Coming off your first win in 11 games, the expectation – or, at least the hope – is to take that momentum and build. Well, with the team travelling to San Diego, this game wasn’t so much about building as it was collapsing.
Despite a decent start to the game, the Abbotsford Canucks collapsed in front of their netminder, offering high-grade odd-man rushes and backdoor tap-ins aplenty.
After a win to snap an incredible skid just four days ago, they are back to their losing ways after suffering a 7-0 beatdown at the hands of the San Diego Gulls.
The small silver lining to the game was the return of Jonathan Lekkerimäki, who drew in for his AHL season debut. Although he never sniffed a point, he was the team’s most dangerous player by a country mile with six shots on target. Of course, his addition highlights a glaring issue with this team.
You see, just 15 games into the 2025-26 season, Lekkerimäki became the 32nd skater, many of whom have been ECHL-calibre players, to have dressed for this team. That’s not to mention the six netminders used already. To compare, the Canucks used just 35 skaters and four goalies through all 72 games in their 2024-25 Calder Cup regular season.
To expect a team navigating through such turnover is nearly impossible. But that doesn’t equate to being pushovers on the ice, and tonight, that’s precisely what the Abbotsford Canucks were.
Starting lineup
Alriksson–Aman–Lekkerimäki
Kunz–Mueller–Durandeau
Labate–Khaira–Berard
Poisson–Wouters–Klimovich
Schuldt –Mynio
Knyzhov–Kudryavtsev
Arntsen–Daschke
Young
Scratched: Anri Ravinskis, Phip Waugh, Dino Kambeitz, Josh Bloom, Jake Murray
Injured: Jett Woo, Guillaume Brisebois, Nikita Tolopilo, Cooper Walker, Chase Stillman
First period: Triple trouble
The Abbotsford faithful were reminded early what it was like having a bona fide shooter on the team, as Jonathan Lekkerimäki was firing early and often.
He finished the period with a period-high four shots and was dangerous for most of the period. His first look came from a neutral zone regroup, collecting the puck on the curl before entering the zone and firing a shot that tested Ville Husso up high on the shoulder.
Just moments later, fellow Swede Vilmer Alriksson kept his feet moving before being brought down on the zone entry, sending the Canucks on the first power play of the game.
The Canucks have been struggling to find wins all season, but with a power play clicking over 26%, scoring on the man advantage hasn’t been an issue. And on brand, they were snapping it around with purpose.
Abbotsford picked up several strong looks, all of which came from distance shots that created havoc in the crease.
But they weren’t the ones who benefited in the end.
San Diego goal – 1-0 – Justin Bailey (unassisted)
Following a Lekkerimäki point shot, the Canucks jammed at a few rebound opportunities before Joseph Labate sent a weak pass back to the point. Swiping at the puck was Sawyer Mynio, who had the puck chipped by him courtesy of a hungry Justin Bailey.
Off to the races, the former Canuck beat a tired Lekkerimäki before delivering a patient forehand move to slide it past Ty Young.
Hoping to regain momentum quickly, Lekkerimäki wasn’t done collecting chances. He and his lieutenants connected for several looks over the next few moments, and by all accounts, were holding down play.
But the Gulls understood how to capitalize when they were given their chances.
San Diego goal – 2-0 – Judd Caulfield from Yegor Sidorov and Tyson Hinds
Courtesy of a tremendous individual effort, Judd Caulfield overpowered Mynio, somehow staying on his feet before cutting back to slide through all on his own. With the Canucks backcheckers barrelling down on him, he took it to the forehand to chip up and over Ty Young to double their lead.
And Judd wasn’t done there.
San Diego goal – 3-0 – Judd Caulfield from Nathan Gaucher and Nikolas Brouillard
Later in the period, while attacking a scattered Canucks line change, Nathan Gaucher threaded the perfect pass to a streaking Caulfield, who found himself behind the defence and one-on-one with Young.
Going short side again, he snuck one past the shoulder to send his team to the dressing room with a trio of goals.
For what it’s worth, the Canucks hadn’t played a poor period, per se. They outshot their opponents and collected several decent looks on Husso. Unfortunately, a few defensive lapses led to odd-man rushes that Young could not hold down.
Shots: ABB 9, SD 8
Score: ABB 0, SD 3
Second period: All downhill from here
The Gulls picked up where they left off, adding to their lead in the opening minutes.
San Diego goal – 4-0 – Ryan Carpenter from Tyson Hinds
We’ve discussed rebounds being an issue for Ty Young already this season, and on the Gulls’ fourth goal, that issue was on display again.
Following a point shot save, the puck sprang out in front. Outmuscling Joe Arntsen was Gulls captain Ryan Carpenter, who kicked the puck to his stick and deposited it past Young.
From there, tempers began to flare for the visibly frustrated Canucks. Exacting pleasantries in the corner were Noah Warren and Captain Chase Wouters. After having had enough of each other, the two dropped the mitts and tussled.
You can’t blame a captain for attempting to fire up his team. Unfortunately, that spirit never really made its way to the Abbotsford bench. They managed just five shots over the course of the period, and that included two power play attempts.
Unlike the first period, where they had a noticeable jump, the Canucks had absolutely no response in the middle frame.
Shots: ABB 14, SD 19
Score: ABB 0, SD 4
Third period: 7-0
Abbotsford collected its best chance of the entire game just seconds into the final frame.
While enjoying puck possession on a delayed call, Ty Mueller was sprung on his own right out of the penalty box. On that break, he attempted to make the move to the forehand before the puck bobbled over his stick.
We love it when we find moments that sum up a game well, and that could have been the perfect poster shot for how this one had gone thus far.
After two more failed power play attempts from the visitors, the Gulls extended their lead.
San Diego goal – 5-0 – Sam Colangelo from Matthew Phillips and Nikolas Brouillard
Following the initial shot, the puck slid out to the slot, where sharpshooting Sam Colangelo was standing all alone. He ripped a perfect shot that beat Young clean.
And they kept on pushing.
San Diego goal – 6-0 – Sacha Pastujov from Tim Washe and Matthew Phillips
While on the 5-on-3, Tim Washe found himself alone in the circles. Taking his time, he sent a perfect saucer pass to Sacha Pastujov, who scored on the one-timer.
San Diego goal – 7-0 – Justin Bailey from Roland McKeown
Justin Bailey struck again.
With the Gulls refusing to let up, they pressed hard in the Canucks end with chances. The puck reached the blueline before sending a backdoor feed to Bailey. Somehow, he was left on his own, hanging Young to dry as he deposited the puck into an empty cage.
Shots: ABB 17, SD 30
Score: ABB 0, SD 7
Final thoughts
What’s to say? Coming off a big win in Abbotsford on Wednesday, the Canucks had no response at any point in this game. Despite an “okay” first period, the final two showed that they were incredibly outmatched with just eight shots.
Yes, injuries and call-ups continue to plague this roster, but you still can’t help but call out the lack of push in this one.
What’s next?
The Canucks head back to Coachella Valley for a rare single-game date with the Firebirds. Puck drop at 5:00 pm PT at the Acrisure Arena.
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Let’s be honest. The Vancouver Canucks probably shouldn’t have won tonight.
Their first period against the Tampa Bay Lightning was arguably their worst of the season. One shot on goal was all the Canucks could muster against a hockey team that played the day before! It really looked like we were in for a long, underwhelming night of hockey as the Canucks got stomped by an equally injury-depleted roster.
Just look at this graph showing the Corsi stats and balance of momentum throughout the night.
Tampa trapped Vancouver on their side of the graph right away and refused to let them out, taking a 2-0 lead through the first half of the game. But you don’t play the games on paper, and the Canucks turned their lack of shots into an asset, making poor Jonas Johansson do nothing for most of the night, only to send some well-timed bank shots and deflections past him at record speed in the third period.
The Canucks, like their social media posts congratulating the Vancouver Rise on their NSL championship, arrived late. But they got there eventually!
We definitely should not ignore the way Canucks fell behind, or chalk it up to bad luck. That was undoubtedly indicative of the quality the team has been playing at in recent weeks. But we also can’t discredit the effort it took for the Canucks to win in the end. Resiliency isn’t a reserve you can afford to dip into all the time, but if you cash it in at the right time, you might hit the jackpot. And that’s exactly what the Canucks did today.
Quinn Hughes’ return came up huge for the Canucks in this game. He’s struggled and played out of character at points this season. Tonight, he played his absolute best stretch of the season, potting four assists. Elias Pettersson picked up a pair of helpers as well, proving once again that the Canucks’ stars can step up when the moment calls for it. But they also hung in the game thanks to phenomenal goaltending from Kevin Lankinen, who stopped 28 of 30 shots, including 12 of 13 in the first period. Even depth players played a role in the comeback, like MacKenzie MacEachern picking up a goal and an assist, and Linus Karlsson scoring a game-winning goal.
It wasn’t a Picasso by any stretch, but these days in Vancouver, we’ll take any victory we can get.
Let’s break it all down.
This game started exactly the way a tragic Canucks game would: with a really cool moment wrapped in a few really bad ones.
Conor Garland was locked in from minute one, especially after Darren Raddysh took a couple runs at him along the boards early. That spurred Garland to come back at him behind the net and start a tussle.
6-foot-1 Raddysh accepts Garland’s challenge eventually, expecting a fight taking a walk in the park. Instead, he ends up thrown right through the park bench.
Undoubtedly embarrassed at being thrown around like a rag doll by a 5-foot-10 Conor Garland, Raddysh made sure to throw a classless late punch as the refs stepped in between them. Usually, you get a fight like this when a team is already losing to spark their team. Garland wanted to get that out of the way early.
It didn’t really work, but the effort was appreciated!
But it would also be one of Garland’s only shifts of the hockey game, because he’d leave the game with an injury either related to the fight or from a hit later in the game, and would not return.
Everything is fine, guys.
Kevin Lankinen has taken the ball and run with it since Thatcher Demko left the lineup again, and the Canucks have absolutely needed him to.
For a team that had played its biggest game of the season so far less than 24 hours prior against the Florida Panthers, the Lightning came out guns blazing. They ripped 13 shots at the Canucks net in the first period, including the first seven of the game’s shots. He had to make a number of saves, especially in the first half of the period.
The Canucks weren’t exactly helping him much either, scrambling and leaving lots of open ice available for the Lightning to get shots through. But Lankinen was everywhere he needed to be. He routinely cut down angles and prevented the Bolts from even finding the net, like on this Scott Sabourin chance.
Sabourin had all the time in the world to bury this shot. But Lanks was able to challenge out far enough to make Sabourin clank the puck off the crossbar instead.
Even when the Canucks did get the puck, they usually did something less than ideal with it, like Evander Kane icing this puck after a long shift in the defensive end.
All the concerns about this Canucks team are coming to roost.
The KierszenStat for this game was one that some people don’t wanna hear, but it needed to be said! For all the struggles he had scoring, Elias Pettersson is putting in the work in the defensive end.
Emil Lilleberg thought he was going to get Tampa’s eighth shot of the hockey game, but Elias Pettersson jumped in front of the shot like King Arthur taking a magic wand’s bullet for Shrek. Only difference is Pettersson didn’t turn into a frog after.
He’s doing all the right Selke-calibre things for his team and I’m not afraid to admit it!
With 12 minutes left in the first, the unthinkable happened. The unimaginable, the unbelievable, the inconceivable.
The Canucks… got a shot on goal. And it was all thanks to Brock Boeser.
Boeser played this Lightning zone exit attempt perfectly. As Lilleberg skated into the middle of the ice, Brock got right into the passing lane and blocked it. Boeser put his body in between Lilleberg and the puck as he waited for a pass to Kiefer Sherwood skating back into the zone. A little give-and-go between him and Sherwood leads to a Boeser shot that almost found the corner of Jonas Johansson’s net. It was actually such a great play and shot that I fully expected to be writing about a goal here. After all, that’s how Canucks luck usually works. But Johansson read it better than most goalies would’ve and blockered it away.
Ah well, better luck next period.
It was only a matter of time.
The fact that it took damn near the entire period for the Lightning to finally put a puck in the net was success in itself. But a couple reoccurring problems bit the Canucks in the butt on Nikita Kucherov’s one timer.
Firstly, Evander Kane: who are you covering on this play? The ghosts of Kokusai Green?? It ain’t any of the players on the ice, that’s for sure.
Secondly, the Canucks have had an absolutely dreadful time defending cross-ice passes all season long. Darren Raddysh victimized them on it after spinning out of coverage and finding a path through four Canucks sticks to Kucherov, waiting in his favourite spot on the ice. Lankinen nearly got there in time, but the puck squeaked through.
The Canucks’ willingness to sit back and let opponents pound them through the middle of the ice is a big reason why their season has gone the way it has. It’s why they can’t dictate the pace of play, why the penalty kill has struggled, and why winning games has been such a grind. You have to grab the bull by the horns at some point.
Lightning have as many goals as the #Canucks have shots in the first period.Canucks on pace for a 3-shot game vs the #Lightning, meaning they can only max out at two goals.
— LesnielBC(@lesnielbc.bsky.social) 2025-11-16T23:00:28.214Z
#Canucks are only 1 shot away from tying this game…
— Ralph In The Ridge
The Canucks were clearly humbled by their first period effort, because they came out for the second with a vengeance. Within two minutes of the period starting, BOOM! A second shot on goal.
EP40 made this play happen by wheeling out of coverage from J.J. Moser, and finding Hughes pinching to the top of the circles. Hughes couldn’t get more than a close angle shot at Johansson, but it was the kind of chance around the net the Canucks weren’t getting earlier in the game. Perhaps this is an omen.
