It was Short King Saturday at Rogers Arena.
It always feels like an event when the Toronto Maple Leafs are in town to play the Vancouver Canucks. In this case, the event was, “How many goals can the two shortest players on the Canucks score?”
The answer was four, as Nils Höglander and Conor Garland scored two goals each before a couple of taller Canucks scored on the power play en route to a 6-4 win. Meanwhile, the third-shortest player on the Canucks, Quinn Hughes, had a three-assist night.
“Conor Garland, he was terrific tonight again. I mean, he’s had a hell of a year for us, I’m really proud of that guy,” said head coach Rick Tocchet, then later said of Höglander’s line, “If there wasn’t any specialty teams, I would’ve had them out there all the time. I thought they were great. Höggy, I mean that second goal, what a shot. He’s spent a lot of time, Höggy, in the video room and he’s working at practice a lot and you can see it’s paying off for him.”
The Canucks’ postgame music was probably “Short Kings Anthem” (NSFW).
There was a flip side to the Short King dominance, however: the Tall Boys had a tougher time.
Carson Soucy and Tyler Myers are the tallest defence pairing in the NHL — at least when Myers isn’t paired with Nikita Zadorov — and they’ve typically been deployed as a match-up pairing this season. That didn’t go so well in this game, as Soucy and Myers were on the ice for all three Leafs goals at even-strength.
Sure, Soucy and Myers were not necessarily directly at fault for all three goals — Thatcher Demko arguably should have stopped two of them — but shot attempts were 23-to-7 for the Leafs when Myers was on the ice at 5-on-5 and shots on goal were 14-to-4. When you’re getting out-shot that badly, the occasional weak goal is going to get through.
Things went from bad to worse for Soucy, as he didn’t play at all in the third period. His final shift in the second period was an eventful one, as he and Myers were stuck on the ice in the defensive zone for over two minutes, but it wasn’t entirely clear what happened. Soucy blocked a shot that had him shaking out his right hand, he took a heavy hit along the boards, and he got crosschecked in the ribs after the whistle, but he seemed none the worse for wear when he left the ice.
There was no word on Soucy’s condition after the game. If he’s out once again, that’s a tough break for the Canucks, as Soucy has been a steadying influence on the back end since his return from an earlier injury.
It just wasn’t a good night to be tall. Heck, there was even a shorthanded goal for the Leafs to hammer home the shortness of the night.
This game recap, on the other hand, is unlikely to be short. Way too much happened when I watched this game.
- This game was basically a preview of the All-Star Game, as the two teams will combine for nine players at the All-Star festivities in Toronto. The Canucks have the 5-to-4 advantage and, if you toss in Rick Tocchet as an All-Star head coach to make it 6-to-4, that’s exactly the advantage the Canucks had on the scoreboard at the end of the night too.
- They haven’t been scoring at all but the line of Andrei Kuzmenko, Pius Suter, and Ilya Mikheyev deserves partial credit for the opening goal. Along with Quinn Hughes and Filip Hronek, that line hemmed in the Leafs and wore them out with a hardworking shift before managing to make a line change with the puck still in the offensive zone. Like a union that battles for higher salaries, open communication, and better work-life balance, they created ideal working conditions for those who came after them.
- Höglander and his linemates came onto the ice and he fed Hronek at the point, who relayed the puck to Hughes. The captain’s point shot was tipped by Sam Lafferty, forcing a big rebound from Martin Jones. Höglander battled to get his stick free from Mark Giordano, then was all over the rebound like honey glaze on ham, backhanding the puck past Jones to open the scoring.
- Höglander struck again three minutes later. He picked up a pass from Nils Åman, then fanned on a pass to the point. That whiff, worked out, giving Höglander a bit of extra space as the Leafs defenders anticipated the pass. He didn’t fan at all on his shot, sending a laser into the top corner on, appropriately, the short side.
- Myers may have had a tough night overall but he set the tone physically in the first period, rocking Calle Järnkrok with a massive hit in the neutral zone. You’ve heard of someone getting knocked into next week by a hit but Myers sent Järnkrok back in time to 2011, forcing him to plank on the edge of the boards by the Canucks bench.
- The Good Job Boys then stepped up to make it 3-0 for the Canucks. Conor Garland sent Dakota Joshua into the Leafs zone with a bank pass and Joshua tried to set up an open Teddy Blueger in front. When Jones pokechecked Blueger, the centre stuck with the puck and sent it to Garland, who whipped it into the top corner with a perfectly-placed finish.
- “That’s our line to a T, there. We like to get behind D, play in the corners,” said Garland. “Just two big men there, Teddy and Dak, making a good play and I was just trying to clean it up for them. We had a good third as a line too, good defensively, so it was a good night for us.”
- The best part of the goal wasn’t even the goal: it was the celebration. Garland twirled his stick five times — I counted — then sheathed it like a sword. It wasn’t just a top-shelf finish, it was also a top-shelf celebration.
- After taking the 3-0 lead, however, things went awry for the Canucks. Shots were 8-to-2 for the Canucks when they took the 3-0 lead; after that, the Leafs out-shot the Canucks 19-to-3 by the time they tied the game in the second period. It was some major tonal whiplash for Canucks fans.
