Canucks Postgame: Loss to the Leafs (and maybe the refs too)

Well, it’s finally over. The Vancouver Canucks have finally lost a game by more than one goal. We can’t blame the lack of Tennis Rules for this one; the Leafs won this game by two goals, a convincing victory if I’ve ever seen one myself.

*awkward pause* You know, not including the eight billion weird calls throughout the game. It’s never fair to blame the officials, who do their best. But gosh, this game could have ended much differently.

This game started off on the wrong foot. The Leafs took advantage of a failed forecheck by Sven Baertschi and Bo Horvat, as Roman Polak dished out a puck from the corner to Nazem Kadri. The Leafs forwards took turns passing the puck to each other to make space around Dan Hamhuis and Yannick Weber. Eventually, James van Riemsdyk was in position to wire a puck through a screened Ryan Miller. It was the only goal of a relatively quiet first period.

Things became much more problematic in the second period, as the Canucks took three penalties in eight minutes; two of them a minute apart. This put their blue and white opponents on a 5-on-3 powerplay, and while Toronto didn’t convert on it, they still made the most of Alex Burrows’ holding call. Peter Holland threaded a pass through three Canucks in the slot and fed PA Parenteau.

The game began to seem hopeless, especially when Michael Grabner was awarded a (missed) penalty shot, but with that came Jannik Hansen. While the Canucks weren’t successful on their first powerplay, the Dane took advantage of their first opportunity after the fact and sniped one past James Reimer to bring Vancouver to an all-too-familiar two-goal deficit.

This should have set the stage for a positive third period, but it didn’t. Roman Polak, who has been so rough around the edges this year that a fanbase that expects their team to lose still feels the need to criticize him, went for an open ice hip check and missed. Somehow, he ended up with the puck, which turned into a rush for Tyler Bozak and Shawn Matthias. The latter, himself a former Canuck, made no mistake.

Hansen tried to close the gap back up again with a redirect in front of the net, but it was waved off as a distinct kicking motion. To be fair, the motion was there, though he didn’t raise his boot off of the ice, leaving some questioning the fairness of the call. The Canucks didn’t give up hope, and when Parenteau went to the box for slashing Hansen, they got some revenge for the previous powerplay goal. Yannick Weber blasted a cannon from the point that went off Alex Burrows and into the back of the net to close the gap once again.

A few minutes later, the Leafs regained their two-goal lead on, you guessed it, another controversial goal. This time, Nick Spaling held Ryan Miller in place with his skate while Joffrey Lupul potted his 200th career tally, and when Willie Desjardins challenged it, the refs stuck with their original decision. Vancouver came close to keeping the lose-by-one streak alive when Radim Vrbata appeared to score with two seconds to go, but the referees reviewed that goal too, and declared it offside.

For a team that has to cross their fingers and pray that the puck goes in whenever they take a shot, the Leafs admittedly do pretty good at controlling the pace when Mike Babcock is behind their bench. So with that considered, It was good to see the Canucks control the ice for most of the first and third periods; getting outscored in that leftover window obviously wasn’t helpful, but you can’t say the effort wasn’t given.

Another fantastic night for Jannik Hansen, who had the goal you see above, his controversial disallowed tally, and the best possession numbers (69.5% 5v5 CF) of anybody on either team tonight. Yes, he and the Twins were used in heavily offensive situations, but he was buzzing throughout. He also had five shots, more than anybody other than Daniel Sedin.

What a rocket here by Weber. He’s taking a little bit of time to get in his groove, but this is why he needs to be a mainstay on the Canucks’ powerplay rotation. The Burrows tip is just icing on the cake. An honourable mention goes to the latest addition to the Jake Virtanen murder showcase:

This is the most obvious of the issues that one could have with the officiating tonight. Was Ryan Miller going to get to Lupul’s shot if he wasn’t interfered with? Probably not. Did Nick Spaling turn “probably not” into “impossible”? Absolutely. He stopped Miller from having any eastward movement and pushed him to the side. This 100% should have been overturned for goalie interference; goal going in or not, that’s still an infraction that should have lead to a dead play when Lupul touched the puck.

The Canucks now move on to Montreal, where they’ll take on the Habs. After that, they’ll finally start moving back towards the best coast, stopping in Winnipeg before finally arriving at home on Saturday night. Puck drop is at 4:30.