Even with the Canucks’ newfound confidence in the offensive zone, they couldn’t help but give up another goal. And it’s to a name they’re all too familiar with.
Once again, Erik Cernak is able to get a puck through to the net because his checker is Kane, who completely abandons his post again to float like soft serve in the middle of the ice. Cernak gets the puck to the net, where it’s deflected in front of Lankinen by noted Canucks killer Jake Guentzel. Maybe they should’ve traded for him back in 2024 after all.
This game is going exactly the way you’d expect it to. The Canucks might as well pack it up and get a head start on that team trip to Disney World. I heard the line for Terror of Terror is only 15 minutes if you pay for Lightning Lane.
Just when it looked the Lightning were about to pull away, the Canucks found life after MacKenzie MacEachern (remember that, now) was held in the neutral zone by Moser and earned them a power play.
The Canucks’ power play has found the secret sauce to scoring; namely park Elias Pettersson up high and let him draw the Lightning defenders to him. The plan goes off without a hitch, as Pettersson gets a shot through that Johansson stops, but the juiciest of rebounds pops out. And Jake DeBrusk is nothing but money from in close like that.
DeBrusk has had a slow start to his season, but he’s evolving back into his goal scoring self at the speed of light. Surrender now or prepare to fight.
The Lightning are a team that’s made a living off their physical brand of hockey for years. A style of play that’s chippy and mean, dragging teams into the mud with lots of penalties and, crucially, lots of power play chances. Even up calls from the refs are inevitable, so why not take a lot of penalties if you have a lethal power play?
Tonight’s game didn’t work out that way. If anything, in the third period, the Canucks arguably had a more accurate depiction of their style of play than the Bolts did. Kiefer Sherwood found a way to get under Yanni Gourde’s skin in the third with this hit, and came back for a conversation with Laurel after the whistle.
A few minutes later, Scott Sabourin gets rung up for bowling into Kevin Lankinen on a rush, and the Canucks power play goes to work. Brock Boeser has the puck along the boards and spots Sherwood’s waiting stick in front of the net. In the ultimate bounce and turning point of the hockey game, Sherwood proceeds to bank the puck off of Moser’s leg and past a completely unsuspecting Johansson.
The Canucks are, against all odds, tied with the Lightning. In a game where they have 11 shots. The story of this team.
Do you hear that sound? It was faint earlier, but it’s getting louder.
It almost sounds like the PDO Machine going brrr.
Not even a minute after the Sherwood goal, MacKenzie MacEachern is able to hold the puck in at the blue line under pressure from the Lightning. He tries to take a shot on net, but it’s blocked. His second shot, a backhander, gets through to and miraculously finds Linus Karlsson, who deflects it past Johansson. 3-2 Canucks, out of NOWHERE.
Let’s take a moment to appreciate that celebration by Linus Karlsson as well. Karl drops the one knee down and heads for the boards with total jubilation. NOW we’re having fun and Karlsson gets his birthday present.
This is where the condensed schedule of an Olympic year can take over a single hockey game. The Lightning are playing their second game in under 24 hours, and seemingly emptied the tank to win the game in the first period. The Canucks, with the extra day off, were only barely able to keep up with Tampa the entire night before they started to get the bounces to go their way.
But some of that is creating your own luck, and Quinn Hughes did exactly that by walking the line with his usual fancy feet before getting a shot through against the grain. Once again, the puck ricochets off the stick of newly lethal goal scorer Drew O’Connor in front of Johansson and past his blocker. Three goals in less than two minutes, Hughes has three points on the night, and the Canucks have a two-goal lead.
The Canucks have successfully pulled off the “call an ambulance! but not for me!” meme in real life. The Lightning thought they’d be home in time for dinner with two points made to order. Instead, the Canucks bought out all the restaurants in town and closed them to build condos.
I know this sounds crazy, but Quinn Hughes might be a really important reason for any Canucks success. Please don’t put me on blast for this scorching hot take.
The Lightning nearly forced their way back into the game midway through the third. They had just enough gas left in the tank for one final push, and they appeared to make it count when Charle-Edouard D’Astous pounced on a Lankinen rebound to the corner and got a shot away before Lanks could seal the post, cutting the Canucks’ lead to one.
But controversy! Adam Foote’s coaching staff finds something before they drop the puck. Namely, Jake Guentzel high sticking a clearing attempt in an effort to keep the play alive.
Canucks call for a coach’s challenge, and it doesn’t take long for the refs to waive it off. This is officially Vancouver’s night. Signed, sealed, delivered.
Before today’s game in my Stanchies Pregame video, I predicted that this game would be full of offence and scoring between two teams missing a lot of players. It took longer than expected, but I ended up spot on in the end. (Let the record show there was thunderous applause.)
MacKenzie MacEachern had himself an incredibly good game. At one point, it looked like he had two goals, initially being credited for Linus Karlsson’s go-ahead tally. While that got demoted to an assist, he absolutely scored the fifth goal.
This play is – stop me if you heard this – started by Quinn Hughes, circling Johansson’s net and drawing the Lightning defenders in. He finds Fil Hronek for a one-timer, and Hronek’s shot takes yet another bounce in front, off MacEachern’s stick and into the net. Had his first goal stood, MacEachern would have broken his career high in one game. Instead he ties it, but I don’t think he’s complaining.
Perfect time for a legacy game.
Considering they were down by three, The Lightning elected to pull the goalie with over four minutes left. It took about a minute for Marcus Pettersson to sink a shot into it.
EP40 was the initial shooter, but his attempt hit a Bolt’s leg and bounced right to the Dragon. M’Petey’s first goal was also apparently the Canucks first empty netter of the year.
“Wait a minute Lachlan, didn’t Quinn Hughes hit an empty net in Dallas last month?” Supposedly, that wasn’t credited as an ENG because Casey DeSmith hadn’t left the ice yet. Whoops!
Anyways, the Canucks won the game, but not before Scott Sabourin gave Linus Karlsson a garbage slewfoot in the final minute of play. Somebody call Scott a wah-mbulance.
Tonight also marks EP40's sixth point in three games, as he added two assists to his goal and three assists from games against Carolina and Winnipeg. #Canucks
— Izzy(@izzycheung37) November 17, 2025
Has Elias Pettersson been his classic self all year? No, but does that mean he hasn’t played very well overall? Also no.
The points are finally matching the process. Just wait for the goals to start matching up too.
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You can call the Vancouver Canucks’ three-game road trip many things, but you can’t call it boring. Despite losing to the Florida Panthers 8-5 on Monday night, getting three points out of six should probably be considered a victory of sorts for Vancouver. Not a moral victory, mind you, we don’t just hand those out for free. You have to earn those around here. Your team loses 14-1, and one guy ends the night plus one? That’s a true moral victory, one earned through blood, sweat and tears.
But the night was still a victory just in the sense that at no point did it appear effort was ever an issue for this club. The majority of the Panthers goals were a result of well-meaning intentions from the Canucks, it was just the execution was horribly a bit flawed. It was akin to showing up to Meryton and refusing to dance with the puck due to it not being handsome enough for such an endeavour; one can only hope the Canucks realize the error of their ways and can get things back on track down the line once they learn the follies of their pride.
This game was in many ways like the night against the Tampa Bay Lightning on Sunday, except this time the Canucks didn’t have Kevin Lankinen in net to survive the rough parts of the game. No, instead that task fell to the Canucks debut of Jiri Patera, who I personally enjoy watching in net due to his aggressive style. It just brings a certain swagger; it feels a bit chaotic in net. It reminds me of a time when Roman Čechmánek was allowed to cartwheel in net to make a save, and we didn’t know a single thing about reverse VH.
Alas, that style comes with a cost: it can be high-risk, especially when it’s playing behind this Canucks defence. The Panthers’ offence feasted on the night, and while I don’t think Patera played particularly poorly considering what he saw in front of him, he also made it abundantly clear that he wasn’t going to be the answer, either.
Which, again, I don’t know how fair it is to heap blame on a goalie succumbing to an elite defending Stanley Cup champion team behind what one would generously describe as a Value Village defensive scheme, but any time you give up eight goals on a night, some people are going to put the target largely on your back.
That is the beauty and pain of being a goaltender: you could stop 72 shots on the night and lose 1-0, and some people would still be like, “Man, he really should have had that shot that beat him.” Or you can be a self-hating goalie like most of us are and win 7-1, and the entire ride home, you’re still angry about letting in that lone goal. This is the personal hell of being a goaltender.
But I digress.
The point is, the fact the Canucks got three point out of the three games is honestly pretty good. This team remains an organization that lives and dies by the PDO machine, so it’s best to just enjoy it when it goes your way. Even on nights when it goes your way and you still lose 8-5, at least you saw some offensive hockey on display? It’s pretty clear the GOTI system has been flushed out of the Canucks, as the defensive zone coverage looks like it was scrawled out on a napkin at 3 am at The Pint, but hey, Quinn Hughes (three assists) and Elias Pettersson (two goals) are hitting some dingers.
So give your favourite flawed team a hug and tell them you love them anyway, and let’s break this game down.
Where were you when Jiri Patera made his first save as a Vancouver Canuck?
At no point during the first five minutes did I have any idea of the kind of night Patera was in store for. I assume he had no idea either.
Like at one point, I clipped a couple of saves from Jiri and was thinking, “Hey he’s pretty aggressive in net, that could be fun to watch” not knowing what was to come:
Hey, that’s a pretty slick poke check! I also enjoy the ninja-kick sliding save he makes to boot the puck into the corner. While I respect and trust the school of robotic goaltending that Thatcher Demko went to, you have to understand that Dom Hasek is my GOAT. Part of my soul yearns for and desires weird, unconventional saves. So when I see a guy sliding over and kicking his leg a little too hard on an easy shot, I get a little bit excited. Maybe this will be the game that a goalie does a random pad stack on a dump-in from center ice.
You should also watch that clip and enjoy one of the rare moments where David Kämpf wasn’t on the ice for a goal against. He ended the night being on the ice for five goals against, while being on the ice for zero goals for. He did well in the faceoff circle, though, going 11-4? Obviously, it was his first game on a new team, but it’s probably safe to say it wasn’t his favourite game he’s ever played in.
But believe it or not, there was a time when it looked like it might be a boring old regular game and that the high point of the night might be a Jiri Patera save on Evan Rodrigues cutting across the net:
See? Everything was normal here. Just two teams having a game of clappy clappy puck puck to start the week.
With the Canucks current first period game resembling my approach to classes at university, they’ve been getting there when they get there.
So while shots weren’t really on the menu for Vancouver, there were a couple of hockey lessons on display on the night.
One, when a guy tries to dangle you, just look him in the eyes and sit him down, much like Fil Hronek did to Brad Marchand on a rush early in the game:
I just enjoy the fact that Marchand was like, “Ok, time to deke this guy out,” and Hronek is like, “nah, just gonna dump you in the corner little bro”, leaving Marchand to direct traffic like he just blew out both quads at the Royal Rumble.
Another lesson in hockey that you hear all the time is not to admire your passes, which AJ Greer was quick to remind Lukas Reichel of:
To be fair, that was a dope pass. If I had pulled that pass off, I’d still be looking at it after the game. You can bet the group chat would have videos of the pass, and I’d be telling them all about it, pretending not to hear them when they asked if it led to a goal.
I think the little smirk from Reichel as he gets onto the bench tells you that he understands the rule, but he knows it’s better to be hit on that play than to get robbed by Kirk McLean on one of the greatest playoff saves of all time.
At one point during the opening frame, Tyler Myers was in a race for the puck with Cole Schwindt, and Sergei Bobrovsky was all “this seems fun, I wanna get involved too,” so he randomly jumped up into the fray, and collided with Cole:
Which, on one hand, I absolutely adore from Bob. That’s some BDE (Big Dom Energy) from Bob, as I still see Hasek running out to clip Marian Gaborik in my head every time I close my eyes for sleep.
But BDE doesn’t come without a cost, as Schwindt had to leave a game due to an injury sustained on the play, and according to the Panthers’ head coach, it probably isn’t a short-term situation.
That being said, I will say I was surprised that Tyler Myers didn’t score on the play, as this is very much his element. Chaos is a ladder when Tyler Myers is on the ice, but on this night, he ended up hitting the side of the net, which would have doubled the Canucks shot count to that point.
Not sure what box of Wheaties DOC has been having for breakfast lately, but let's make sure he has full stock.#Canucks
— Dragon Was Slayed (@522IntoOvertime) November 18, 2025
I remember blasting away at Drew O’Connor early in the season, wondering if he’d ever start putting up points. I gave a very impassioned speech about how he might just be who he is at this point in his career.
And while a 10-game stretch of scoring points since then doesn’t unequivocally prove I was once again a big dumb moron, it is firmly on my radar as we watch Drew continue to pile up the points:
This guy has been one of the most lethal 5-on-5 players for the Canucks in terms of point production, so yes, what I am saying is, you’re welcome, Vancouver. My dumb hockey take inspired this run of hockey from Calendar, thank you very much.
It’s hard to believe that at one point it felt like there was a contest between Reichel and O’Connor about who could come closest to scoring without ever actually getting a goal, but since then, DOC has become one of the Canucks most consistent players.
And I absolutely love this goal. One of my main concerns about Doc was that his speed rarely translated into positives for his team, either in the form of a good pass to set up a linemate or in driving to the net to score a goal. Well, on this play, not only does his tireless motor end up drawing in a couple of defenders down low, but he then passes the puck to the point where Quinn Hughes has plenty of time and space to move the puck around.
