The Good, Bad & Ugly in Maple Leafs 3-0 Loss to Canucks

The Toronto Maple Leafs were gracious hosts to the struggling Vancouver Canucks on Saturday night, gifting them a 3-0 shutout. What were the good, bad, and ugly aspects of the game?

The Bad and the Ugly: The Maple Leafs Generated No Offense

I’m lumping these together because separating the ugly from the merely bad was difficult. There was some bad luck involved. The game was won on the first shot on goal 31 seconds into the contest, which involved a bad bounce for the Maple Leafs. A point shot by Tyler Myers deflected into the Toronto net off Brock Boeser’s right skate blade.

The bad bounces doubled for the Maple Leafs on the second goal. On a delayed penalty call and with the Canucks having an extra skater on the ice, a shot from the point by Quinn Hughes bounced off Conor Timmins’ hip then went up and over Dennis Hildeby’s shoulder. Simon Benoit tried to bat the puck away from the net out of mid-air. Instead, he batted it into the net. If Benoit had missed the puck, it was headed for the net anyway.

---

The third Canucks goal was the only goal scored by anyone that went directly into the net. Forty-seven seconds into the third period, Kiefer Sherwood accepted a drop pass from Hughes in the faceoff circle to the left of Hildeby and beat Hildeby on his glove side with a wrist shot.

The Maple Leafs Simply Could Not Score

The downfall of the Maple Leafs in this game wasn’t bad luck. Toronto could not score. You will not win any games if you don’t score any goals. It wasn’t as if Vancouver goalie Kevin Lankinen played a fantastic game and stoned the Maple Leafs. Toronto generated few high-danger scoring chances. That included three power plays. Not only did Toronto fail to create chances on the power play, but Hildeby also had to make some great saves to prevent the Maple Leafs from being scored upon when they had the extra attacker.

Looking at the lack of offense the old-school way, Toronto managed just 11 shots on net in the last 40 minutes of the game. There is no way a team with the offensive talent the Maple Leafs have should get so few shots. They did limit the Canucks to just nine shots over that same period. But with Vancouver playing with the lead, they didn’t need to manufacture shots.

The Good: Nothing for the Maple Leafs in This Game

I could have just written nothing here and left it blank, as nothing was reasonable within the game to report. There is the fact Toronto allowed the Canucks very few scoring chances, but when you are down a goal 31 seconds into the game, that point is moot. Hildeby most likely deserved a better fate, but he still had three goals scored on him on 18 shots.

The best thing about a game like this is they don’t happen to the Maple Leafs very often. They are few and far between. And despite the loss, the Maple Leafs are still first in the Atlantic Division, three points up on the Florida Panthers with one more game played.

Toronto has also had a strange schedule and is coming out of a stretch where they have not had a lot of chances to practice. With the schedule lightening up over the next month surrounding the Four Nations Cup, there will be more opportunities to work on systems.

---

---

What’s Next for the Maple Leafs?

It’s possible the Maple Leafs could have been looking past this game to their next two games, which are both against tough opponents. They host the Dallas Stars on Tuesday night and then take on the New Jersey Devils on Thursday. They close the week with a trip to Montreal, where they will take on the Canadiens next Saturday.

Related: Maple Leafs Booed by Fans as Canucks Earn Big Shutout Win