Milestone in the Making

 Game 51: Canucks vs. Leafs

Simon B

The countdown for the playoffs is on! The only thing the Leafs need to do until the end of the regular season is to finish in that top spot. The way things are trending, that outcome is a foregone conclusion. Toronto had a 9 point cushion on second-place Edmonton heading into last night's game against the Canucks and, with only five games remaining, a lot would have to go wrong for them to lose first place.

Yesterday was the last of 9 meetings between the Canucks and Leafs in this shortened regular season, and the season series is tied 4-4. There's no real significance to winning a season series but that's pretty much all that was on the line for this one.

Toronto's lineup was back to what it was on Wednesday against the Habs, with both Rielly and Muzzin back in the lineup, Nick Foligno on the top line with Matthews and Marner, and Jack Campbell as the starter in the crease.

The Game

The first period was similar to the last game: not many whistles, fast pace, and chances at both ends, or so it seemed. If there hadn’t been 't the little "shots indicator" on the scoreboard, I would've thought that there were a lot more shots than 2 for the Leafs and 1 for the Canucks through the entire first half of the period. It was a strange illusion: I thought I was seeing a lot of shooting action but the stats said otherwise. 

We finally saw a goal when the Canucks won a faceoff in the Leafs’ zone and Tanner Pearson fired a shot through traffic in front of Campbell to give Vancouver the lead. 

It didn't take long for the Leafs to respond, though. Mitch Marner wove his way through the neutral zone and then dumped the puck into the corner. Nick Foligno went around to pass it back to Maner who was then behind the Vancouver goal. Auston Matthews came striking in, Mitchy laid the pass right on his tape, and it was deja-vu from there. Matthews gave his dad Brian a nice birthday gift by scoring his 37th goal of the year to make it 1-1. 

Early in the second period, we got to see Episode 38 of "Matthews Scores" show. Toronto was generating a bunch of traffic in front of Vancouver's goalie Thatcher Demko. Marner was parked behind the net and used his insane falcon-like vision to put a pass through at least three sticks and a pair of skates onto the stick of Matthews, who shot it off of a body in front. That fooled Demko and went right to the top corner to give the Leafs their first lead of the night.

Matthews is the best goal-scorer I've ever seen. Hands down. He doesn't put up points the way McDavid does and not all his goals are highlight-reels like 97, but the rate at which he scores is absolutely insane. I'm too young to have seen Mario Lemieux score in the ’90s at the crazy rate, he did so Matthews is the best I've ever seen play live. Until this season, Washington's Alex Ovechkin had that title for me, but he's getting older and he's not producing as much as he used to (I mean for Ovie-standards that is). Matthews reminds me of when I play NHL 21 against someone way better than me. No matter what I do, they score and the only reason is that they're miles better than me. Matthews is almost always the best player on the ice and it shows.

The second period would offer a few more chances to each team but nothing really significant, so with no other goals or events to report, I turned my attention to my good friend the third period.

All throughout the game, I could tell that the Canucks were giving it all they had but this was one of those situations where no matter how hard they tried, Toronto just beat them in every facet of the game. The third period changed nothing for either team. 

The Canucks did generate some opportunities here and here but Leafs’ goalie Jack Campbell was always up to the task. Toronto was defending soundly all period and even if Vancouver showed some signs of life here and there, it was obvious they didn't have nearly enough gas in the tank to compete with Toronto.

To make matters worse for Vancouver, Toronto made their lead larger. About 8 minutes into the period, Justin Holl one-timed a pass from Jason Spezza, and Adam Brooks tipped it on the way to the net. That slight change in direction got Demko out of position and the puck flew by him to make it 3-1. By then, it was pretty clear that a comeback wasn't happening for the Canucks this time around. 

Later in the period, Toronto sealed the deal when John Tavares and William Nylander both assisted on Alex Galchenyuck's 4th of the season, where he slammed home a rebound off of the initial shot by Nylander. From then on, the Leafs cruised to a win with Joe Thornton adding an empty netter to put the cherry on top.

The Wrap

Toronto has now proven it and written it in stone: they're the best team in the North division. This win was just one more proof of that. These last 5 games now are going to be tune-ups for the playoffs and hopefully a long run. However, it's good to see that lower-line guys are still contributing to the scoring with the likes of Thornton, Galchenyuck, and Brooks getting in on the fun tonight. There isn't much else to play for, so we might as well see some guys who don't usually score get some of the glory. Next up: Monday against the Habs.

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