And on the ensuing shot from Tyler Myers, Drew then keeps on working at the puck, eventually stealing it out from under Bob’s glove, and bashes the puck in. It’s a greasy goal from a hard-working shift, and that is absolutely what your bread and butter will be from bottom six players.
(Although I remain convinced that was a bank pass from Tyler Myers and not a missed shot. The dude does bank passes on 75% of his plays with the puck.)
The point is, it’s not often we get to use a second angle from a Drew O’Connor goal to showcase what a fantastic job he did:
That goal was DOC’s fourth goal in the last six games, and while it very well could just be a hot streak, at least he’s showing he can catch on fire now and then, which shouldn’t be discounted in the NHL.
Some players remain cold forever, living in fear of and wondering when they will become the next “hey remember that guy? didn’t he play for us once?”
Which, to be fair, even that isn’t so bad? Like at least Lee Goren is like “**** yeah, I remember that guy, he was me!” when he’s out for a night with the lads.
All I’m saying is, if I ever run into Billy Sweatt, I am 100% buying him a drink and asking him who was better, Darren Haydar or Jason Krog, while he patiently explains he never had a chance to play with Krog, so he can’t weigh in properly.
The Canucks are awful at defending lateral passes in their own zone, so maybe it stands to reason that they’ve seen so many scored against them that they decided to try one themselves:
Kiefer Sherwood took a rare break from scoring goals to finally get an assist or two, as he set up Jake DeBrusk in his Tim Horton’s office for an easy tap-in goal on the power play. Jake literally skates in unnoticed somehow and then taps in the puck with minimal effort. I just sort of assume that when Jake points his stick during the play, he is, in fact, casting some sort of invisibility spell, which allows him to walk in for the goal.
I called him out earlier in the season as a player who can produce nothing for weeks at a time, and nobody cares, and everyone was like, “Yeah he’ll get hot soon enough, that’s why nobody cares.” And here we are. And I will admit, I really enjoy him as a player. He just seems like he’s having a good time, out for a skate with the boys, and has fun playing in the blue paint. Nothing but respect for that.
AJ Greer would bring the Canucks down to earth as the Panthers would strike back quickly after the DeBrusk goal:
The Canucks have had a tendency this year of multiple players chasing the same check, which often leaves one player wildly open on the play. With Tocchet, he would always hammer home about the GOTI hockey, protecting the guts of the ice. He would literally try to get you traded if you didn’t follow the system and defend the GOTI.
Well, with all of that gone, we’re just starting to see plays like this, where Tyler Myers, D Petey, and David Kämpf all close in on Sam Bennett. This starts a domino effect: Carter Verhaeghe gets the pass from Bennett with time and space in the slot, which freezes the Canucks trio as they turn to face the new danger, allowing Verhaeghe to find AJ Greer high in the slot, who uses Myers as an effective screen on the shot.
It just feels like once a play falls apart for the Canucks in their own zone, they really struggle to get things back on track, as they start chasing the play and end up leaving players open all over the ice.
Only fitting that our goalie makes a Luongo like save while in Florida. Luongo is also likely in the building too. #Canucks
— princesserica84
The beauty of the Patera school of goaltending? It can lead to saves like the one he made on Mackie Samoskevich, after the Panthers forward walked right around Quinn Hughes and bull rushed the puck on net:
Which, again, high risk, high reward. That could very easily have been a goal, and this night would have ended 9-5 instead of 8-5.
But the point is, that’s an incredibly fun save, and I enjoyed every moment of it, even if I could hear Ian Clark screaming in agony from across the globe.
Despite being denied by the glove of Patera, the Panthers would tie the game up just before the end of the period, when Seth Jones made it 2-2 on a rush attempt:
This is another one of those plays where things just sort of break down for the Canucks. Which, hey, most goals you look at will involve moments where you can be like “oh yeah, this broke down real bad here,” but it is a trend for the Canucks to have more of these than most teams.
And on this play, you have Marcus Pettersson probably playing too close to the boards, which opens up space in the middle. Brock Boeser makes a play for the puck and fails, so now he’s stopped skating and out of the play. I believe Kämpf thinks things are covered, so he’s just casually skating back and sort of watching over things. By the time he realizes Marcus Pettersson has failed containment, he chooses to cover Brad Marchand to help close off the passing option. And then Seth Jones just beats Patera cleanly five-hole.
That’s pretty much been par for the course for the Canucks. Lots of little mistakes in coverage that lead to a high volume of shots and chances against, which is why they are next to dead last at even strength play. If your goalie isn’t on a heater and if your PDO isn’t going brr, you’re in for a long night.
The Panthers would make it 3-2 minutes later when Luke Kunin would tap in the rebound after the Canucks got caught watching Noah Gregor skate a lap around their zone:
I don’t know if Quinn didn’t respect the game of Gregor, or just made a bad read, but he ends up having to chase Gregor around the ice, which leads to Evander Kane half-heartedly pointing a stick towards the puck, before the Panthers forward gets the backhander off. Elias Pettersson is firmly in his shot block era, so he’s going full Alex Edler to make a save in the crease, and he ends up sliding away into the shadowlands when Jiri Patera uses his chaotic energy to make a ninja kick pad save.
Remember earlier when I enjoyed Patera kicking his pad to make a big save on a normal shot? This is the risk of that lifestyle.
So with EP40 and Patera off to the side, Kunin literally has no check on him, so he taps in the easy goal.
The Canucks tried to answer quickly with a goal of their own, but Brock Boeser ended up missing an empty net, leading to one of the best “wtf how did I not score there” reactions of the season:
Brock puts his stick on his head and does a complete 360 as he tries to come to terms with what just happened. It’s the kind of shock where you have to think things through for a full minute to make sure that actually occurred. “Wait, did I not put my emergency brake on? Did my car really just roll away down the hill into that pool?” as you patiently wait for Jamie Kennedy to jump out and tell you in a really weird monotone voice that you’re on his hidden camera show nobody has heard of.
Evan Rodrigues would then make it 4-2 as once again the Canucks making questionable life choices reared it’s ugly head:
Yes, at one point, Kämpf, Myers and Marcus Pettersson all chased the puck behind the net, managed to lose it, and provided no defensive zone coverage whatsoever.
Again, I don’t doubt their effort on this play. I don’t think either man was thinking about mailing it in. But their efforts were used in an ineffective manner, as the end result was a pass from behind the net going to a guy wide open for a tap-in.
Kämpf is probably most to blame for this one, as he needs to guard the front of the net when his two d-men are down low like that, but I have no problem if you want to yell at multiple players for this goal.
Florida would then make it 5-2 on an Anton Lundell goal that was scored before the TV even had time to finish showing the previous goal scorers:
This was the main goal where I audibly said “woof” in the direction of Patera, as he probably should have had this one? Although it was good puck placement from Lundell, it does feel like Patera shouldn’t be letting one in from that angle.
At the very least, we didn’t have to describe four other Canucks making mistakes in coverage leading up to the goal? That’s fun, right?
Hey nice rush goal. Petey gets it. Nice pass by Kane. Hughes with 3 assists. 5-3 them#canucks
— just a guy.
Despite being down 5-2, the Canucks pushed back in this game, starting with Elias Pettersson’s first of the game:
Planet Ice excels in the offensive zone, so it was no surprise to see the skill put on display by Evander Kane as he taunted Bob with either a shot or a pass, before deciding at the last second to send the puck over to Elias.
Bob showcases immense BDE energy on the play, immediately dropping his stick so he can try to make a dramatic blocker save, but Elias Pettersson ends him with precision.
That’s a very nice counterattack from the Canucks if we’re being honest, and something we didn’t see a lot of last year. Hey, if you’re going to be dog water in your own end, it at least better come with some fun offensive rushes the other way. Bruce Boudreau didn’t teach us that lifestyle for nothing.
Evander Kane would then hit the post a moment later, sneaking behind the defence for a breakaway:
Which, again, he’s Planet Ice for a reason. Cheating up to spring for a breakaway, that’s fantastic beer league strats, this guy knows how to earn beers in the locker room. I have to assume Adam Foote loves the beer league lifestyle as well, hence Evander Kane is getting the most 5-on-5 ice time of any forward on the team.
No word on if the general or the soldiers took the brunt of the blast:
Putting the head down to ride out the pain wave, we’ve all been there.
8 shots, down two, second period. Yupppp, I’m on the right channel #Canucks
— Priya️
(@Canuckstrom) November 18, 2025
Can I interest you in some Drew O’Connor hard work instead of a goal?
I know the Canucks penalty kill is truly awful this season, and is basically on par with the final season of How I Met Your Mother where it’s revealed the Mom was Derek Forbort all along, but I think we can all take a moment to appreciate a hard working effort from O’Connor.
At one point Niko Mikkola ran Kiefer Sherwood from behind, leaning heavily on his neck and head, which understandably upset the Canucks. Tyler Myers ran to his teammates defence, throwing his gloves off and, well, just sort of holding Mikkola as if to say he was this close to eating some thunder bombs (this is what I assume Myers calls his fists):
But the NHL being the NHL decided that hey, let’s just balance this out, so they handed out four minutes of penalties to Mikkola and four minutes of penalties to Tyler Myers, as the Chaos Giraffe was hit with a double minor for roughing. Which again came as a result of him literally dropping his gloves and holding Mikkola near the bench. At no point did it look or seem rough, but NHL officials are never held accountable for anything, as seen by the continued employment of Kelly Sutherland, so you just learn to try and laugh your way through it.
Perhaps inspired by the lack of justice, the Canucks started the third period strong, punctuated by Elias Pettersson digging into his bag of tricks and pulling out his vaunted rookie season shot:
Things to note on this goal:
- Kiefer Sherwood got his second assist on the night, bringing him to 12 goals and 3 assists on the year. He’s a skilled player and we know he can pass, so it’s just amusing to see the imbalance in stats when his shooting percentage is riding a heater.
- Tom Willander continues to show that he never wants to leave the NHL ever again. Was it a banner night for him in terms of Corsi? Not really, he was near the bottom of the team. But overall, he’s more than held his own in his deployment, and we continue to see flashes of brilliance when he rushes the puck up the ice. And on this play, not only did he create a zone entry and back the Panthers up into their own zone, he made a “who do you think you are, I am” pass right before he hit the blue line, which set everything in motion. He then continued to rush to the net like a young Ed Jovanovski, demanding the attention of the Panthers defenders, allowing Elias Pettersson to get some time and space with the puck.
- That finish from EP40 was the sort of thing we used to see all the time, and that is very much a “There you are Peter!” Hook moment everyone keeps waiting for. We know EP40 can shoot the lights out. We just need to see it happen more often.
How is this a tie game?!!! Hronek scores!!! Power play goal!
— just a guy.
The Canucks would then tie the game up on a power play break out that ended with a tap in off the rush from Fil Hronek:
Everyone but Aatu Räty touched the puck on this play, which will probably be brought up in therapy, but the finish on this goal was as clinical as it gets. Evander Kane makes a perfect pass to Max Sasson, who then makes a perfect pass to Fil Hronek, as the Canucks do their best impression of a waterfall as they crash the net.
You can watch the replay and see each Panther make a play for the puck, only to get beaten by the pass, which eventually leaves Hronek all alone in front of Bob. Tidy piece of business with the extra man, even if Aatu will forever be wondering why he wasn’t invited.
The Panthers would then take the lead for good when Sam Bennett tipped in a Mikkola shot that didn’t involve a head for once:
As with all tips, this was as deft as they come, and I assume Patera was just praying for the night to be over at this point. The Canucks get caught with too many guys down low, which leaves Mikkola wide open at the point, who then feeds the shot to Bennett, who is all too happy to give Willander a “welcome to the NHL, kid” moment.
And as with most goals on the night, David Kämpf got to watch a red light go off behind his own goalie.
After the Canucks failed to score on third period power play, the Panthers effectively ended the game with their seventh goal of the night on a power play of their own:
Once again, Tyler Myers and David Kämpf continued their Hall and Oates partnership as they both closed in on Verhaege, which allowed the Panther player to find Sam Reinhart open by the side of the net, who then has the patience to find Seth Jones as three Canucks players end up puck watching on the play.
That was a very sloppy penalty kill, I won’t lie, although I think David Kämpf can be excused, as it’s his first night with the team, so he’s not used to the “I have no idea what to do with my hands” penalty kill approach the Canucks have been employing this season. Tyler Myers should have stayed closer to the net and given a semblance of a diamond, but because he cheats up so high on the play, Reinhart is more open than a stupid Costco built in a city that absolutely does not have the proper traffic infrastructure to handle it.
And since I feel bad for Patera, here he is making a breakaway save:
Not sure I've ever seen a worse save percentage for a goaltender that will likely get the W #Canucks pic.twitter.com/CRHVFkdBZL
— Gav
The final gasp from the Canucks was Jake DeBrusk hitting the post on a late third period power play:
With the way PDO has been going for the Canucks, I was honestly surprised they didn’t make another comeback at this point.
Brad Marchand would finish off the game after Evander Kane jumped up on a faceoff and tapped the puck back directly to, well, Brad Marchand, who also jumped up on the play:
Live by the beer league strats, die by the beer league strats.
With the deployment Elias Pettersson has handled, and the defensive responsibilities he’s been given, this has actually been a very decent season from him.
At the end of the day, though, this team lives and breathes with Quinn Hughes.
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Welcome back to Blackfish: Our weekly Vancouver Canucks prospect report.
