Some nights, all you can do is take care of business against the opponent put in front of you.

The Maple Leafs did just that tonight, collecting two points in regulation against the lowly Canucks ahead of a difficult two-week slate that will go a long way in determining their fate in the standings.

This was one of those games where stats about zone time, shot attempts, or whatever else are almost all irrelevant. The Leafs looked like they knew they were the better team from the drop of the puck. They were almost too casual at times, but to their credit, they quickly snuffed this game out.

You won’t see a stranger first-period stat line than this one:

  • Outshot 15-6
  • Took four penalties, including two too-many-men gifts, and killed all four
  • Went to one power play and scored on it
  • Up 3-0 on the scoreboard

The power play, once again, got the Leafs going in this game. The penalty was drawn following a really good offensive shift in which Auston Matthews danced around Aatu Raty and was hauled down.

From the very first game after Marc Savard’s dismissal, the Leafs‘ power play has shown far more willingness to attack off the rush on a power-play entry. On a clean entry off the rush, the Leafs took the space in front of them rather than curling back and setting it up. Matthews crossed center with speed, passed it to William Nylander on the wall to gain the zone, and kept skating through the lane. Space was available, so Matthews and Nylander worked a give-and-go while Matias Maccelli snuck to the backdoor, where Nylander ripped a pass for an easy finish. 

It took the Leafs about eight minutes to double the lead, and that’s because they took two penalties in that time. One was a soft hooking call on Matthews (and Matthews almost scored right after the kill, courtesy of a nice seam pass by OEL). The other was a too-many-men penalty for Nylander prematurely hopping off the bench. 

After they killed the last one, the Leafs’ top line, with Easton Cowan on it, dominated for a shift and drew an icing. The Tavares line came over the boards and controlled the zone, but Nylander lost the handle and went offside to bail out the Canucks. After a commercial timeout, the top line was next up, with Max Domi back on the wing, and Domi scored on the shift.

The goal came off a transition play after the Canucks fumbled the puck on the wall. Troy Stecher made a heads-up pass to quickly throw it to Domi on the other side of the ice, where he had time and space to walk in and pick his spot. It looked like Domi had enough space to walk in and deke the goalie on a breakaway — to the point where I was semi-surprised he settled for a short-side shot — but he beat Thatcher Demko cleanly, so ultimately, he chose right. 

The Leafs went to yet another penalty kill afterwards, only this time it was a 4v3. At first, Cowan went after Nils Hoglander after he was physical in front of the Leafs’ net, and the refs called coincidentals (I thought Hoglander should have received the extra for causing the whole skirmish, but alas). During the 4v4, Jake McCabe was called for a high stick after Elias Pettersson lifted McCabe’s stick into his own face. It sent Vancouver to a 4v3 power play for 1:40, and killing this one off was effectively the game.

Once again, Scott Laughton was at the heart of the Leafs’ PK effort, alongside Brandon Carlo and Troy Stecher. Not only did the Leafs kill it off, but right afterwards, William Nylander went on a breakaway and scored on the exact same move he made against Pittsburgh before Christmas. 

At 3-0, it was effectively game over against this mediocre Canucks team. They pulled Demko at intermission (Adam Foote later cited an injury), and even though Vancouver can’t blame him for two of the goals, the Domi one was definitely frustrating from their perspective.

Truthfully, the only reason the Leafs didn’t completely make this game a total laugher is because of Kevin Lankinen’s play in the second period. Cowan nearly slid it through his legs on a great chance off the rush. Lankinen got just enough of a cross-ice Nick Robertson one-timer, and he stopped a clean Auston Matthews look on a 2v1. He also saved a Laughton breakaway slapshot while shorthanded. Eventually, John Tavares ended the madness when all alone on a breakaway; he dipped his shoulder, sold a shot to the left, and ripped it top right.

The rest of the game was effectively a snoozer, with the main highlight being Brandon Carlo’s run at David Kampf for no apparent reason with just over a minute left in the game. Vancouver took exception (and a penalty), and Nick Robertson made it 5-0 on the subsequent power play. 

