The Maple Leafs had a grand time last night, ending the first half of their season by wiping out the Canucks 5-0. It was a shutout for Michael Hutchinson, and Trevor Moore scored his first NHL goal.

Hutchinson gets the shutout as the Leafs beat the Canucks 5-0

The Leafs have today off, but are back in action tomorrow, hosting the Nashville Predators. The Marlies are playing the Charlotte Checkers this evening after two big wins in the past two days. The Furies are in Laval to play the Candiennes this afternoon. The Thunder are hosting the Inferno in Markham.

ICYMI
Here’s what we wrote about this weekend.

5-Game Process: The more things change edition - Katya
The Leafs are winning more than they ever have in the 82-game era, but they’re in a familiar place.

CWHL Recap: Furies lose 3-1, Thunder lose 4-3 (OT) - nafio and mediajunkie
A Marie-Philip Poulin hat trick sinks Toronto and Markham’s late comeback is good enough for a point but not a win.

How to watch CWHL Sportsnet Weekend: Women’s hockey preview and primer - Nafio
Here’s a handy beginners guide to the CWHL and the teams you’ll see this weekend.

Other News

Boy did the Oilers blow up last night. In the process of losing 4-0 to the last place Kings, they visibly appeared to not give a crap to the point it reminded me of watching the Leafs at the end of the ‘eighteen-wheeler off a cliff’ seasons.

The icing on the cake is that Drew Doughty was allowed to do this to Connor McDavid and get away cleanly with it.

Doughty later openly laughed about it when a replay was showed, making sure the Oilers saw how funny he thought it was. There was zero response to that from any of the Oilers players. Remember, the Oilers have Milan Lucic, who has no purpose on the team now (zero shots on goal last night) beyond being “the guy who protects McDavid” and punches the face of guys who do things like this. Instead, Lucic waited until the dying minutes of the game to go after Brendan Leipsic, whom you may recall from his time here is basically the same size as Trevor Moore. He got a misconduct for his trouble, but more so exposed how useless he is.

At this point it is unlikely the Oilers will make the playoffs so that’s anonther year where the arguably best hockey player in the world will miss the post-season.

Anyway, the Oilers loss bumped the Kings up a rank and moved the Senators into last place in the league. LOLSNES.

My New York Rangers Fandom: Baking and Dying - Blueshirt Banter
[SPECIES: Added this because we all were in this place in recent years.]

Poehling named WJC MVP and top forward, Romanov top defender - Eyes On The Prize
Habs prospects wrote their names all over the 2019 World Junior Hockey Championship.

Anti-Social Media - Arctic Ice Hockey
"Under the veil of anonymity, people use social media to bully athletes and random people whom they disagree with without having to face real-world consequences for their behaviour."

Alastair Little’s recipes for four winter soups - The Guardian
[SPECIES: They’re all good, but the Thai pumpkin one looks the best.]

From The Branches