This week saw a rare Abbotsford Canucks victory, thanks to rookie goalie Aku Koskenvuo, who stole the show in his American League debut. Koskenvuo wasn’t the only goalie to prove himself over the week, with Aleksei Medvedev continuing his incredible run of play with the London Knights. A few others in the Ontario Hockey League continue to plug along with production, and a WHL defender returned to action.
Let’s dive right into the good stuff.
Abbotsford Canucks
The Abbotsford Canucks played four games over the week. After a gruelling 11-game losing skid, Abbotsford finally recorded their third win of the season; their first victory since October 11th, 2025!
Sure, they lost the other three, mostly in lopsided, blowout fashion. But we are looking for silver linings today.
The big story was Koskenvuo’s play in the club’s lone victory. Nikita Tolopilo is close to a return, but not quite ready, leaving the crease to Aku and Ty Young for the time being.
Fresh off his first career professional win at the ECHL level, the young Finn took the ice for his first American League game. In the team’s 4-3 shootout victory, Koskenvuo stopped 33 of 36 shots faced and was named the second star of the game.
Though Koskenvuo’s play was much better than the numbers suggest, he nevertheless allowed four goals on 23 shots in his second AHL start. In the first period alone, he made several key stops to keep his team in a close game. Unfortunately, each goal against was directly caused by glaring defensive lapses by the five-man unit in front of him. A goalie can only bail out his team so many times, especially a team as lacking in talent/skill/aptitude as Abbotsford.
With Jiri Patera up with the main club, Koskenvuo’s debut has made the goalie carousel an interesting one to watch play out as the club returns to full health.
We have said it often, and we will repeat it: it’s very challenging to judge a player’s game when the team is going through so much on-ice turmoil, especially a goaltender’s. When confidence levels appear to be rock-bottom, and team chemistry is nonexistent, it’s difficult to assess what percentage of a goalie’s performance is strictly on the individual.
That said. Ty Young has struggled.
He allowed 12 goals on just 51 shots over the week, and yes, many of those goals stemmed from defensive lapses, but he’s struggled to make routine saves. His rebound control has been a noted flaw in his game throughout the year, and that has directly contributed to goals.
Overall, he’s sporting a dreadful 5.07 goals against average and .835 save percentage to go with his winless 0-6-0-0 record. Nothing with this team is going right, but Young has to be better if he wants to help his team out of their funk.
Up front, Ty Mueller has been finding his offensive legs, contributing a goal and two assists. It’s not much, but it’s better than the lone point that he had on his stat sheet coming into the week.
And when you’re in a funk, these are the kind of goals you want to be scoring.
Four more games off the schedule, and zero points for Danila Klimovich. He’s been demoted to the fourth line, though he’s held his spot on the 2nd power play unit. Nothing is happening at 5-on-5, so the power play is his only real chance to hop off the schneid. After posting a career-high 24 goals in 2024-25, he’s still sitting at zero for the year.
Injuries have helped, but Vilmer Alriksson’s hard work has cemented his place in the team’s top six. He may not have contributed on the scoresheet this week, but he’s been finding his groove and role on this team as a menace at the net front. He’s learning to use his giant frame and is looking increasingly comfortable with his game at the pro level.
Heck, he’s even showing off some silky smooth hands in the shootout that led to the week’s win.
Just don’t look at his plus/minus.
The highlight of the week was truly the return of Jonathan Lekkerimäki, who rode in on a white horse to record a team-high six shots on goal in the club’s dismal 7-0 loss to the San Diego Gulls. Lekkerimäki would notch another three shots on goal, while collecting two points in the team’s 5-2 loss to the Firebirds. Though he didn’t produce in his AHL return, his presence was noted. Lekkerimäki brought a certifiable POP, sticking out like a sore thumb whenever he was on the ice.
He picked up his first goal of the season with his patented quick-release, courtesy of a nice threaded pass from Ben Berard.
While he stood out as a clear tier above the field, we do have to wonder if the team will keep him down a little longer than expected for this conditioning stint. He appeared gassed on many shifts and was noticeably late on several backchecks. Given the state of the organization, we wouldn’t be surprised to see Vancouver recall Lekkerimaki before Abbotsford’s next game.
It was a tough, tough weekend for all in the plus/minus department, especially for those who play heavy minutes. Alriksson and Kudryavtsev were both minus-7 on the week, which was, shockingly, not the worst among those on Abbotsford’s roster sheet.
At this point, you can fairly guess that those who are sporting terrible plus/minus numbers are those who are playing the most for Manny Malhotra. It’s bad. Real bad.
Injuries: Chase Stillman remains out in a walking boot.
CHL
What can we say about Aleksei Medvedev that we haven’t already? This kid is proving to be the real deal, and we are putting a stake in the ground early that he will play in the NHL.
With prospects taken in the second round or later, it’s always a gamble to put a “certified NHL player” tab on a prospect just months into his draft-plus-one season. However, Medvedev is just too good. Does playing for the London Knights help his stats? Of course. But the Knights aren’t scoring this year, currently sitting seventh in the Eastern Conference by total goals scored.
He allowed just five goals on 66 shots in a win/loss split last week. Furthermore, he was named a star in each of those games. Whether a win or loss, he’s now earned a star nomination in each of his last three games and four of his previous five starts.
Medvedev now sports a strong 8-3-1 record with a 2.08 goals against and a .926 save percentage.
Gabriel Chiarot added another three points over the week and is now on pace for 64 points, doubling his totals from 2024-25.
Both goals were the result of being in the right place at the right time. With 16 points (nine goals, seven assists), he now co-leads the Brampton Steelheads while leading the forward group in plus-minus with a plus-5.
We say it often, but we enjoy how Chiarot plays the game. Does he carry an overly high NHL ceiling? Probably not. But if you like workhorse spark plugs who create plays by fighting for plays, then he’s your guy. He doesn’t wait for plays to come to him; instead, he gets into the grind and takes matters into his own hands. He’s still a very long-term project, but the way he plays the game screams third-line energy role. Whether that’s in the NHL or AHL remains to be seen.
Playing somewhat of an opposite game to Chiarot is Kieren Dervin, who’s quietly having a solid season in the OHL, showing off his slick hands early and often.
Seven of his 11 assists have come on the power play, but the majority of his goals (two shorthanded, one power play) have come in beautiful fashion. He’s a speedy and creative winger who has a knack for scoring goals in tight. We aren’t convinced about his overall game just yet, but he’s killing penalties and playing heavy minutes.
He continues to lead the charge in Kingston, firing at a point-per-game pace, with 19 points on the year.
It was a tough weekend for the Niagara Ice Dogs, who dropped both of their games over the weekend to extend their losing streak to five games.
Riley Patterson shared the crown with a team-worst minus-4 rating. Though he did add a single goal at the tail end of a 6-2 blowout. His minus-4 rating dropped his impressive season-plus-minus to a plus–5. His tough weekend included a rough outing in the face-off dot, winning just seven of 35 attempts, dropping his face-off win percentage to 46.3%.
On the positive side, he sits second on the IceDogs with 19 points—ten goals, nine assists—16 of which came at even-strength.
Just one assist for the Seattle Thunderbirds’ captain, Braeden Cootes, through his two games this week. With seven shots on goal, it was another week of “probably should have had more,” as the chances continued to pile up, but not go his way.
He’s firing at a 1.50 point-per-game clip right now, and is still on pace for 90 points, which isn’t too shabby for a player who missed the team’s first few weeks of play.
In last week’s report, we noted how Parker Alcos had missed some games after an unconfirmed hand injury. Though he has since returned to the Oil Kings in a sheltered capacity after missing three games.
NCAA
Wilson Björck added his first goal since returning from injury, taking the beautiful cross-ice pass for the one-timer. He added five shots through two games and saw his second-highest ice-time total with 18:24 on Friday. Boy, did he have his chances.
Over in Michigan State, Anthony Romani took the weekend off from scoring and instead posted a pretty assist. With eyes on the back of his head, he threaded a perfect pass to Ryker Lee for his third assist of the season.
We haven’t touched on the remaining NCAA cast in a few weeks. For the most part, it’s been due to a lack of production and utilization. As you can see from the above, both Daimon Gardner and Matthew Perkins have failed to generate much of anything, and have both dropped down the depth chart of their respective teams’ lineups.
We do like what Matthew Lansing brings to the table; he’s just not getting a ton of ice time over in Quinnipiac. It’s never surprising when a freshman sees bottom-six minutes. All expected from a recent seventh-rounder.
Then we have Aiden Celebrini, who’s actually on pace to eclipse his career-high in points (8). It’s worth noting that the majority of his assists have come either as secondary or easy dishes. But we aren’t too focused or concerned about his point totals. He’s been bouncing up and down the BU lineup this season. He’s oscillated between second-pair deployment, hitting 19 minutes per night, and third-pair minutes, where his ice time has been severely limited.
He leads the Terriers in blocked shots (23) and has been a much more impactful player than we have seen in the past. After three years in the NCAA, however, we’re not convinced he will be an NHL player. We won’t be shocked to see the Canucks keep him within their system, even if it’s on an AHL contract—a la Jackson Kunz—there just might be little-to-no NHL upside.
He’s one of those kids who we are rooting for to put us in our place, though.
Rest of the world
That will do it for this week’s Blackfish Report. Please keep the comments going for any player you are curious about seeing more of. We are gearing up for a monthly “player highlight” in the next few instalments, so if there is a player you’d like a bit more breakdown of, please voice your opinion!
Until next week, folks.
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It might not have been the best start to the season for Quinn Hughes, but the Vancouver Canucks captain has more than carried the load for his team over the last few games.
The 26-year-old defenceman is currently riding a six-game point streak, totalling 13 points over the span. That includes a three-game stretch against the Winnipeg Jets, Tampa Bay Lightning and Florida Panthers (he was out against the Carolina Hurricanes), where Hughes has 10 assists. Before this point streak, Hughes sat in a tie for 24th in defensive scoring with seven points through 10 games. But to this point in the point streak, Hughes has jumped all the way to second, behind only Cale Makar.
To put that in perspective, Hughes has been in on 10 of the Canucks’ 14 goals (71.4%) over his last three games. Those are some staggering numbers. And during Monday night’s game against the Panthers, The Athletic’s Harman Dayal shared some even more eye-opening Hughes stats:
This got us thinking. We all know how elite Quinn Hughes is, and we all know how important Quinn Hughes is to this Canucks team. That’s obvious anytime you watch a Canucks game. But let’s put some numbers behind the eye test and see the impact Hughes is making on the Canucks at 5v5, and compare it to how his peers around the National Hockey League are doing.
For this exercise, we will be looking at 10 other defencemen, ordered in points scored this season, and further elaborate on Dayal’s shots on goal numbers with and without said defenceman on the ice over that same time frame:
Most of these defencemen are making a positive impact on their team at 5v5. Lane Hutson, Morgan Rielly, Zach Werenski and Matthew Schaefer are the only defencemen of this group to be outshot at 5v5. Evan Bouchard, Miro Heiskanen and Josh Morrissey lead the way with 54%+ shot share. And with Hughes on the ice, the Canucks are controlling 51.96% of the shot share.
However, the numbers are drastically different for the Canucks when Hughes is not on the ice.
The Canucks are getting outshot 43-78 at 5v5 without Hughes, resulting in a 35.54% shot share. This is by far the lowest of the elite defencemen listed. Now, the Canucks aren’t the only team that sees their shot share dip at 5v5 without their star defenceman. However, the Canucks are the team that is hurt the most without their elite blueliner on the ice.
To simplify these numbers, look at the difference column.
The Canucks see a 16.42% boost to their shot share at 5v5 when Hughes is on the ice, compared to when he’s off. Whereas the Avalanche are seeing nearly 7% more shots when Makar is on the bench.
Now, of course, matchups matter, and score effects certainly come into play with a stat like this. Makar’s Colorado Avalanche are 13-1-5 at the time of this writing, and he plays over 25 minutes per game. So teams are more often than not pushing late in games to try and claw their way back with Makar on the ice. Compare that to Hughes’ 9-10-2 Canucks, usually trying to will their way back into the fight with Hughes leading the way.
The Avalanche are not having trouble producing offence without Makar, but the Canucks’ offence, quite honestly, just goes as far as Hughes takes them.
And let’s also keep in mind deployment splits between these defencemen.
Hughes is doing this with Evander Kane as the forward he’s playing the most 5v5 minutes with. These other defencemen have spent the most time with Nathan MacKinnon, Mark Scheifele, Mikko Rantanen, Nick Suzuki, JT Miller, Connor McDavid, John Tavares, Kirill Marchenko, Nick Schmaltz and Mat Barzal out of any forward on their respective team. That’s not to say Kane is a bad player – despite what fans may say – but he is a step below the rest of the elite players listed.
So, Hughes has provided the Canucks with the most significant offensive boost while surrounded by less-talented players. If that’s not MVP worthy, I simply don’t know what is.
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It was back to work for the Vancouver Canucks who held a rare home ice practice on Wednesday morning at Rogers Arena. With a compressed schedule to start the season and more road games than home contests, practices on home ice have been few and far between.
But with just two games in nine days, the Canucks will have opportunities to work on things. And the team certainly needs to address its play in its own zone. That was the focus of a brisk 45-minute practice.
What we saw
Conor Garland returned to the ice with his teammates after missing Monday’s 8-5 loss to the Florida Panthers with a minor injury suffered in a first period fight on Sunday against the Tampa Bay Lightning. He was the only one of the team’s injured players back with the group. Adam Foote addressed the injuries after practice.
