean tweet.
- It's hard to look back on this game and remember a single moment I thought the Canucks had things under control, but apparently they scored the first goal. After a Michael Grabner turnover in the corner, Henrik Sedin recovered the puck and moved it to Jannik Hansen, who found Daniel all alone in the slot. Daniel wasted no time, hitting James Reimer up style like the Leafs' goalie had been getting buckwild.
- Less than 90 seconds later, however, the Leafs took the lead thanks to two quick goals from Mark Arcobello. The first came on an ugly turnover, but I can forgive that. Turnovers happen. The second, in which Jake Gardiner stepped around Radim Vrbata like he was an unrestricted free agent who knows he's gone in two weeks and has already quit on the team, was harder to stomach. I'm pretty sure Vrbata ripped his ticket and gave him a wrist stamp on the way by.
- The Canucks briefly flirted with a late comeback. Down 3-1 inside the final two minutes, Sven Baertschi scored with the net empty, whittling the lead to one. It was precisely the sort of scoring play the Canucks can't seem to generate these days, as they got the puck to the front of the net, then jammed away at it, with both Horvat and Baertschi swiping at the puck. It was Baertschi who swiped right, however, and it was a match. Now he and the puck have plans to grab drinks and see what happens.
- And then the Leafs scored two empty-net goals and everybody went home. But that's okay. No need to dwell on what happened out there. Most of the interesting stuff tonight was coming from the intermission panel anyway. There, we learned via Elliotte Friedman that Alex Burrows might be amenable to a trade, and Jim Benning is trying to blow things up but ownership won't let him. Granted, this might all be posturing. Just this week, Bob McKenzie told us the Canucks' phone isn't exactly ringing these days, and nothing drums up interest like rumours of a fire sale.
