In the moment, it was nothing special. In fact, it was a bit of a fluke – a Tyler Myers point shot that caromed off the left skate of Brock Boeser in the high slot and into the net behind Toronto goalie Dennis Hildeby just 31 seconds after the opening face-off. In the big picture, however, the early goal against the Maple Leafs represented so much more for the Vancouver Canucks on Saturday night.
Playing on back to back nights and for the third time in four nights against three of the NHL Eastern Conference heavyweights, the Canucks lurched onto one of the biggest stages in the sport coming off a shutout loss in Carolina and having lost four straight contests. The only thing lower than their recent goal total appeared to be team morale.
Add unexpected travel troubles into the mix and the deck seemed stacked against a Canucks team that hadn’t scored at even strength since the second period in Montreal on Monday night.
Against the backdrop of having to finish this difficult road trip in Winnipeg against the powerhouse Jets on Tuesday, the Canucks needed something to go their way. And to get the bounce the way they did so early in the hockey game on Saturday, you could almost feel the wave of relief that washed over the team to get a puck to the net – and in the net – after scoring just once in the previous two games. Boeser laughed as he skated to the bench. It was the first smile seen on the face of a Canuck for days.
And with the early lead – the first time the team had opened the scoring in a game since December 28th against Seattle – you could see the difference it made to the Canucks. For a change, they weren’t the team that was down and chasing the game. They didn’t have to wonder if they would get stymied by an unheralded netminder for a second straight outing. The early lead allowed the Canucks to execute their game plan of getting pucks behind the Leafs defence and forcing the likes of Auston Matthews and Mitch Marner to spend more time than they wanted to in their own zone.
By night’s end, the Canucks had tacked on two more goals and skated to an impressive 3-0 victory. It wasn’t flashy. It certainly wasn’t high event hockey. But it was exactly what this team needed to start the second half of its schedule. It was across the board buy-in with determination to see the game through to its conclusion.
The Canucks will need to go 30-8-3 over the final 41 games to match the 109 points they achieved last season. Of course, that’s not going to happen. But what this team can do that last year’s team didn’t is find its game over the second half and build to the playoffs. Last year’s team reached the post-season with questions about individual efforts and a scuffling power play.
With the team as healthy as it’s been all season and with Dakota Joshua set to return soon and Filip Hronek not far behind him, it’s possible the pieces of the puzzle will come together here to allow the 2024-25 Canucks to finally hit their stride.
While offence at the top of the line-up still remains inconsistent, Quinn Hughes dazzled on Saturday night, Elias Pettersson looked as invested as he has all season and the Canucks, with their patchwork defence corps, choked the life out of the Leafs holding them to just 20 shots including only two on three power plays.
The road trip itself has hardly been a masterpiece. But look past the results to the process and the Canucks have held Washington, Carolina and Toronto to a total of four goals and, more than that, not one of those teams managed more than 20 shots on net. It’s taken more than three months and the team has had to endure its share of adversity, but Rick Tocchet seems to be getting his group to return to its staples. And the path forward is now slowly starting to emerge.
For a number of reasons, things could have gone sideways for the Canucks on Saturday night. But to their credit, they didn’t allow that to happen. They got a fortunate bounce on the first shift of the hockey game and turned that into one of their most impressive victories of the season all things considered.
The challenge now – and it’s a massive one – is to build on the victory over the Leafs when they face the league-leading Jets on Tuesday. With some much-needed wind in their sails, let’s see if the Canucks can string consecutive wins together for the first time in six weeks. You can’t start a win streak without the first one. The Canucks checked that box in Toronto on Saturday.
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