David Kämpf took part in his first practice with his new team after signing with the Canucks on Saturday and making his debut with the team on Monday. Kämpf, who profiles more as a defensive centre, skated on a line between Brock Boeser and Conor Garland. Kiefer Sherwood stayed on the right wing with Elias Pettersson and Evander Kane, while Jake DeBrusk and Drew O’Connor flanked Aatu Räty. Lukas Reichel found himself on the wing on the fourth line with Max Sasson and Linus Karlsson.
To the surprise of many, there were no changes on the blueline despite giving up eight goals and a season-high 41 shots on Monday. Quinn Hughes and Filip Hronek remained together, as did the second pair of Marcus Pettersson and Tyler Myers. Elias Pettersson and Tom Willander formed the third pair while P-O Joseph was an extra and skated with Arshdeep Bains to give the Canucks four defensive duos during drills. Mackenzie MacEachern was also an extra during practice.
Players spent a good portion of the session working on down-low and net-front coverage. At one point, clearly not enamoured with what he was seeing, Adam Foote stopped the proceedings to bark at his players about the need to defend better.
The Canucks are home for a pair of games this week. The Dallas Stars are here on Thursday, while the Calgary Flames visit on Sunday. The Flames are in Buffalo on Wednesday night after playing Chicago on Tuesday. They will hurry home to face Dallas on Saturday at the Saddledome before making their way here. It will be the second time this season the Canucks have faced a Calgary team that has played the night before. It also happened in a 5-1 Canucks win in their season opener.
What we heard
Adam Foote on defence-focussed practice on Wednesday: “You guys know the numbers. A goal and a half has to stop. We have a lot of young guys and we just keep teaching extend your coverage. Close. Sort out the system with them. Sometimes you’re too early on the play. Sometimes you’re late. We go over it. And go over it again and again. Continue to do it. We’re slowly getting it.”
Quinn Hughes on the need to control play more than they have of late: “We have to defend better. We have to close plays quicker. You waste so much energy defending all night. When you do get the puck, it’s hard to do anything with it because you’ve just defended for 35 or 40 seconds. The more we close plays quicker and get out of our zone quicker, then we can play offence and limit some of that pressure.”
David Kämpf on settling in to life as a Canuck: “It’s a nice group, a good group of guys. Today was my first practice so I’m still trying to figure it out a little bit, but overall no problems.”
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Last season, we dove into former Vancouver Canucks head coach Rick Tocchet’s systems, amid all the noise about the team buying into ‘Tocchet hockey’.
For the team’s sake, let’s hope this isn’t an annual piece where we dive into the newest Canucks head coach’s systems. But with Adam Foote taking over to start this year, we thought it’d be appropriate to examine and explain the new systems the Canucks bench boss has come up with through the first quarter of the season.
We will start in the defensive zone and make our way up ice from there.
Defensive zone coverage
The Canucks’ defensive zone coverage has changed significantly this season, shifting from a fairly simple box-and-one style, focusing on taking away the middle of the ice. They’ve switched to a more man-on-man style of coverage. However, when the puck is below the hash marks, there is more support than in your typical man-on-man.
When the puck is in the corner, we see one of the Canucks defencemen go into pressure, with the first forward back (F1) providing low support, ready to jump in if the puck is moved up or down the boards. The weakside defenceman (D2) is net-front, taking away the option for a pass. The wingers play a bit higher (F2 & F3), so that if the puck is moved to the point, they can jump to pressure their man.
Once the puck is moved up the half wall, they switch into a more true man-on-man coverage. The low forward (F1) that was supporting the defenceman down low is the one to take the player now with the puck on the half wall, while the defenceman in the corner (D1) stays between the opponent’s forward and the net. The net-front defencemen (D2) should then tie up their man to eliminate the possibility of a tip on a shot or of being available to score on a rebound.
From this point, anytime the puck is moved anywhere above the hash marks, each player’s responsibility is to take another player, creating five different one-on-ones all over the ice.
Where we see breakdowns happen here is if someone gets beaten or another Canuck leaves their man to try to support. Often, the opposing team will take advantage of this when we see the puck carrier bring the puck up the boards, move it to his defenceman, who starts bringing it into the middle of the ice, while the weakside defenceman sneaks down. The weakside winger (F3) for the Canucks, rather than sticking with his defenceman who’s sneaking down, helps pressure the defenceman in the middle of the ice.
Another example would be when the puck carrier brings the puck up the boards, the strong side winger (F2) will attempt to help pressure him, leaving the strong side defenceman for the other team open, giving him either a shooting lane or space to make another play, when the weak side winger (F3) comes into support.
Canucks Head Coach Adam Foote has talked about these breakdowns a bit, noting that players sometimes go out of their way to support when they’re not supposed to in this system.
It can be difficult for a player to break the habit of not supporting defensively because it is so much more common for teams to run defensive systems that provide much more support and don’t create these one-on-ones all over the ice. But when done correctly and with the right personnel, this system can be highly effective at shutting down teams.
Defensive zone & Neutral zone breakouts
Breaking out of the defensive zone is more about taking what you can get than anything else. But one thing the Canucks seem to do a fair bit is activate their defencemen off the breakout and involve them in the rush.
Often, the puck will be moved up to the winger (F2), and they will look for a pass back to the weakside defenceman (D2).
The puck is moved up to the winger (F2) on the boards, while the centreman (F1) swings through the middle as an option for a pass, while the weak side winger (F3) cuts across to the middle of the ice, and the weak side defenceman (D2) hangs back in the slot area. If the look is there, the Canucks like to move the puck to that weakside defenceman (D2) who will have tons of space to skate the puck into the neutral zone.
They do the same thing in the neutral zone, often looking to that weakside defenceman (D2) to take the pass and move the puck up ice with space.
These plays enable the Canucks to move up ice with more time and speed, allowing them more controlled zone entries and making them a more effective threat off the rush, rather than dumping the puck in and trying to regain control off the forecheck.
Neutral zone forecheck
The forecheck in the neutral zone is a common 1-2-2 with some slight variations. The first forward (F1) will split the middle of the ice to eliminate D-to-D passes, while the strong side winger (F2) hangs a bit lower, around the dot, than the weakside guy (F3) to take away a play up the boards, and the weak side winger (F3) will take away a pass up the middle of the ice.
The Canucks defencemen like to hang a bit further back and take away any stretch-pass opportunities.
The weakside winger (F3) hanging back a bit higher gives the Canucks more of a counterattack opportunity if the puck is turned over. He will have more space to skate and make a play rather than being in the thick of things and having to just dump the puck in.
Offensive zone forecheck
The offensive zone forecheck is similar to their neutral zone forecheck, particularly on controlled breakouts for the opposing team. We see the same first guy (F1) pressuring the defenceman with the puck while the strong side player (F2) takes away a pass up the boards, and the weak side guy (F3) takes away the middle of the ice.
Where we see a different variation is when there’s more of a battle for the puck in the offensive zone corner. The weakside forward now becomes F2 and is ready to jump on the puck or pressure the defenceman on the other side of the ice if it’s moved D-to-D. The strong side forward then becomes the F3 and hangs a bit higher to support the defencemen in case the puck is moved up ice, so the opposing team doesn’t have an odd man rush.
This forecheck puts more pressure on the opposing team’s defence and doesn’t allow them to move the puck out of their zone easily, while still supporting back, taking away odd-man rush opportunities.
The new systems Adam Foote has implemented are quite different from what we saw last season under Rick Tocchet. The biggest theme in the new way the Canucks play is having more control and speed. When done correctly, this team can be very hard to play against because they take away a lot of their opponents’ time and space. But as we’ve seen, especially in the defensive zone, breakdowns can be costly, leaving opponents with great opportunities to capitalize.
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Alright, how do we do these again?
The last time I reported for Stanchies’ backup duty was the 2024-25 trade deadline game against the Minnesota Wild, one which followed the organization’s bold decision to stand pat at the deadline, retaining then-pending UFAs Brock Boeser, Derek Forbort, and Pius Suter.
Last season, the club was ruthless in its approach to tolling daily cap space to maximize its potential as a buyer or seller at the deadline. With a single retention slot available, there was hope that something, anything, was possible for the organization that found itself in an admitted ‘transition phase’ following the JT Miller trade.
Unfortunately, in a year where Anthony Beauvillier and Brandon Tanev returned 2nd-round picks, and 33-year-old Brock Nelson returned a 20-year-old right-shot centre and a first-round pick, the organization said there simply wasn’t a market for their guys. I believe the phrase was, “You’d laugh at me if I told you the offers we received [for Brock].”
Fortunately, despite another dismal playoff miss, no extra picks in the 2025 Entry Draft, Suter leaving for St. Louis over a miscommunication regarding term, and Forbort entering the 8th week of his maintenance day, Boeser stayed.
Since re-signing out of nowhere on July 1st, Boeser has since added an ‘A’ on his jersey, returned to a 35-goal pace, and produced as reliably and consistently as one could hope for the second-highest paid forward on the team! It’s been a pretty decent start for a guy whose team couldn’t manufacture a market for a player of his quality. Given all of the injury (unfair) and torrid goal-scoring pace replicability (fair) concerns, Boeser has given fans exactly what they were hoping for when he re-signed for the next seven years! Though it has been another frustrating, listless, and defensively disastrous Canucks season thus far, it has been nice watching Boeser do what he does while still wearing Canuck colours.
Back to the last Stanchies, and that trade deadline commentary from Allvin, and how it tied into Thursday night’s game.
“I don’t think you use [trade deadline day] as a defining day of how you build a team,” said Allvin in the post-TDL scrum with the local media beat.
Here’s the thing: two teams defined their team’s construction with a deadline deal for the Dallas Stars’ current leading scorer, Mikko Rantanen.
The Carolina Hurricanes salvaged the negative-percentile result of their initial trade for Rantanen when they traded him to Dallas for a draft class and their current 2nd-line centre, Logan Stankoven. At 20 years old, Stankoven is the 5th most-used skater on the Hurricanes at 5v5 ice time this season. The Hurricanes locked Stankoven up to a long-term deal that keeps him in Carolina until he’s 28 years old at a beyond-friendly cap hit of $6 million!
The Stars turned a draft class and the potential of a then 2nd-line winger into a capital-B BONA FIDE elite, game-breaking, above-a-point-per-game first-line winger, who they immediately locked into a 7-year deal at a similarly beyond-reasonable cap hit of $12 million!
When’s Forbort ready to go again?
Could the Canucks have used Suter as their 2nd-line centre?
Is Boeser’s effort to score the kind of timely (and awesome) goals that ensure the Canucks pick up enough points to stick around the mushy middle in a solid draft year really worth it?
Tough to say!
In his semi-annual gasoline-pouring, sit-down interview with Sportsnet’s Imac, President of Hockey Operations Jim Rutherford expressed a feeling of reluctance—contempt, even—toward the idea of a rebuild, even if Hughes leaves. Given the latter statement, I pray that last year’s trade deadline tune has changed for this year. This organization can not face the potential reality of losing the best defenceman in hockey presently—the best in franchise history—with the attitude that the in-season days marked for opportunity to define a franchise forever are actually just another day in the office.
Otherwise, there is genuinely no hope that things are ever going to go the other way.
Anyway! On Thursday night, the Canucks played their best hockey of the season for a full 60 minutes against a dangerous opponent, crushed possession, dominated face-offs, torched their opposing netminder with shot volume, and it didn’t matter!
In so many words: the Canucks got Canuck’d in the most Canuck-ian way imaginable.
Let’s get into it and see what it was like to watch a game where the shoe was on the other foot!
Warmup #Canucks lines vs. @DallasStars
Kane. EP40. Sherwood.
Boeser. Kämpf. Garland.
O’Connor. Räty. DeBrusk.
MacEachern. Sasson. Karlsson.
Hughes. Hronek.
MP29. Myers.
EP25. Willander.
Lankinen
7pm on @Sportsnet650 https://t.co/J6DNM1E8Qt pic.twitter.com/iIvhDAlmSo
— Brendan Batchelor (@BatchHockey) November 21, 2025
You’ve got to feel for Kevin Lankinen.
After a road trip that saw him stand on his head repeatedly in two of three, getting absolutely throttled on the shot count, he comes home to a bizarro play in the opening minute where he picks up a secondary assist.
First, a routine board-and-out drops at Kiefer Sherwood’s feet, bounces off his skate and out to Justin Hryckowian, who cruises into the Canucks’ end on a two-on-one alongside Mavrik Bourke.
Hryckowian goes east-west to Bourke, whose initial shot is a muffin. An easy stop for Lankinen.
While trying to settle the puck, Lankinen shovels the puck through his five-hole and into open space. Marcus Pettersson reacts quickly enough, swatting the loose puck away from Hryckowian, denying him an easy tap-in opportunity on the follow-up.
Unfortunately, M.Pettersson’s denial effort was a little too strong, rebounding the puck off the backboard to a sprawled-out Hryckowian, who, unlike JT Miller, didn’t quit on the play, backhanding the puck out to Bourke for the easy tap-in.
1-0 Stars
Fun game: watch how many players slide on this sequence.
Nevertheless, the early and awkward goal set the tone for the opening frame. A battle of PDO-bender wills was afoot.
While I thought the Canucks did well controlling play after the opening goal, their work in the offensive zone left a lot to be desired. The Jake DeBrusk, Aatu Raty, and Drew O’Connor trio spent a decent chunk of time winning battles along the Stars’ boards, just for their efforts to result in a point shot from M.Pettersson that sailed nowhere near Jake Oettinger’s net.
