Matthew Knies has come alive after breaking out of a big scoring drought. Can the Leafs forward continue to produce offensively on the top line? The Toronto Maple Leafs laid a goose egg on Saturday for the third time this season, falling to the Vancouver Canucks 3-0. Vancouver was coming off a 2-0 loss to the Carolina Hurricanes the night prior and didn't get into Toronto until early Saturday afternoon following travel issues. Ahead of the game, the Maple Leafs weren't taking the Canucks lightly, even with their opponent arriving late. "It's not something we would even talk about or care about," said Max Pacioretty on Saturday morning. The Canucks didn't want to make excuses for themselves either. "I remember I was coaching in Arizona, we sat on the tarmac until five in the morning," Vancouver head coach Rick Tocchet said Saturday afternoon. "We won in St. Louis [the next day]. You can overcome stuff." And overcome stuff they did. 31 seconds into the game, Brock Boeser had a Tyler Myers point shot go off him and past Dennis Hildeby. Late in the second period, Quinn Hughes' point shot bounced off Conor Timmins and Simon Benoit's stick before going into the net. Kiefer Sherwood beat Hildeby over the glove on the third goal which came 47 seconds into the third. And Toronto, who had 20 shots in the game, couldn't get one past Kevin Lankinen. "Not good enough. They outworked us, outcompeted us, and that's why they won," Chris Tanev said following the game. The 35-year-old, who played 18:02 against Vancouver, even admitted that the team wasn't thinking about a possible advantage with Canucks arriving in Toronto later than normal. "We need to play our game better. That's why we lost," he said. "It comes down to us and being prepared to play and knowing what we need to do as a team. I mean, when I say outworked, I don't mean the effort's not there. We're not connected as five. We're not helping support each other and that's where they took advantage of us and scored some goals." The Maple Leafs had three power plays in the game and didn't generate much from those opportunities. They registered just two shots on the man advantage throughout the game. "We weren’t just making easy plays. They’re breaking them up. We gotta do a better job getting pucks around that net," Mitch Marner said. "That’s how we scored the last game so just gotta do a better job of finding lanes to get pucks to the net and bodies there." Toronto hasn't had a full practice since New Year's Day. Could this recent stretch of play be from a lack of practices altogether? "Every team right now is playing a ton of games because of the schedule, so I don't think that's an excuse. As I said, we just need to be better and work for each other," Tanev said. "Mistakes happen, but after a mistake, that's when we need to help each other, and it's not usually the first mistake that maybe the other team capitalizes on. It's compounding a few things and that's what they do." Maple Leafs head coach Craig Berube was posed a similar question following Saturday's loss to Vancouver. He wants to see more spirit and fire from his team in their next game, which comes on Tuesday at home against the Dallas Stars. "I didn't think we had enough pace in the game or played with enough energy. Maybe it's travel or whatever. We need more life and energy. I didn't think we had that tonight." -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Image [https://thehockeynews.com/.image/c_fit,h_600,w_600/MjExNjM5NDEwNTc4NDM0MDI0/googlenews.svg] Stay updated with the most interesting Maple Leafs stories, analysis, breaking news and more! Tap the star to add us to your favorites on Google News [https://news.google.com/publications/CAAqBwgKMK-q0gsw7sXpAw/sections/CAQqEAgAKgcICjCvqtILMO7F6QMwytvfCA?ceid=CA:en&oc=3] to never miss a story.
