VANCOUVER – The Vancouver Canucks (6-8) look to avoid a season-high four-game losing skid when they face the Toronto Maple Leafs (8-2-1) for a second straight game at Scotiabank Arena.
On Thursday, the Canucks fell 7-3 to the Leafs. Tanner Pearson, Bo Horvat and JT Miller scored the Vancouver goals while Thatcher Demko stopped 32 shots in net. Pearson has scored in back to back games and four of his last seven while Horvat snapped a six-game goal drought with his second period marker. Elias Pettersson had an assist on the Pearson goal and now has 3+4=7 in his last six games.
Interestingly, a quarter of a way through the Canucks 56-game season, Pettersson has had a pair of multi-point games but has yet to have a multi-goal or multi-assist outing.
In an attempt to bump their slump, the Canucks will make several line-up changes tonight. Braden Holtby returns to the net for the first time since a 6-2 loss in Montreal on Monday. Loui Eriksson and Justin Bailey are expected to make their season debuts which means Jake Virtanen and Adam Gaudette both come out of the line-up joining Zack MacEwen in the press box. For Eriksson this will be career game 971 moving him one in front of Canucks head coach Travis Green on the all-time games played list.
Offense has not been an issue for the Canucks this season. The Canucks average 3.36 goals per game and have scored three or more in nine of their 14 outings. It’s at the other end of the ice that problems have arisen. The Canucks have allowed 18 goals in their past three contests and a league-high 55 on the season (3.93 per game). The team has surrendered five goals or more in three straight and eight of the 14 games it has played.
The Canucks are 6-1 when opening the scoring this season, but have not won yet (0-7) when falling behind in a hockey game. Further to that, they have not held a lead at any point of the seven games they have trailed 1-0.
After opening the season with a 5-3 win in Edmonton on January 13th, the Canucks are now 1-6 in their last seven road games with the lone victory coming last Saturday in Winnipeg. Going back to last regular season ahead of the COVID pause (and the neutral site playoff bubble in Edmonton last summer) , the Canucks are 3-11-1 in their last 15 games away from Rogers Arena.
The Leafs are on a roll after Thursday’s victory. They are 7-1-1 in their last nine hockey games. Jason Spezza was the unlikely scoring star against the Canucks. The 37-year-old scored once in each period to record his eighth NHL hat trick. Auston Matthews had a pair of goals while Mitch Marner and John Tavares had the others.
Matthews opened the scoring and later added his team-leading eighth of the season. He now has seven goals on a six-game goal streak. The last Maple Leafs to score in seven straight games were Dave Andreychuk in January 1994 and Wendel Clark who did so months earlier (November 1993) in that 1993-94 season.
Marner had 1+2=3 on Thursday and now has 3+8=11 on a six-game point streak.
Defenseman Travis Dermott left Thursday’s game with a leg injury and will not play tonight. He’ll be replaced by Mikko Lehtonen on the Leafs blueline.
The Canucks have dropped their last eight games in Toronto which dates back to a 5-3 victory on December 17, 2011. These teams will wrap up this three game series with another match-up on Monday.
POSSIBLE CANUCKS LINE-UP
Miller-Pettersson-Boeser
Pearson-Horvat-Eriksson
Bailey-Sutter-Höglander
Motte-Beagle-Roussel
Hughes-Benn
Schmidt-Myers
Edler-Chatfield
Holtby
POSSIBLE LEAFS LINE-UP
Hyman-Matthews-Marner
Nylander-Tavares-Simmonds
Vesey-Kerfoot-Mikheyev
Petan-Boyd-Spezza
Rielly-Brodie
Muzzin-Holl
Lehtonen-Bogosian
Andersen