It was one-third of the Abby line who got the Canucks’ back in the PDO battle.
Picking off an errant pass inside the neutral zone, Linus Karlsson got the Canucks back in the game with a slick no-look wrister past the man they call Otter.
1-1 Tie
Karlsson’s goal registered as the Canucks’ first of the period, giving them an immaculate 100% shooting clip.
It was an especially slick sequence for Karlsson, considering he looked off Boeser the entire time cruising down the left wing. It was a devastating blow to my pre-game preamble write-up, which sorely needed a point from Rantanen or Boeser to seamlessly tie everything together.
Cool goal though!
Look, I haven’t written a longform Stanchies in ages, and it was a daunting prospect, shaking off the rust, in the middle of the week with a 15-month-old, whose bedtime routine lines up perfectly with game start time.
Sure enough, bedtime ran late, Sportsnet+ had lag issues, GIPHY refused to upload properly, and Jeff Paterson’s tweet was the first one I saw when I opened the social media platform formerly known as Twitter.
Truthfully, I’d never been more excited in my life to cover a rollercoaster. It’s been too long covering the dramatic highs and crushing lows of Canucks hockey. And the first period was exactly that!
A hysterical early goal against that saw the home goalie pick up an assist, a beautiful equalizer from a rookie winger still angling for consistent ice time, a tiebreaker goal from Jason Robertson that would be his 9th in his last 5 games, and a 2nd equalizer for the home team from the oft-lamented $11.6-million-dollar 1st line center.
This game.
Nay, this period had it all!
In the five minutes following Karlsson’s equalizer, the Canucks top line got to work against the Stars’ number-one defenceman and fourth line.
A nifty set play resulted in a point shot from Tom Willander, tipped wide by Elias Pettersson.
And that tip from EP40 gave way to the most atypical Evander Kane offensive zone giveaways you’ll ever get that killed the Canucks’ possession.
The Canucks’ kept rolling with the punches, with O’Connor sending Raty into the zone alongside DeBrusk for a shot off Oettinger’s shoulder and off the glass.
Unfortunately for Vancouver, the Dallas Stars of 2025-26 are just as talented as the Canucks are at compensating for porous defensive play with elite shooting.
After seven minutes of Vancouver controlling the run of shot attempts, the trio of Roope Hintz, Tyler Seguin, and Jason Robertson capitalized for Dallas to regain the lead, with Robertson unleashing a vicious shot on Lankinen off a blink-and-you’ll-miss-it steal.
2-1 Stars
I’m not even certain Sherwood got his stick down on top of the puck; that’s how fast Robertson capitalized on the opportunity. The alternate camera angle hammers in how nasty this goal is.
Side note: if you’re blaming Lankinen here, you need to go outside and touch grass.
Past the midway point of the period, Boeser caught Filip Hronek jumping up into the neutral zone, sending him in for a shot on Oettinger with a brilliant cross-ice feed.
With seven minutes remaining in the first period, Linus Karlsson drew a slashing penalty against Sam Steel, giving Vancouver their first of many power play opportunities.
The Canucks’ red-hot power play made it a 2-all game with a hard-nosed crash-bang play around the net off a drive from EP40.
2-2 Tie
DeBrusk was credited in-arena, but the NHL statskeepers had EP40 as the goalscorer on the equalizer well after.
After drawing a slashing penalty, Karlsson would then sit in the box after slashing Dallas’ Bourke while trying to negate the Stars’ breakout.
Incredibly, the league’s 2nd-best power play would stand no chance against the league’s worst penalty kill.
Tyler Myers sent newcomer David Kampf out of the zone for a shorthanded two-on-one with DeBrusk, after knocking the puck off Robertson along the boards.
The Stars weren’t completely without their looks. Rantanen nearly justified my preamble with a no-look pass to Robertson for a shot off the crossbar.
That’s the period and it’s fair to say the Canucks had the majority of the play, outshooting us 25-14. But where it counts, neither team could get anything done and it remains 2-2. But some acrobatics by Otter to keep the game tied could give us some momentum #TexasHockey
— UK Dallas Stars Fanatics
I know, it’s not a Canucks person, but a Dallas Stars fan from the United Kingdom proved to have the best take on everything that followed the first period.
The Canucks finished the middle frame having outshot their opponent 15 to 6, but Jake Oettinger was massive for Dallas when they needed him. Much to Pete DeBoer’s chagrin.
Not often have we seen the Canucks dominate on the shot clock.
Setting the tone early was Kampf drawing a tripping penalty against Esa Lindell that sent Vancouver to their second power play.
Truthfully, it should have been a 3-2 game within seconds of the Lindell penalty, had Sherwood not completely duffed a glorious scoring chance off a pass from EP40.
Sherwood had a chance to redeem himself, but Oettinger denied him with a slick poke-check on the doorstep.
Head Coach Adam Foote’s second unit was given 20 seconds to work, punctuated by a shot into the breadbasket by Evander Kane.
Less than two minutes after the expiry of Lindell’s penalty, Max Sasson drew a slash against Rantanen that sent Vancouver back to the man advantage almost immediately.
Forty seconds into the man advantage, Captain Hughes drew an interference penalty against Bourke, gifting Vancouver an extender 5-on-3 power play opportunity. To give Vancouver the best chance to convert, Foote rolled out his first power play group, minus Sherwood, who was swapped out for Evander Kane.
DeBrusk nearly broke the stalemate off a cross-crease pass from Boeser, only for Oettinger to make his best save of the night with an unreal lightning-quick pad save.
With time expiring on the 2-man advantage, Hughes responded to a shorthanded drive from Rantanen, racing through the neutral zone and into the offensive zone, setting up DeBrusk for a chance.
Credit to DeBrusk on this quick-up play at the end of a long shift. Despite Hughes’ pass being out of his initial reach, DeBrusk deflects the puck into the air and bats the puck on Oettinger mid-air.
The remainder of the period was punctuated by missed opportunities, as if not converting on an extended 5-on-3 wasn’t already a colossal missed opportunity.
First, Raty failed to capitalize on a sloppy line change from Dallas, firing the puck wide off a quick passing play from Conor Garland and Kane.
The Stars then had their first missed opportunity of the period, failing to move the puck over the goal line despite ample opportunity.
In a rare moment where the Canucks’ opponent warranted the dreaded Sportsnet Shift Time graphic, Boeser capitalized on a redirected dump-in from Garland for a breakaway shot on Oettinger.
The choppy GIPHY graphics don’t do enough justice to the Canucks’ work in the second period. With 4 minutes left in the frame, Oettinger made an absolutely ridiculous glove save that denied EP40 a surefire empty net goal.
Not long after, Lankinen went tit-for-tat with Oettinger, getting his neck behind a one-timer blast by Vlad Kolyachonok from just 12 feet away.
The above sequence was one of the few times when the Canucks’ in-zone coverage broke down. You can see Elias Pettersson (D) float off the wall, and Linus Karlsson gets stuck in no man’s land, spinning to find who he should be marking. Otherwise, it was a fairly clean period for Vancouver in terms of their man-on-man coverage.
Early into the final frame, the Canucks were off to a fourth consecutive power play.
Midway through, a failed clearance from Lindell ended up on the tape of Boeser, who set EP40 up with a pass that gets converted on 99 times out of 100 for a normal team.
Oettinger had other plans.
I don’t know if he borrowed a time machine ahead of time and knew what was coming, but Oettinger’s reaction time from the second period onward was something to behold. The guy was on a heater; immaculate reaction time and positioning to deny the Canucks’ best shooters over, and over, and over, and over again.
When they weren’t peppering Oettinger with five-alarm chances, the Canucks were ripping howitzers wide of the net altogether.
Around the 7-minute mark of the final frame, a period that to that point had been solely controlled by the Canucks, the Stars found a seam, and tilted momentum in their direction off of it; long enough to swing the game in their favour.
For the second time in the night, Lankinen lost control of the puck within his pads. Unlike the first time, Hronek was there to stop the empty net tap-in.
Not just a tap-in from anyone, either, but a tap-in opportunity from the guy who was a foot away from scoring his 10th in five games!
While facetious, I don’t think Hronek’s efforts this season should go unnoticed, especially with Hughes’ defensive form still coming to grips.
The Canucks have outscored their opposition 19-10 with Hronek on the ice at 5-on-5.
I mean, just look at the timing on this denial!
Sure, they gave up the lead a few minutes later, but that wasn’t on Hronek! He played his part, and he has played his part as the team’s #1 right-shot guy very well this season.
Following Hronek’s save, Kyle Capobianco drew a holding penalty against Drew O’Connor, breaking the Canucks’ run of power play opportunities.
The Canucks’ PK was physical and aggressive against the Stars, with M.Pettersson laying out Rantanen twice to deny the league’s 2nd-best power play from setting up.
Hronek took a spin with Elias Pettersson to help Vancouver’s PK shut out the Stars’ power play…but at a great cost.
Jpat’s jinx confirmed a rollercoaster first period, but denied fans of another box score throwback to the 80s.
The second I saw Halford’s tweet, I knew with certainty that the Canucks were going to lose this one in regulation.
The Canucks torched the Stars in the faceoff dot, dominated possession, shots and shot attempts, drew more penalties, and threw more hits. Yet, their best performance of the season boiled down to their star defenceman making an uncharacteristically dangerous pinch as the last man back, while compensating for the equally egregious pinch by his rookie d-partner, Tom Willander, who was only skating with Hughes because Hronek had just finished a tour on the Canucks’ PK.
The compounding mistakes gave way to a glorious breakaway for Dallas’ Colin Blackwell, who regained the Stars’ lead for the third time.
3-2 Stars
Following Blackwell’s goal, the air had completely come out of the building. Off a stolen goal and a failed power play, the Stars had found their legs, outshooting Vancouver 8-2 before coasting back on their lead.
Thoroughly out of the driver’s seat and desperate for an equalizer, Foote attempted to pull Lankinen for the extra attacker.
First, Kane flubbed a dump-in that forced a regroup from the d-zone that sent Lankinen back into his net.
Next, Miro Heiskanen easily poked the puck off Kane’s stick after catching the veteran forward sleeping on his drive down the left wing. The steal blew the zone for Vancouver, and gifted Dallas’ Jamie Benn and Rantanen a freebie two-on-one against Boeser going the other way as the rest of Canucks could only watch.
What came next was just an absolutely filthy spinning backhand goal from Rantanen.
It was the kind of spinning goal that you only see from the kind of game-breaking talents that you find at the top end of the draft, the trade deadline, or from Mason Raymond.
4-2 Stars
Boeser’s with Rantanen the entire way on the retreat, too! He creates just enough space with the dip and spin to uncork a vicious backhander under Lankinen’s left arm. Nasty, nasty stuff.
No.
This stat does not seem good.
Let’s be real.
Even if the Canucks won the first overall pick in the draft, the player they select is cursed to not live up to the absurdly high standard set by recent 1st overall picks, Matthew Schaefer, Macklin Celebrini, and Conor Bedard.
Maybe I’m being overdramatic, but that just feels like how things are destined to go.
I’m sorry if you’re upset that I didn’t spend enough time talking about David Kampf and his performance on d-zone face-offs.
I just can’t be bothered to care about someone closer to being on the list like Drance’s above, than a difference maker for Vancouver this season and beyond.
Welcome back to NHL Notebook — the series here at CanucksArmy where we deliver you news and notes from around the National Hockey League — oftentimes through a Vancouver Canucks-tinted lens!
We were just here covering things around the league yesterday, but big enough news has broken since our last post that is important to cover.
Connor Hellebuyck out 4-6 weeks
TSN’s Darren Dreger reported on Friday morning that the Winnipeg Jets are shutting down league MVP and back-to-back Vezina Trophy winner Connor Hellebuyck for 4-6 weeks to undergo an Arthroscopic knee procedure.
Hellebuyck has reportedly been dealing with this injury for some time, with reports indicating this was something bothering the netminder since training camp. However, he has toughed it out for his team this season, starting 14 of the Jets’ 19 games this season. In those games, he has an 8-6 record, posting a 2.51 goals-against average and a .913 save percentage.
This 4-6 week timeline has Hellebuyck pegged to return as early as December 19, and as late as January 2. The Jets are getting in front of this issue, rather than having it linger for the remainder of the season and potentially affect his opportunity to represent his country at the Winter Olympics in Italy.
Winnipeg’s backup goaltender, Eric Comrie, will handle the bulk of the starts for the Jets moving forward. In his five starts this season, Comrie has a respectable 4-1 record, with a 2.6 goals against average and a .908 save percentage. New Westminster, BC native, Thomas Milic, has since been recalled from the Manitoba Moose and will serve as the backup for the time being. Milic has a 5-2-2 record, a 2.14 goals against average, and a .921 save percentage with the Moose this season.
Mikko Rantanen fined $2,000 for an embellishment
Dallas Stars forward Mikko Rantanen is sure making headlines lately.
First, it was his hit on Alex Romanov late in the game against the New York Islanders earlier this week. Then, it was his highlight-reel goal to ice the game against the Canucks.
Mikko Rantanen scores a ridiculous goal to put the Stars up 4-2
: Sportsnet | #Canucks pic.twitter.com/Um5NRcgvks
— CanucksArmy (@CanucksArmy) November 21, 2025
And, the next morning, the NHL fined the Stars winger $2,000 for an embellishment in a game against the Ottawa Senators on November 11.
