Canucks at Maple Leafs
The Vancouver Canucks continue to show last's season trainwreck was an aberration as they continue their six-game road trip with a visit to the Toronto Maple Leafs on Saturday night. The Canucks failed to make the playoffs last season, leading to the dismissal of coach John Tortorella after one year on the job. Despite a road-heavy schedule, Vancouver has turned things around helped mainly by a league-best 11 wins away from home.
While the Canucks were earning a statement victory in Pittsburgh on Thursday night, Toronto was cooled off by New Jersey 5-3, suffering its first regulation loss since Nov. 18. Offense has not been an issue for the Maple Leafs, who amassed 26 goals during its current 4-1-1 stretch, but coach Randy Carlyle didn't like what he saw from his club Thursday. "My message was whatever we did today to prepare ourselves to play, don't do it again," Carlyle said.
TV: 7 p.m. ET, CBC
ABOUT THE CANUCKS (18-7-1): The No. 3 line was the storyline in the impressive win at Pittsburgh, with Brad Richardson scoring a pair of goals and setting up another by Shawn Matthias, who added an assist to give him six points in five games. All three goals were set up by tenacious effort, with Matthias swiping a puck behind the net to set up Richardson's first goal before the latter returned the favor on an almost identical play. "We had our forecheck going tonight," Matthias said. "We talked about it before the game, it was our main focus."
ABOUT THE MAPLE LEAFS (13-9-3): Mike Santorelli grew up in Vancouver and had 10 goals and 28 points in 49 games with the Canucks last season before undergoing surgery for a torn labrum. Although that spelled the end of his one-year stint with his hometown club, Santorelli has been a valuable addition to Toronto with four goals and 14 assists in 25 games. “He’s very tenacious on the puck and he likes to handle it too," Maple Leafs forward Nazem Kadri said. "He never stops working. It’s just actually very easy to play with him.”
OVERTIME
1. Canucks G Ryan Miller is 32-15-3 lifetime against Toronto - his most wins against any opponent.
2. Santorelli has one goal and eight assists during a career-best five-game point streak.
3. Canucks captain Henrik Sedin is one goal shy of 200 for his career.