Vancouver Canucks simply can not afford a loss to the Toronto Maple Leafs

At some point this season, the Toronto Maple Leafs will win a hockey game. No, seriously, at some point the Leafs are going to win a game.

The Vancouver Canucks absolutely, positively have to make sure it doesn’t happen Saturday (October 24) at GM Place.

Coming off a good road win in Chicago on October 21, the Canucks need to build on it and can’t allow themselves to become the punchline to a bad joke. Everyone—and I mean everyone—else is beating the winless Leafs (0-6-1) these days, and the Canucks have to find a way to make sure it’s their turn on Saturday.

The Leafs can’t score, can’t play defence, and haven’t found a goalie that can stop the puck with any regularity. Other than that, they’re a fine hockey team.

Saturday’s showdown is the early game on Hockey Night in Canada. It’ll have a huge national television audience and there are the obvious Brian Burke and Dave Nonis subplots as they lead their new team against the franchise that fired both of them over the past few years.

The Canucks have done the one-step forward, two-steps back routine a couple of times in the first few weeks of the season. So far, though, they’ve been unable to get on any kind of run (at least in the right direction). The win over the Blackhawks was the club’s best result so far and is certainly something to build on. And the only way to build on it is by sticking it to the Maple Leafs. It doesn’t have to be pretty, it doesn’t have to be a blowout. It can take overtime or even a shootout, if need be. It just has to be a win. There are no other options.