In the description, the NHL said:
“Rantanen was issued a Warning following an incident flagged by NHL Hockey Operations during NHL Game No. 68 vs. Vancouver on October 16. His second Citation, which triggered the $2,000 fine, was issued for an incident at 1:09 of the third period during NHL Game No. 258 at Ottawa on November 11.”
Here was the play:
We could not find the embellishment against the Canucks on October 16. However, we saw a little embellishment on a follow-through from Marcus Pettersson last night:
Embellishing has been an issue for Rantanen throughout his career. In 2018, Rantanen was given the same $2,000 fine for an embellishment (diving) on November 14. He was then slapped with another $2,000 embellishment fine (diving) against the San Jose Sharks on April 30. He did not end up paying the fine, as he won his appeal. But this has followed the player throughout his career. So it’s not surprising to see the league come down on him again.
Alex Ovechkin moves into 10th all-time in points
With a hat trick and an assist on Thursday night against the Montreal Canadiens, Alex Ovechkin has moved into 10th on the all-time points list.
Ovechkin started the night two points back of Sakic with 1,639. After opening the scoring one minute into the game, Ovechkin tied Sakic with the primary assist on this Ethen Frank goal:
He then passed Sakic late in the third period, capitalizing on a two-on-one with Dylan Strome:
Ovechkin completed the hat trick with an empty net goal two minutes later.
In the final year of his five-year, $9.5 million average annual value contract, it has been speculated that this will be Ovechkin’s last season in the NHL. If that is the case, Ovechkin will likely finish his NHL career 10th in points, as the one he’s chasing down is Sidney Crosby, who, at the time of this writing, has a 65-point lead on the Russian. However, every goal that Ovechkin scores only lengthens his lead as the NHL’s top goal scorer. His three goals against the Canadiens now have him at 907 – 13 ahead of Wayne Gretzky.
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The Vancouver Canucks might be in on another potential free agent.
On Saturday, the St. Louis Blues placed forward Alexandre Texier on unconditional waivers for the purpose of contract termination. If he were to clear on Sunday, he would become an unrestricted free agent.
One of the teams interested in the 26-year-old is the Canucks, according to Rick Dhaliwal of Donnie & Dhali – The Team. He stated that he believes Vancouver has been in contact with Texier’s agent, Dan Milstein.
With a number of forwards injured, including Flip Chytil and Teddy Blueger, the Canucks seemingly have a desire to add more players to their roster with NHL experience.
It has been a tough couple of years for Texier. After appearing in just 31 games last season, the French winger has been limited to just eight of the Blues’ first 21 games of the season. He was designated to the non-roster list on Thursday in order to make room for Jake Neighbours before being placed on waivers.
Texier cleared waivers on Friday and was promptly assigned to St. Louis’ American Hockey League affiliate, the Springfield Thunderbirds.
Texier was in the midst of the final season of his two-year contract he signed with the Blues in June 2024 after his signing rights were traded to the Blues by the Columbus Blue Jackets. That deal has an AAV of $2.1 million.
At one point, Texier was regarded as a solid prospect. He was taken by the Blue Jackets in the second round of the 2017 NHL Draft, but never found his scoring touch in the league. After being loaned to the ZSC Lions of the National League in Switzerland in 2022-23, he returned to Columbus to set career highs in goals (12) and points (30).
Texier has appeared in 240 regular-season games in his NHL career, scoring 40 goals and 51 assists for 91 points. He’s also added eight points in 21 postseason contests.
If the Canucks were to add Texier, it would mark the second time this season they have acquired a player who previously had his contract terminated. Just last weekend, Vancouver signed forward David Kampf to a one-year deal, not long after his previous deal with the Toronto Maple Leafs was wiped. That contract has a cap hit of $1.1 million.
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There are highs and lows to every Vancouver Canucks season. More lows than highs over the last decade, but you still learn how to ride the waves. Sometimes the highs are impossibly fun, and before you know it, you’re wondering if you should change the name of your cat to Nikita Purrdorov. And sometimes the lows are incredibly depressing, like watching in real time as Jim Benning trades for Oliver Ekman-Larsson that even the worst fantasy hockey commissioner would have vetoed before sending out a stern e-mail about “the importance of maintaining league integrity.”
Through it all, you manage to hold on, because that’s what sports are; it’s about the journey, damn it. That’s what makes losing all the more important, you see. Because it makes the eventual winning all the more sweeter. Or so I assume based on the reaction of other fan bases when they actually get to win.
But what they don’t tell you is the bleakness that takes over when a team is stuck in the mushy middle; afloat in a sea of Granlunds, wondering how long until drinking your own pee becomes the only option for survival. Instead of anger or excitement, there is that word every sports team trying to sell tickets should fear: apathy.
And after Sunday night’s loss to the Calgary Flames, this might be the most apathetic the season has felt for Vancouver.
It’s not just the fact that the Canucks were playing in the impossibly large shadow of the success of the Whitecaps and Goldeneyes over the weekend.
It’s not just losing to the only team lower than them in the Pacific Division.
It’s also not just how the team markets itself, presenting every single aspect of the Canucks in the blandest way possible, as if doing everything in its power to avoid connecting to the city in any meaningful way was the end game here. It’s as if they entered “How can we present the team like mayonnaise?” into ChatGPT and ran with it. Hell, Thomas Müller in a couple of months has done better PR work than the Canucks have done in years, just by embracing the city and showing a side of humanity sorely lacking from the hockey club. You can’t tell me there isn’t a trickle-down effect from the top of the organization in how it views hockey, infecting everyone in its path.
It’s not even the way the team jumps at the first chance it gets to gouge its own fan base when the team has a tiny bit of success. Want to see the fastest human alive? Watch the Canucks make the playoffs and see ownership make the call to raise ticket prices immediately. Which, hey, business is business, and the Canucks are certainly not alone in this regard, but it just feels extra predatory from a team that hasn’t sustained a level of success for many, many years.
It’s the fact that all of the above items listed exist in a world in which the entire franchise’s future rests upon the shoulders of Quinn Hughes in every single way possible, and we still don’t know if he’s coming or going. And I truly don’t know how you can sell tickets in this environment other than praying that Canadians love hockey too much to quit on them.
If all you have to look forward to is a decision from your captain next season at some point, not even the snazziest team slogans are going to generate much excitement in this town.
“Hey, did you hear if Quinn Hughes is staying yet?”
“No idea, but this year the team slogan is “Shoot every puck like it’s your last! Wanna go in on season tickets??”
So aside from going on a PDO bender, it’s hard to imagine things getting better anytime soon. No offence to Lukas Reicel, John Beecher, or Alexandre Texier, but the needle doesn’t move much when these are the names in the mix for Vancouver. Sure, Filip Chytil returning would help the team, but asking a guy with concussion issues to be a sustainable part of the lineup feels like a reach. It once again feels very much like the “ok but seriously, what if everything went right?” game plan.
Ultimately, it just feels like this season will be about watching Quinn Hughes trying to do his best attempt at a modern take on Sisyphus, while we all wait to see where his next contract is signed.
Which feels a lot more like “the beatings will continue until morale improves” territory more than anything else.
Let’s jump into this.
Perhaps inspired by the words of Jeff Paterson and Daniel Wagner on CanucksArmy this week, Filip Hronek opened the scoring for the Canucks with a little bit of brilliance, if I may be so bold:
Sprung on a two-on-one by a Jake DeBrusk backhander, Hronek simply waited until every Calgary Flame committed to stopping the pass instead of the shot. I think my favourite part of the goal is Hronek just sort of watching Kevin Bahl slide out of frame before he calmly went top shelf where mom keeps the location of her Twitter account hidden.
I am excited to ask Hronek about this goal when he gives his next media interview, three years from now.
And if the depressing intro in which I told you that by the end of the night you’d feel nothing for this team didn’t get you stoked to keep reading, I can honestly say this was the high point of the game. Even the highlight reel goal from Quinn Hughes later in the game mostly felt sad because everyone knew there was no real point to it. It had a lot of “you didn’t have to do this, really” to the friend who brings over a nice seven-layer dip to a funeral, energy to it.
Most of the Canucks highlights were a) generated in some form by Quinn Hughes and b) occurred in the first period. You would think the fact that Calgary had played the night before would be in favour of the Canucks, but you would be sorely mistaken. In fact, as the game wore on, the Canucks generated fewer and fewer scoring chances.
First period? Flames and Canucks tied at five high-danger chances apiece.
Second period? Flames had three. Canucks zero.
Third period, with the game on the line? Flames had two; the Canucks managed a single high-danger shot.
If you’ve ever screamed at your TV because you couldn’t run in camp in Red Dead Redemption 2, then you have a pretty solid understanding of what it was like watching this game.
That being said, we have to post the Quinn Hughes clips for posterity, so here he is sending in a tactical nuke of a pass to Max Sasson, who promptly missed the net:
From a “that’s pretty bad ass” level of skill, it is extremely fun to watch Quinn Hughes slow the game down until he can locate a guy with a perfect breakaway pass.
From a “Quinn Hughes and Josh Allen probably call each other late at night and commiserate about their jobs, don’t they.” level of pondering, it’s kind of sad.
Kevin Lankinen did not have an amazing night of hockey. Not that I think him being locked in would have done much, mind you. If a dude bursts through the door with 19 bullet holes in his chest, you don’t often comment that he might be feeling better if he’d only been shot 11 times.
That being said, here is Lankinen making a save back when the game felt winnable, stoning Kevin Bahl and eating some flesh for his troubles:
Not only did Bahl get denied on his shot, but he also took a penalty. And on top of that, he got to watch Quinn Hughes try to go end-to-end with the puck before setting up Jake DeBrusk for the scoring chance. This is the kind of play that happens to me in beer league hockey and often leaves me gazing into the mirror, asking myself what I’m doing with my life.
Luckily for Bahl, he can actually play hockey at a high level, so he probably blamed bees or something.
I will give the Flames credit for being good visitors, as they made sure to let everyone know this game wasn’t going to be close for too long.
The first goal from the Flames came near the middle of the opening frame, and this might shock you: the Canucks got caught chasing the puck and blowing coverage:
“Chasing the puck and blowing coverage,” aka the name of your high school band, has been a prominent feature of these Vancouver Canucks this season. And I will say the biggest tip of the hat to Rick Tocchet, for whatever issues you might have had with him, I do think it says something that almost every defenceman has played worse under Adam Foote. Again, maybe they need time to adjust to the system, or maybe they simply do not have the skills needed for Foote’s system, but all we know is that it has been ridiculously easy for opponents to get the Canucks swarming the puck and leaving guys open as a result.
Which is what happens here, as Double Mac loses a battle for the puck along the boards, while at the same time Linus Karlsson is cheating the zone a bit for an offensive rush. To Karlsson’s credit, he turns around right away and jumps on the puck, but the problem is that Max Sasson also decides he should be invited to the puck party, so he drops his keys in the bowl as well.
With three Canucks up high, Calgary swings the puck across the point, allowing Rasmus Andersson to jump up into the rush. Quinn Hughes then releases Morgan Frost for reasons (Bees? Or he thought Tyler Myers was going to cover and didn’t realize Tyler already had a guy? Or bees?), so both Double Mac and Hughes rush Rasmus, allowing Morgan Frost to be all alone for the tip in front.
Which, hey man, a lot of goals against involve plays breaking down, that’s kind of the nature of the beast. But when you’re a bottom-five team and your defensive coverage is tanking, and you continuously see goals happen on blown coverage, it’s fair to say there are issues somewhere in the system.
I have some good news for you. The Flames’ second goal? It wasn’t because the Canucks blew coverage and chased the puck for 30 seconds.
No, the good news, nay, the moral victory on the Flames’ second goal, was because it was a bad bounce for Vancouver:
Yes, we have officially entered Moral Victory season.
Did you just fall down the stairs and hurt your back? No, no, my friend. You fell down the stairs, and somehow your phone didn’t break. That’s how we’re viewing this moral victory.
Now, Aatu Räty has been quietly having himself a “this guy might be an NHL regular” kind of season so far, so you can only do so much when trying to come up with jokes at his expense on this goal. The kid tried to make a good play by knocking down the puck, and then Michael Backlund gets a shot on the redirected puck, which allows Connor Zary to bash in the rebound.
If you want to criticize something on the goal, it’s clearly Tom Willander and Aatu Räty not being strong enough on their checks, as they basically allow Zary and Backlund to walk in and get a stick on the puck. Willander in particular has lost a lot of crease battles during his call-up, so that is clearly an area he will have to work on as he adds more muscle and adjusts to the NHL game. This is where the big boys and Kevin Nash play, after all.
Also, if you don’t shore that up, it’s what leads to the head coach screaming really loudly during practices.
Maybe “compete is in our nature” was the secret to all of this? Maybe without that slogan, the Canucks have lost the will to battle it out??
One of the best, most exciting aspects of Tom Willander’s game is watching him activate on the rush. And when he gets a shift or two with Quinn Hughes, it’s fun to see him get caught up in it:
Willander is smart enough to see Quinn Hughes wheeling and dealing, so he skates down low to give a passing lane to the captain, which Hughes gladly takes him up on. Willander then tries to feed the puck in front for a bang-bang play to David Kämpf, which doesn’t work, but here is the best part: Willander skates back hard and ends up generating a takeaway when he throws a body check on a back check.
He doesn’t get lazy; he doesn’t sit back and watch to see if his team will get the puck back. He hurries his ass up and gets back into position and is able to get the puck back as a result of it.
