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Toronto Maple Leafs Defeat Vancouver Canucks in Fight Filled, Physical Game

By Chris Okrainetz

Nov 5, 2016; Toronto, Ontario, CAN; Toronto Maple Leafs forward Auston Matthews (34) and forward William Nylander (29) congratulate defenseman Jake Gardiner (51) on his goal against the Vancouver Canucks at Air Canada Centre. Toronto defeated Vancouver 6-3. Mandatory Credit: John E. Sokolowski-USA TODAY Sports
Nov 5, 2016; Toronto, Ontario, CAN; Toronto Maple Leafs forward Auston Matthews (34) and forward William Nylander (29) congratulate defenseman Jake Gardiner (51) on his goal against the Vancouver Canucks at Air Canada Centre. Toronto defeated Vancouver 6-3. Mandatory Credit: John E. Sokolowski-USA TODAY Sports /
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Although the Toronto Maple Leafs (5-4-3) scored six goals against the Vancouver Canucks (4-7-1) on Saturday, the fights and physical play overshadowed the final score.

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Thoughts and Observations

  • The Toronto Maple Leafs have been very good at home this season and are now 4-1 when playing at the Air Canada Centre. Playing well at home was something Mike Babcock made a point of emphasis when he arrived in Toronto and it looks like it’s coming to fruition.
  • Tyler Bozak, Mitch Marner and James van Riemsdyk were excellent against the Canucks. The trio combined for three goals and a total of eight points. Without question this was the Leafs best line.
  • Although Auston Matthews snapped his pointless streak with an assist, he has been extremely unlucky when it comes to scoring a goal. The rookie phenom hit a crossbar and had a number of quality scoring chances. The goals might not be there yet, but Matthews has been dominant and it’s only a matter of time before he finds the back of the net again.

    • The Leafs dictated the pace of play throughout the night and it really showed early on, as Toronto outshot Vancouver 17-7 in the first period.

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  • Toronto’s defence was very active against the Canucks, jumping into plays off the rush and making crisp passes all night. Nikita Zaitsev was a prime example of this when he setup Nazem Kadri‘s goal with a beautiful pass.

    • While the defence did look good, there was still a few breakdowns in their own zone, particularly on the Dorsett goal. Hopefully the Leafs can continue to clean this up and slowly evolve into a defensively responsible team.

    After blowing a series of third period leads to start this season, the Leafs protected a lead against Vancouver and cruised to a comfortable victory.

  • Holy penalties and fights! Between Kadri, Derek Dorsett, Matt Martin, Morgan Rielly and Alexandre Burrows, there was plenty of physical play to go around. More on this below.

    • All the fights and ejections left the Canucks with eight players on their bench when it was all said and done on Saturday, which was comical to see.

    Saturday’s victory was the Maple Leafs third in a row, while the loss extended the Canucks losing streak to eight games. It’s going to be a longggggg season for Vancouver.

    Stock Up, Stock Down

  • Up: JVR racked up three assists and the line of him, Bozak and Marner continues to produce at a nice clip. He’s yet to see more than 18 minutes of ice time in a game this season, which could be due to his foot, but van Riemsdyk is slowly starting to look like the JVR of old.

    • Down:

    In what was a commanding 6-3 victory, there wasn’t a particular player who had a bad night. I guess if I had to pick one player whose stock went down on Saturday it would be Martin. I mean, he did receive a “death threat” from

    Erik Gudbranson

    so that counts for something, right?

    Stat of the Night

    157

    The Leafs and Canucks combined for 157 penalty minutes and four instigator penalties in what was a wild third period. It all started when Rielly laid a big hit on Hansen in the neutral zone, which was followed by a questionable hit from Kadri on Daniel Sedin. Hansen took exception to Kadri’s hit and immediately tried to fight him in Daniel’s defence.

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    Less than five minutes after those two hits, Dorsett dropped the gloves with Komarov and would go berserk yelling at Martin and the Leafs as he was being escorted off the ice by a linesman.

    Missed during Dorsett’s tantrum was Burrows spearing Rielly earlier in the play, which was likely retribution for his hit on Hansen. The spear forced Rielly to temporarily exit the game, but he would return.

    The end result following all these events was a good old fashion line brawl. Martin jumped rookie Troy Stecher, which drew a response from goaltender Ryan Miller. Of all the possible players to fight, Miller was easily the player you least expected to see.

    It was a wild, wild third period, which resulted in 157 minutes and a 6-3 final for the Leafs.

    What’s Next

    The Maple Leafs will welcome the Los Angeles Kings (6-6-0) to the Air Canada Centre on Tuesday night. The Kings, who are coming off a 5-0 victory over the Calgary Flames, got off to a slow start this year but have put things together behind the red-hot Peter Budaj.

    Los Angeles is always a physical opponent to play against and they will likely look to grind the young Leafs down on Tuesday with their physical style of play. Watching Matthews compete against Anze Kopitar, who many have compared him to, will be a fun individual matchup to watch and should serve as a nice measuring stick for the No. 1 overall pick.

    Next: Is Kadri an Elite Centre?

    What did you think of the Maple Leafs 6-3 victory over the Canucks on Saturday night? Let us know your thoughts in the comments below.

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