Canucks win in adventurous fashion as mystifying rivalry with Leafs lives on

VANCOUVER – The Vancouver-Toronto rivalry in hockey (and everything else) is a little mystifying to many of the players involved at the National Hockey League level.

Remember, the Canucks are constructed upon a foundation of three American players and one Swede. The only Canadian-born player in Vancouver’s lineup on Saturday was Carson Soucy, who left the game with an undisclosed injury, although Tyler Myers was born in Texas but grew up in Calgary. Canuck captain Quinn Hughes was born in Florida and spent much of his childhood in Toronto but, really, is from Michigan.

There were 10 Americans, three Russians, two Swedes, one Latvian, a Czech and a Swiss in the Canuck lineup that faced the Maple Leafs at Rogers Arena on Hockey Night in Canada.

“I don’t understand the animosity,” winger Conor Garland, who is from Scituate, Mass., near Boston, said in the Canucks’ dressing room. “The cities are so far apart. Where I grew up, you hated the Montreal Canadiens. You hated the Yankees, hated the (New York) Jets. But those rivalries, the cities were close together.”

Yes, well we’re a big country with relatively few people. But no matter where you go in this vast home and native land, you will encounter fans of the Toronto Maple Leafs. Which is what makes games like Saturday’s memorable, even for players who are bewildered by Canada's geography and schema.

In a span of 2 ½ hours Saturday, Canuck fans laughed, cried, cheered and mostly chanted “Leafs Suck!” And they were correct in the first period and happy in the third as the “home” team blew a three-goal lead before winning 6-4 in a wildly-entertaining, rollicking game.

“This was fun,” Garland said, remarking on the number of people wearing Leafs jerseys he encountered while driving a few blocks through downtown to get to the rink. “It was just cool to be in that atmosphere. Obviously, we have the majority of the fans of the building. They have a good number and, I mean, it's rocking.

“Coming from a small market in Arizona (where Garland previously played for the Coyotes), you never really had that. Playing in Vegas was probably the loudest, but nobody was coming to see us. So to have this -- that was probably the loudest it's been -- that was fun.”

Winning is always fun, especially when it’s adventurous.

Fourth-line winger Nils Hoglander scored twice in the first six minutes for the Canucks, Garland drove the third line and finished with two goals and an assist in one of his best performances since he arrived in Vancouver 2 ½ years ago, and J.T. Miller and Elias Pettersson scored vital power-play goals in the third period as the Canucks recovered their equilibrium after squandering a 3-0 lead and extended their points streak to eight games: 7-0-1.

And goalie Thatcher Demko, who looked like a candidate to be hooked when he was beaten three times in a little more than three minutes early in the second period when the Canucks suddenly and briefly stopped playing, finished with 43 saves and made a pile of them after Maple Leaf Mitch Marner’s shorthanded breakaway goal tied it 4-4 at 3:13 of the final frame.

No matter whether Demko surrenders four goals or one – like he did when the Canucks beat the Coyotes 2-1 on Thursday in a game that was polar-opposite in style to Saturday’s – he seems always to be able to make big saves when needed.

“I think that's a maturity thing that he absolutely has,” veteran defenceman Ian Cole said. “But it's something that I think as the season has gone on, we've gotten better and better with as a team. Look at the power play, they give up a shorthanded goal, and they come right back and they score. A lot of times that (shorthanded goal) would tank the power play. That level of resiliency is huge, especially in a seven-game playoff series.

“What you said about Demmer, I completely agree with you. But I think that encompasses a lot of our team.”

“Demmer, he just wins,” Canucks coach Rick Tocchet told reporters. “Past history. . . I'm not comparing, but I remember Grant Fuhr, he'd let four goals in but he would never let the fifth goal in. I'm not saying Demmer wasn't on his game, but I just love his resolve. They weren't going to get a fifth goal because he was dialed in. I think the same thing with our team. We might have a bad period or we might have a bad stretch, but somehow we can hang in there. And that's resiliency.”

It's a trait that until this season was as foreign to the Canucks as first-place overall in the NHL standings.

The Canucks are 31-11-4, 14 points clear of the Maple Leafs. Twenty-nine of Vancouver’s wins have been in regulation time and the team is 28-0-1 – taking 57 out of 58 points – when leading after two periods.

After Marner’s equalizer, from a Brock Boeser turnover on Pettersson’s lateral pass, Miller restored the Canucks’ lead at 7:11 when Hughes banked a shot-pass off his teammate’s skate, which was deliberately angled for that purpose at the side of the Leafs’ net.

At 10:42, Pettersson made a similar goal-side conversion, albeit with his stick, from Miller’s excellent pass. Sputtering for nearly two months, Vancouver’s power-play has generated five goals over the last five games and been a deciding factor in three of them.

Demko stopped all 14 shots he faced after Pettersson’s goal, nine of them in the final three minutes that the Leafs played at six-on-five, then six-on-four, then six-on-three.

Canuck fans roared at the end. And Maple Leaf fans at least went home entertained, and probably hoarse.

“I mean, they've got a great fan base, they've got a great team,” Hughes said diplomatically. “Lots to cheer about. Fortunately for us, you know, we've given our fans a lot to cheer about, too.”