- “Great first — as good as you can get,” said Tocchet. “Second, we weren’t connected. Leafs are a good team, they started coming at us and I thought we were spread out and were chasing the puck a little bit.”
- William Nylander got the Leafs on the board with a shot from distance that Thatcher Demko badly wanted back. While Tyler Myers was in his eyeline, Demko refused to use that as an excuse.
- “I made a mistake on their first goal, obviously. Kind of started an avalanche there,” said Demko, later adding, “You’re going to be screened at times but you’ve got to find the puck — it’s my job. I thought it was from far enough out that I should’ve maybe had enough time to find it but I didn’t.”
- A couple minutes later, Jake McCabe jumped up in a Leafs rush and scored to make it 3-2. Garland was a bit behind on the backcheck and broke his stick on McCabe’s while trying to check him, while Demko misread the play and was late to identify the backdoor pass. Both the puck and Garland’s stick blade got past Demko into the net.
- It felt like the wheels were coming off for the Canucks and it might have been a good opportunity for Tocchet to call timeout to settle things down. He did call timeout but not until after the Leafs tied the game 3-3 less than a minute later. It was Nylander again from distance, though this time his shot deflected off Soucy’s stick past Demko.
- It should be noted that the 3-3 goal came after a play that Tocchet hates: a chip-out from the defensive zone. Tocchet emphasizes moving up the ice with possession and will frequently key in on moments when the team is “chipping pucks” as when they’re getting away from their game. Before the goal, Myers chipped a puck off the boards and out, where it was immediately caught by Morgan Reilly and sent to Nylander for the zone entry and goal.
- The timeout didn’t really work, as the Leafs scored again a few minutes later. Fortunately for the Canucks, the goal was immediately waved off. Tyler Bertuzzi should’ve tried to jab the puck in with his stick in the crease, but Bertuzzi has taken a staunch no-jab stance, so he kicked the puck in instead.
- It’s very unusual to see Quinn Hughes lose his cool but something had him agitated in the second period to the point that he smashed his stick at the Canucks bench. I’m guessing he just found out HBO Max cancelled “Our Flag Means Death.”
- The Good Job Boys got the Canucks back on track after another strong shift by Mikheyev, Suter, and Kuzmenko to hem the Leafs in and get a line change while possessing the puck. Joshua battled in front of the net while Blueger and Garland won the puck along the boards down low. Garland came out with the puck and his initial shot was blocked, but he hacked at the rebound, chopping it over Jones’s glove and in to restore the Canucks’ lead.
- Kuzmenko had a sizeable impact on the game despite not getting a single shot on goal. He drew a penalty early in the third period during another strong shift in the offensive zone. Unfortunately, it was the Leafs that scored, as Mitch Marner stole the puck after Brock Boeser bobbled a pass from Elias Pettersson and made no mistake on the breakaway.
- “I put Brock in a bad spot,” said Pettersson. “I made a pass a little too ahead of him and Marner made a good read. It’s good that we stayed with it. I don’t think our line had a really good game but we’ll take the win.”
- The Lotto Line was largely invisible in the first two periods, as they largely lost their match-up against the Leafs’ top line. That’s a bit concerning but, to paraphrase Rick Blaine, we’ll always have the power play. After giving up the shorthanded goal, the first unit made up for it with two big goals to win the game.
- Like they got advice from Ewoks in the second intermission, the power play tried the back door and it turned out to be a good idea. Hughes and Miller combined to get the Canucks back on top, as Hughes fired a dart backdoor that Miller angled in with his skate.
- A few minutes later, Miller and Pettersson combined for a similar play. Pettersson looped behind the net, which seemed to cause him to disappear entirely from the notice of the Leafs penalty killers, as if they were guards in a poorly-coded video game assuming you’re miles away as soon as you hide behind a crate. Miller, at least, was coded by someone competent and spotted Pettersson immediately, firing a perfect backdoor pass for Pettersson to deflect past Jones.
- Demko may have allowed a couple of soft goals in this game, but he was outstanding overall. He made 43 saves on 47 shots, with 20 of those saves coming in the third period as the Leafs pushed hard for the comeback. He had to make some huge stops in the final minutes as the Canucks got into penalty trouble and went 6-on-4, then 6-on-3 with the empty net behind them.
- “Sometimes those last two minutes feel like they’re an eternity,” said Demko. “It’s just a great job by the guys in front of me, limiting their scoring chances and letting me make some pretty easy reads.”
- Tyler Myers was the reason for the 6-on-3 as he caused some chaos, as is his wont. With Hughes already in the penalty box, Myers took exception to Morgan Reilly bumping into Demko and first cross-checked him then grappled him on the way out of the zone before throwing a gloved punch at John Tavares as he tried to help his teammate. It was a whole mess which made it all the funnier that Hughes greeted his teammate with nothing more than a seemingly sincere, “Good job.”
- Myers apparently missed that Miller was the one who pushed Reilly into Demko in the first place. Whoops. Oh well.
- “It’s nice to see everybody sticking together,” said Miller. “Championship teams do that and I’m not saying we are, I’m just saying good teams always stick together. It doesn’t matter which conference, which team, no matter who it is. You can definitely see lately, guys are just hungry. It’s a hungry group and we’re not going to take any crap from anybody. There’s going to be guys that have your back and that’s the best feeling.”
