Canucks Army Postgame: Leaft in the Dust

Highlights

Quick Hits

• I don’t think it should surprise anyone at this point that myself and a few of the other writers here don’t particularly think that the Canucks are very good. Their D is pretty shallow, they don’t have any premium forwards playing down the roster below the Sedins, the powerplay is toothless most nights, and the Sedins aren’t the 5-on-5 players they were a couple of years ago – and we won’t even get into that possession and underlying stuff here. But god dammit there are fun players on this team and I love seeing them beat the Leafs.
• First off, the “fourth line” of Kenins-Horvat-Hansen that wasn’t even supposed to play together was excellent once again tonight. They were among Vancouver’s best lines in terms of puck possession and looked dangerous all evening. Hansen led all skaters in this game with a 77.8% (+14/-4) Corsi, and he also added a goal.
• Hansen’s goal wasn’t even the most notable thing he did tonight, as he totally clowned Dion Phaneuf near the end of the second period.
• What’s the better “Canucks troll Phaneuf” moment? This:

• …Or tonight’s gem (which you can click here to see)?
• Why was Jannik Hansen mocking Phaneuf for turtling? Probably had something to do with a scrum with Zack Kassian which started like this:

• …And ended like this:

• Kassian was allegedly ejected for violating the jersey tie-down rule (though he claims it was torn), but he was concerningly rough with the linesman trying to defuse the situation. I don’t want to speculate on this further, but abuse of an official carries an automatic 3-game suspension, and it would not surprise me if we hear more about this going forward. Thom Drance has a good take on the whole thing here.
• The all-situations Corsi chart for this game is hilarious. The Canucks controlled play and went up 3-0 while dodging a couple of bullets such as a close call on a Tyler Bozak chance, but you can basically see the point where the referees start trying to make amends for a possible goalie interference call going Vancouver’s way on Jannik Hansen’s goal:

• Eddie Lack was good-to-be-lucky-but-lucky-to-be-good again tonight. The only goal he allowed came on a Phil Kessel penalty shot, but the Leafs had some good chances that snuck by Lack but met the iron. Still, Steady Eddie was, well, steady and earned yet another quality start. He’s been excellent of late. Unsustainably excellent, but excellent nonetheless.
• One last thing:

Conclusion