Marner on Leafs' effort against Canucks: 'I liked it'
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The Maple Leafs lost their second game in a row Saturday night, being shut out 3-0 by the Vancouver Canucks in Toronto.
The Leafs were booed by fans at Scotiabank Arena as the final buzzer sounded having mustered just 20 shots on net and little offence against a Canucks team that didn’t arrive in Toronto until 2:00 p.m. local time due to travel issues.
Despite the poor offensive performance, star winger Mitch Marner said he liked what he saw from his team from an effort standpoint.
“I liked it. I mean, I thought we played well. I really did. You know, I think, just the last couple games we’ve been giving up plays to teams that aren’t missing on them,” Marner told reporters.
“So, you know, I thought we were good five-man tight in their zone. I thought we went through the neutral zone as a unit. I think when we didn’t do that that’s when breakdowns happen and they had a lot of off it and that’s something that we talked about that we need to be better at and you know we’ll look at it going forward and fix it.”
Other Leafs took a different tone, including head coach Craig Berube.
“I didn’t think we played with enough pace in the game,” Berube said. “We didn’t obviously generate enough. We obviously have to generate more than we did, power plays included.”
“We didn’t get anything going on our power play which could have given us momentum in the game,” he said. “We didn’t move the puck well enough tonight, I didn’t think we were connected well enough on breakouts or in the neutral zone, and it was just slow.”
Defenceman Chris Tanev also took issue with his team’s performance.
“Not good enough. [They] outworked us, outcompeted us and that’s why they won,” he said. “We’re not worried about them, we need to play our game better. That’s why we lost.”
“I thought we had chances, just couldn’t capitalize and I thought we couldn’t really get momentum on our side,” captain Auston Matthews said. “A lot of one-and-done. It just felt like a little bit disconnected through the most part of the game, I would say.”
Kevin Lankinen turned in his fourth shutout of the season while Quinn Hughes, Brock Boeser and Kiefer Sherwood all scored as Vancouver won for just the third time in 12 games. And they did it with little time to prepare after Saturday’s late arrival.
“It was hectic,” Canucks defenceman Tyler Myers said. "Seemed like we were waiting for a lot of different things. The guys handled it well. It was a tough 24 hours with travel and the back-to-back. The guys didn't let it affect them and came out with a lot of swagger."
"It becomes a problem when you talk about it, and we didn't," head coach Rick Tocchet said. "You're going to have these challenges and you need 21 guys going. We all worked in the right direction."
Toronto will continue their three-game homestand against the Detroit Red Wings on Tuesday, while the Canucks head to Winnipeg to take on the Jets.