Erik Gudbranson did not literally murder Matt Martin in this game, disappointing scores of Canucks fans who had taken him at his word when he pronounced death threats after the Canucks last meeting with the Leafs. How are we ever going to trust you again, Erik? Is Erik even your real name? Or are you actually “Eric,” you deceitful lying liar.
To be fair, Gudbranson did fight Martin, bringing to life the Rogers Arena crowd, which bayed for Martin’s blood like a pack of hellhounds. But when Gudbranson failed to land a killing blow, let alone remove Martin’s head and display it to Trevor Linden and Jim Benning, the crowd turned on him, hurling abuse as he sat in the pressbox (mostly variations of “Badbranson”).
Or it’s entirely possible that I hallucinated all of that. I may have consumed expired cold medication when I watched this game.
- Once again, the Canucks’ best line was the Better Business Bureau, the Triple-B line of Bo Horvat, Sven Baertschi, and Alex Burrows. They were the only Canucks line with a positive shot differential at 5-on-5 and Horvat had two of his best chances shorthanded. He and Baertschi each tallied a team-high four shots on goal. And Horvat even got a boost in ice time! He played over 20 minutes, even though it took overtime and a lot of special teams play to make it happen. And his line still played about the same amount as Granlund's line. But baby steps.
- Like Brian Blessed doing theatre in the round, Bo Horvat went HAM in the circle, winning a whopping 24 of 32 faceoffs, including 9-of-9 against Austen Matthews. He took as many faceoffs as the rest of the Canucks put together and won literally twice as many as they did. But, to be fair, it’s really hard to win faceoffs when you’re four different people put together into one person in an affront to God and man.
- It was the Sedin line that opened the scoring, building off a great shift from the BBB line. The cycle drew the Leafs down low in the zone, giving Daniel all kinds of room at the point to unleash his feared one-timer from the point. Okay, not so much “feared” as “mildly surprising” and “mostly non-threatening.” His shot deflected off James Van Reimsdyk and fluttered over Frederik Andersen in a very surprising and non-threatening way.
- Baertschi accidentally made it 2-0 in the second period when he attempted to deke to the backhand, but had his stick slashed by Ben Smith, causing him to lose control of the puck. Fortunately, he lost control right through Andersen’s legs and you don’t have to call your shots in hockey. Hear that, Owen Nolan?
- The Canucks’ worst line was Markus Granlund, Loui Eriksson, and Michael Chaput, which got pinned in the defensive zone multiple time. Eriksson, in particular, seemed disinterested defensively and the Canucks were out-shot 12-4 with him on the ice at 5-on-5 and out-attempted 22-5. Those are terrifying number; if those numbers showed up in a horror movie, you’d be yelling at the characters on the screen to run. Don't go in there! Eriksson's single-game corsi against the Leafs is in there!
- The Canucks were leaving Leafs open in front of the net all game and it came back to bite them on the two Leafs’ goals. On the first Luca Sbisa failed to tie up James Van Reimsdyk in front on the penalty kill and he put back a rebound, while on the second, Philip Larsen and Brendan Gaunce got their assignments mixed up, leaving Austen Matthews wide open. Incidentally, Van Reimsdyk and Matthews are tied for the team lead in goalscoring for the Leafs, in case you were compiling a list of players you shouldn’t leave open in front of the net.
- After Miller killed the Canucks’ comeback against the Ducks with a soft goal against, you got the sense that he wanted to redeem himself. So he made like Lloyd Christmas, making 38 saves on 40 shots and almost single-handedly willing the Canucks to overtime and the shootout.
- I say “almost single-handedly” because he got a big assist from everyone’s fourth-favourite Troy (after Troy McClure, Troy Barnes, and Troy Bolton), Troy Stecher, who saved a goal in the final minute of regulation, swatting a puck out of the crease as it rolled towards the net.
- Miller was also aided by a truly incredible lack of finish from the Leafs forwards. It was disconcerting how many open nets they missed, because even with Miller’s heroics, this could have been a blowout loss. Fortunately, the Leafs had less clutch than an inattentive woman at a purse-snatching convention.
- After Granlund opened the scoring in the shootout, Bo Horvat scored the eventual winner by skating in quickly, then putting on the brakes to create space at the top of the net. Then, like a bartender who forgot to put the safety on his shotgun, he fired it under the bar.