Don’t look now, but the Maple Leafs are 7-0-2 in their last nine.

Post-Game Notes

– Steven Lorentz ripped a crisp pass to William Nylander that went right through Marcus Pettersson — a pretty solid defenseman — to spring him on a breakaway for the 3-0 goal. We’ve now watched Lorentz in a Leafs sweater for a season and a half, and I didn’t think he had a pass like this one in his toolbox. He’s up to 12 points in 37 games, which is a 27-point pace over 82 games. He tallied 19 last season, tying his career high. He is showing continued offensive growth and is chipping in some reasonable depth scoring rather than settling for only penalty killing/checking contributions.

– This game was so lopsided that Scott Laughton took an offensive-zone faceoff, something he had only done in two of Leafs’ previous nine games. While it wasn’t quite a 19/20 night in the faceoff circle like Thursday, Laughton went 17/22 in this one, in case you were wondering.

– William Nylander picked up three points in his return and a too-many-men penalty, in just 13:16 of ice time as the Leafs scaled back all of their top players’ minutes due to the score. Nylander was flying in this game and looked rejuvenated following his time off. It felt like, if the Leafs really needed to score, Nylander could have turned it up at any point.

– The same goes for Auston Matthews, even though he only picked up one point (a secondary assist). He fired five shots on net and was stoned a few times, but he played just 17:28, as the team didn’t need a ton from him. His line was up 11-5 in shot attempts and created a number of great looks, but they were actually third as a unit in ice time because the game was pretty well over before it began. If the team really needed them, they were clearly capable. Matthews and Nylander were by far the two best players on the ice, as they should be on a night like this. 

– Craig Berube got Matthews out against the Max Sasson line more than any other Canucks unit, although line matching quickly went out the window with the state of this game and the way the Leafs scaled back ice time for key players. 

– Brandon Carlo has been really effective since returning and was once again strong in this game. He picked up his first point since coming back, was awesome on the 4v3 penalty kill in particular, laid a big hit on Jake DeBrusk (which scores extra brownie points, knowing it’s Jake DeBrusk circa Nazem Kadri in 2019), and he played 20:35 overall, which was second among all Leafs defensemen. Troy Stecher, naturally, was first, at 20:43.

– It was nice that Jake McCabe could ease back into the action, playing a mere 17:58 in his return. That is the lowest full game ice time he has logged this season. If the goal was just to get him back into the swing of things, it was mission accomplished tonight.

– It’s hard to judge any of the lines or defensive pairings in this one due to the overall game flow and score, so I won’t insult anyone by attempting to do so, other than to state it was great to see Nylander get John Tavares going. Tavares hasn’t been particularly dangerous of late; he scored just four goals in his previous 25 games and was outscored 23-15 in that period. Nylander sent Tavares in all alone in this one, and he buried. 

– I’m not sure what Marcus Pettersson was thinking, engaging with Max Domi in a fight by dropping his gloves first, but he found out the hard way that Domi is a good fighter. Despite Pettersson standing 6’5 to Domi’s 5’10, Pettersson got tuned up. The team was also fired up when Cowan went after Hoglander, which was awesome to see. 

– Joseph Woll notched his second shutout of the season tonight in just his 17th game. He recorded two in his entire regular-season career before the current campaign. Woll wasn’t asked to do a ton, but Vancouver threw volume and traffic at the net, and he was tracking the puck really well. 

– Nick Robertson’s goal was his 10th of the season, making him the fifth Leaf to hit double-digit goal totals. His career high in goals for a season is 15, but he has 38 games to beat it in a contract year. He also matched all of last season’s 22 points with that goal, matching his production in 27 fewer games. 

– Max Domi’s goal gave him 20 points on the season, making him the ninth Leaf to hit the mark. 

Game Flow: 5v5 Shot Attempts

Heat Map: 5v5 Shot Attempts

Game Highlights: Maple Leafs 5 vs. Canucks 0

RELATED ARTICLESMORE FROM AUTHOR