There aren't any former Canucks on the Toronto Maple Leafs roster, but Vancouver's opponent for the next three games does have one assistant coach who could prove to be a thorn in the side of his old team — Manny Malhotra.
Malhotra is getting a good amount of credit for Toronto's league-leading power play, which is cooking at 43.3 percent so far this season, off 13 goals in 10 games.
“Manny’s been a great help, in general and around the room,” Mitch Marner told
Lance Hornby of Postmedia after Wednesday’s practice. "From power play (the Leafs’ unit is first in the league) to the faceoff circle. He’s been a big help on our bench with calmness. He’s another guy you can talk to for his thoughts on some plays. And it’s always good to get some of that (Canucks’ intel). You have to know what you’re going up against if it’s three games."
I think there was some disappointment among Canucks circles that Malhotra moved on, after the great work he did with the Canucks' face-off men. But I don't think anyone begrudged him the opportunity to take a behind-the-bench role after he'd been an eye-in-the-sky in Vancouver.
Bo Horvat, as usual, has taken significantly more draws than anybody else in the league this season, and he's solid, at 55.4 percent, while Jay Beagle is even better at 57.9 percent. But for whatever reason, a lot of faceoff aces are doing really well this year. Maybe the advantage increases when players go against the same opponents more frequently?
Five players who have taken more than 100 draws so far this year have won more than 60 percent of them — including John Tavares of Toronto, at 60.3 percent. That's, by far, the best of his career. He's at 51.3 percent all time, but was also over 55 percent in his prior two seasons with the Leafs.
As I'm sure you've heard, Toronto's off to a pretty good start this year. They're 7-2-1, which puts them second in the North Division, behind Montreal, by both points (15) and points percentage (.750).
The Canucks did finish reasonably strong in their 5-3 loss to the Habs on Tuesday, and they're still right in the mix with Winnipeg, Edmonton and Calgary in the division standings. But they can't afford to squander too many points in this series — and that won't be an easy task.
Bo Horvat's wife Holly is the guest on the "Our Hockey Life" podcast this week — a show hosted by hockey wives Kodette LaBarbera (wife of Jason) and Brijit Whitney (wife of Ray). The conversation was taped as the new season began, but when asked about the rivalries she expected to see in the all-Canadian Division, even Holly said that she reminded Bo that the Canucks don't usually do well when they play in Toronto, so they're going to have to turn that around this year.
Even at home, these guys aren't safe from criticism!
How bad is it? Pretty bad...
Lineup-wise, Travis Green is going back to Thatcher Demko, and to Jake Virtanen, who was scratched for Tuesday's game against Montreal. Zack MacEwen will sit for the first time since Jan. 21, after playing just 6:59 on Tuesday.
As for the Leafs: Toronto is coming off a four-game road trip through Alberta that saw them go 3-0-1, winning both games against Calgary, then beating Edmonton 4-3 before dropping an overtime decision last Saturday. So they'll be a well-rested bunch, that has had some practice time to prepare.
We won't see Joe Thornton in this series. He has been on LTIR with a rib injury for the last five games.
For a team that has been winning, Sheldon Keefe has been doing a fair amount of roster juggling. Here's how his lines are expected to look against Vancouver:
Delta's Nic Petan started the season on assignment to the Toronto Marlies, then got recalled to the taxi squad earlier this week, so he'll see his first game action of the year on Thursday night.
It should be Freddie Andersen in goal — and he has been a bit of a weak spot in the early going, with a 3.01 GAA and .892 save percentage. If the Canucks' scorers can find a way to get to work, they might be able to take advantage of a netminder whose confidence might not be great. That being said, his numbers on home ice are pretty good: a .920 save percentage and 2.23 GAA.
A couple of positive notes for the Canucks schedule-wise. First, the back-to-backs are over for awhile. The next ones are March 1-2 in Winnipeg. And after they get through this 3-in-5 in Toronto, seven of their next eight games will be on home ice.
The Canucks will play their league-leading 14th game of the season on Thursday. It's time to let everyone else catch up!
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