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Entertainment value high, but Canucks drop 4-1 decision to the Maple Leafs

December 11, 2019, 3:06 PM ET [141 Comments]
Carol Schram
Vancouver Canucks Blogger • RSSArchiveCONTACT
Tuesday December 10 - Toronto Maple Leafs 4 - Vancouver Canucks 1

The game was closer than the final score made it appear. But the Toronto Maple Leafs' top players, including Freddy Andersen, were on their games while the Vancouver Canucks' stars, including Jacob Markstrom were just a wee bit off.

That was the difference on Tuesday night at Rogers Arena, where the fans of Leafs Nation went home happy.

Here are your highlights:



For the most part, it was a fast-paced game — over and done by 9:25 p.m. There was plenty of action at both ends of the ice during the scoreless first period, which included one ineffective power play for each team and wrapped up with an 11-8 edge for the Canucks on the shot clock.

In his second game back from his concussion, Micheal Ferland was noticeable — delivering hits on Cody Ceci, Alexander Kerfoot and John Tavares and also registering one shot block. But after playing 8:50 and going minus-two against Buffalo, Ferland's night was over after one shift in the second period and 4:12 of total ice time. The Canucks announced an upper-body injury, and announced on Wednesday that Zack MacEwen was being recalled — after being assigned to Utica on Saturday, the same day Ferland got back into the lineup.

Nothing official yet but the timeline of events is certainly concerning, given Ferland's concussion history. Hope he's doing OK.

Beyond that, the game came down to execution. Tavares was on, while the Canucks were just a wee bit off.

Brock Boeser certainly had his chances, matching his career high with eight shots on goal for the night, including two clear-cut breakaways, but finishing the night pointless and a minus-one.

By comparison, Boeser hit the eight-shot mark twice last season. That earned him two goals and two assists in that wild 7-6 overtime win over Colorado on November 2, 2018, and a goal and an assist in Vancouver's 3-2 overtime road win against Calgary on December 29 — a game where the Canucks as a team only had 27 shots in total.

With 11-17-28 in 31 games this season, Boeser's overall production has been solid. He's on pace for 74 points, which would easily eclipse his previous high of 56 from last season, but his improvement has come mostly on the assist side.

Boeser's passing game has improved, and his chemistry with Elias Pettersson is palpable. With 96 shots on goal already this year, his volume is there — that puts him on pace for 254 shots for the year, well above his previous high of 209 from last season. But his amazing sniping skills have diminished a bit as he's gone along — his shooting percentage has dropped from a very lofty 16.2 percent in his rookie year to 12.4 percent last year, and down to 11.5 percent so far this season.

That being said — most scorers are streaky, and Boeser's in one of those lulls right now. He has put 26 shots on goal through his last eight games, but has beaten a goaltender just once, in the loss to Edmonton on December 1. That's a shooting percentage of just 3.8 percent since November 23 — a number that will almost certainly correct itself before too long.

Boeser gave a very honest assessment of his night and his recent play to reporters after the game.



Meanwhile, Tavares' three-point night against the Canucks snapped a three-game pointless drought for him, and Auston Matthews' 19th goal of the year, which opened the scoring, was his third in two games after he'd gone five games without a goal — and even with that slump, he's still tied for fourth overall in goals in the league.

It's all a reminder that hockey is a game of inches, and that even the best players have power outages from time to time. It'd be a surprise if Boeser — and, to a lesser extent, Elias Pettersson — don't rediscover their superpowers before long.

In the meantime, Josh Leivo continues his own hot streak. Scoring again against his old team, Leivo has connected five times in his last five games, and is now up to 17 points for the year.

The bad news is a situation that both the Canucks and the Leafs are dealing with. With the standings bunched so tightly together this season, even in December, every point counts. Despite two straight wins, the Leafs wake up Wednesday morning in fifth place in the Atlantic Division but now just one point behind third-place Florida, who lost on Tuesday. With an identical 34 points, the Canucks are also fifth in the Pacific, now four points behind the streaking Calgary Flames and three back of the Vegas Golden Knights, who they'll face in Vegas on Sunday in a crucial four-point battle.

The Flames are a perfect 6-0-0 since Geoff Ward took over for Bill Peters two weeks ago, and are now just two points behind Edmonton and Arizona, who are holding down the top two spots in the Pacific.

Wednesday's practice at Rogers Arena is an optional, so lineup notes are minimal.



We're now six and a half weeks out from Tyler Motte's broken foot, while Tyler Graovac and Alex Edler have both been absent for about a week and a half.

Brandon Sutter is among the 10 skaters and one goaltender on the ice on Wednesday.



The Canucks and the Utica Comets are both heading into busy three-in-four stretches this weekend. Vancouver hosts Carolina on Thursday before heading south for games in San Jose on Saturday and Vegas on Sunday, while the Comets are home to the Toronto Marlies on Wednesday and the Bridgeport Sound Tigers on Friday before visiting the Binghamton Devils on Sunday.

One other quick World Juniors note to wrap up today.

In addition to Vasily Podkolzin (Russia) and Nils Hoglander (Sweden), Canucks fans could have two other prospects to watch in Czech Republic. Preliminary games begin next week, and the tournament gets underway two weeks from tomorrow.

Toni Utunen is back on Team Finland's preliminary camp roster. First cuts will come on Thursday.



The camp roster for the host Czechs also includes Canucks' prospect Karel Plasek, who was selected by the Canucks in the sixth round last June.



Plasek also skated for the Czech World Junior team in 2019, where he recorded one assist in five games.
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