And since Quinn Hughes is Quinn Hughes, he draws a penalty a few shifts later and once again goes full Josh Allen, scanning the field and praying Keon Coleman Jake DeBrusk can get open:
Jake doesn’t score in his Tim Horton’s office, but that was probably the third-best scoring chance on the night? That has to count for something, right?
And just in case you thought it was a fluke, here is Quinn Hughes once again long bombing a pass to Jake DeBrusk to start the second period:
I feel like Jake is starting to understand the “get kind of open and Quinn will find you” strategy he can rely on in games.
It’s true. Nobody thought it was possible, but we now have definitive proof that Evander Kane can back-check when he wants to:
Blake Coleman’s fingerprints were all over this game for Calgary, and I know this mostly because I kept muttering “that Coleman guy again? In this economy?” for the majority of the game. And on this play, he hits the stick lift button and gets around Marcus Pettersson (that used to mean something, damn it), only to run into Evander Kane shutting his sh!t down. It’s a fantastic play from Evander Kane, and surely he would do nothing to squander that goodwill later in the game.
Moving on, we haven’t seen Quinn Hughes in a while, so here he is avoiding detection and completing his Hitman mission flawlessly:
I don’t even know what NHL players think when they try to run down Hughes and get evaded that easily. I can only assume you mutter to yourself, “well sh!t, that just happened,” and pine for the days when standard definition TV hid most of this.
The Flames would get their third goal off of a well-meaning Tom Willander, holding on for dear life to Joel Farabee and praying that today is the day he wins a net front battle:
Bit of luck, bit of skill for Kevin Bahl as he knows what he’s doing, sending the puck in behind the pad of the lesser Kevin like that.
As for Willander, Farabee sets a low centre of gravity and outright wins the battle, setting up shop in the crease, and just creating general chaos for Bahl to shoot into, as Willander just sort of leans over top of him and wonders why he won’t go away.
Tyler Myers would have cross-checked Farabee and then given him a Stone Cold Stunner. I’m not saying that’s the right play; I am just confirming your suspicions about what Chaos Giraffe would have done.
Kane makes a decent play earlier, and wipes that out by flapping his gums and getting an unsportsmanlike penalty after a Calgary goal.
Tell me again why we picked up that knob? #Canucks
— SlyM@slym.bsky.social (@SlyM) November 24, 2025
You know what they say when you’re down 3-1, make sure you sh!t talk the other team so much that you get an unsportsmanlike penalty on the play:
I will say there is a time and a place for things like this, and I don’t think a team near the bottom of the standings should be doing too much talking. Even in games the Canucks are winning handily, we’ve seen Evander Kane “scoreboard” the other team, and it’s like my dude, nobody looks good on this team right now. Don’t be that guy on Xbox chirping into his mic all night when he’s got a 3/19 KD ratio.
I ran the numbers and watched the videos, and I believe I have found the Canucks best scoring chance of the second period, via the hands of one motivated by local media, Fil Hronek:
If that doesn’t sell tickets, I don’t know what will.
I am itching to watch the Canucks game but I am at work… how are we looking gang #canucks
— lara
If you asked Blake Coleman, he would tell you it was 4-1 after this play:
That fool, the game wouldn’t be 4-1 until much later.
I bet Coleman thought he made it 5-1 on this play?
Ha ha, you dummy, it wouldn’t be 5-1 until the third period. What a fool.
The Flames would then make it 4-1 on a rebound off of an Andersson shot near the end of the second period:
Sharangovich scores, which feels like it was made considerably easier by the fact that nobody was covering him? In fact, two Flames had set up shop in front of Lankinen, and the Canucks, at best, seemed only kind of put out by it? Like, I am sure they knew the Flames were near their goalie, I just don’t think they particularly cared to do anything about it.
Which again doesn’t really lend itself to a strong defensive strategy.
Yay, time for third period “highlights”. Anytime I use the word “fun”, it’s going to mean “brutal”, but in order to try and keep the positive vibes going, we will say the word “fun”.
So first up, we have the Canucks opening the third period by generating a Marcus Pettersson point shot:
That was a “fun” scoring chance for a “fun” team that really needed to score some goals.
Next, we had Quinn Hughes once again locating someone down the ice with a Hail Mary pass, and in this case, it was Drew O’Connor:
The play ended with a “fun” scoring chance from Jake DeBrusk, who basically tried to bank the puck in behind the net after the point shot from Elias Pettersson just went wide.
And thus ends the third period highlights, aside from a Quinn Hughes moment coming up.
“Fun.”
Blake Coleman finally got to celebrate for real as he managed to crack the code on the Canucks power play:
Yes, feeding the puck to Quinn Hughes whenever possible is something other teams have picked up on, as Brock Boeser’s return pass to Quinn Hughes is stolen easily by Coleman, ending in a “fun” breakaway. The Canucks power play has looked faster and more dynamic this season, so I will give them credit for that, but this is once again another situation in which the Canucks shot themselves in the foot with sloppy play.
Ah yes, the fueled by spite goal, I know it well:
Who amongst us hasn’t been so angry, so pissed off, that they went out and did something all by themselves to show the world who’s boss?
Which is what Quinn Hughes does on this play. Why make the delightful long passes if nobody is going to score on them? Why dangle all the way down the ice if all you’re going to do is pass the puck off to someone who will miss the net? Why not just do it yourself?
It’s a wonderfully skillful goal, and continues the long resume for Quinn Hughes as an elite, generational talent that is probably worth a random in return were he to ever be traded.
The Canucks, inspired by the bravado and skill of their captain, promptly responded by letting Morgan Frost hit the post:
And then letting John Beecher skate right around DOC for the dangerous scoring chance:
This was not a good hockey game for Vancouver.
I can't blame Quinn Hughes for wanting out of this shitshow, this management group has completely bungled a golden opportunity to establish a dynasty. Breaks my heart.#Canucks
— Julius Freezer(@JuliusFreezer) November 24, 2025
I will say that even down 5-2, with under three minutes to go, Quinn Hughes was doing everything in his power to score, and even drew a penalty late in the game:
Which again, this is very much “no, no, seriously, you did NOT have to do that” energy, but it’s who he is, the dude wants to win, and we can all respect that.
The problem is this team once again fell into the “hey let’s just send the puck to Quinn Hughes and let him deal with it,” which the Flames easily read, and almost scored as a result of it:
Hey, it could have been worse. It could have been 6-2.
I think my main takeaway from this game, to take us full circle back to the intro, is just the lack of response from the fans. No booing. No anger. No jersey tossing. Nothing.
And hey, maybe it’s just a relic of the weekend. Maybe all the other feel good stories made this game easy to take.
But after watching this team stuck in a time loop of never being good enough but never quite bad enough for a legitimate rebuild for so many years now, it wouldn’t surprise me if this was the start of a long stretch of apathy from the fan base unless major changes are made.
It just remains to be seen whose hand forces it.
Best called it
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Welcome back to Blackfish: Our weekly Vancouver Canucks prospect report.
Abbotsford’s struggles continue to test the depth chart as they drop a pair of games, but the play of their young defenders remains a genuine bright spot. Over the Western League, Braeden Cootes made the Teddy Bears rain. Meanwhile, Wilson Björck scored a beautiful goal in overtime and serves as our player highlight this week.
Let’s dive right in.
Abbotsford Canucks
Oh boy. The Abbotsford Canucks hit the quarter mark of their season on Saturday night, playing their 18th game and adding another loss to extend their latest skid to four straight. Through those 18 games, they’ve managed just three wins, two of which came during opening weekend back in mid-October. To say times are tough may be an understatement, and that sentiment is stretching clean across both tiers of Canucks hockey right now.
If you’re hunting for silver linings, we might be diving into draft-eligible chatter far earlier than expected this season. And that’s music to the ears of prospect enthusiasts.
On a more serious note, the one genuine bright spot in Abbotsford remains the play of rookie defender Sawyer Mynio. He began the year as a sheltered third-pairing option, but injuries and call-ups vaulted him into low-to-mid-20s usage just weeks into his inaugural year. Even with recent reinforcements in Kirill Kudryavtsev and Victor Mancini returning to the farm, Mynio is still holding down the fort as the team’s go-to option on both the top power play unit and the penalty kill.
Mynio picked up three assists over the weekend and now sits second on the team with nine points (two goals, seven assists). That total also puts him in a tie for second among all AHL rookie defencemen. He’s being trusted in every situation and continues to shine as a small glimmer of light in an otherwise dark season.
As mentioned, Kudryavtsev is back down, and while Mynio has taken the reins as the top dog, the Russian defender has quietly continued to do his thing. He scored his first of the season over the weekend — part of a two-point outing in San Jose — and looked poised throughout.
It’s not easy to walk away looking positive in Abbotsford games these days, but the two young blue-liners are nowhere near the source of the team’s struggles.
Up front, there were encouraging signs as well.
Jonathan Lekkerimäki, still working through what is very likely a conditioning stint, collected his second goal of the season and finished with a two-point effort.
He fired five shots on target and once again stood out as one of the most dangerous Canucks on the ice. The club spent too much time in the penalty box over the two-game set, cutting into his minutes slightly, but he remains one of the few pieces of genuine excitement in an otherwise stale offensive corps.
With Nils Aman out nursing an injury, Ty Mueller stepped up to centre the Swedish sharpshooter — and he’s heating up. Mueller added another goal and assist over the weekend, giving him five points in his last five games. Unsurprisingly, those points are likely the direct link to a boost in play lately. His board work, puck patience, and overall presence all seem to have taken a step forward.
Vilmer Alriksson chipped in offensively too, scoring a goal while also collecting two separate 10-minute misconducts. As noted in the last few instalments, he’s been used heavily as a net-front presence and has earned top-six minutes for a decent stretch of time now.
With his big frame, he’s generated a steady diet of chances from the bumper spot and finally buried one. Now sitting second on the team with 33 penalty minutes, he’s showing real snarl — and honestly, we love it.
In goal, Nikita Tolopilo returned to the crease and started both games of the back-to-back. He played well — making 31 and 28 saves respectively — but didn’t get the offensive support needed to push either game over the line. Given how this season is trending, it might be time to judge Abbotsford’s goalies more on their difficult saves than their stat lines, because those numbers are destined to look rough behind a team carrying a league-worst minus-45 goal differential.
He’s back up in Vancouver and will join the team on their upcoming California road trip.
CHL
The Vancouver Canucks’ 2025 first-rounder, Braeden Cootes, may need to be rebranded as the Teddy Bear Whisperer. Seattle held its annual Teddy Bear Toss night over the weekend. To the delight of Canucks fans, it was Cootes who pulled the trigger to unleash the wave of Teddys. Driving confidently into the middle of the ice, he spun and snapped a shot on goal — one the netminder would certainly want back — and the bears rained down.
Braeden Cootes (#Canucks) makes the teddy bears rainpic.twitter.com/KOTS1QaY3f
— Dave Hall (@davehall1289) November 23, 2025
Just look at this mess…
That was one of two goals he scored on the weekend. The night prior, he won an offensive-zone faceoff cleanly back to the point, then quietly faded into space into the slot as the puck worked its way down the wall. When the pass came, he was loaded up and ready, hammering a one-timer home: textbook centre support, perfect timing, and another tick on the scoresheet.
Cootes wrapped the weekend with two goals, nine shots, and a plus-3 across two games. He’s now tied for fourth in Thunderbirds scoring with seven goals and 17 points in 12 games.
We’ll have a full breakdown of his overall game soon, so we’ll leave it there for now. But it’s hard not to like what he’s bringing as a centreman who seems to be everywhere, all the time.
Alexei Medvedev cooled off slightly this past week — if we can even call it that. He split his two starts, stopping 32 of 36 in a 5–2 loss (with an empty-netter against) before bouncing back with a tidy 21-save win.
If you prefer the glass-half-empty view, Medvedev hasn’t strung together back-to-back wins since early November. But with the glass-half-full lens, he hasn’t suffered back-to-back losses all season, either. Every time he drops a game, he’s answered with a win.
Over in Brampton, Gabriel Chiarot is charging up the Steelheads’ leaderboard thanks to a few more points that included a shorthanded goal. He now leads the club with 10 goals, sits second with 18 points, and is second with a plus-8, one of the few forwards on the roster with a plus rating.
And in Edmonton, Parker Alcos is fully back. After easing in on the third line following his return, he jumped right back onto the Oil Kings’ top unit and didn’t miss a beat. He added another plus-3 to his ledger and now sits at plus-16 on the season, putting him near the top of the WHL’s defensive leaderboard.
NCAA
There wasn’t much happening for Canucks prospects at the NCAA level this past week — except for Wilson Björck, who delivered one of the nicer overtime winners you’ll see this season.
After collecting the puck in his own end, he built speed through the neutral zone, got it back on the return pass, slipped around the defender with a quick inside move, and snapped a shot under the bar to end it. There’s nothing quite like the ping of a perfectly placed shot like that, right?
If you missed it, we ran a full breakdown on why Björck’s game has become so intriguing. It’s not because we’re projecting stardom. In fact, we aren’t even sure how far his ceiling goes just yet. But the intangibles and foundation he plays with are precisely the traits that can build a dependable pro.
As we highlighted in that piece — and as his OT winner showcased — Björck keeps his head up at all times. That might sound obvious, but it’s not a universal skill. Whether carrying the puck or playing away from it, he’s constantly scanning, shoulder-checking, and identifying options early. It allows him to play fast without rushing, and to make plays on a dime because he’s already processed the ice before the puck arrives.
With the puck on his stick, he maintains pace without ever needing to look down, which gives him a natural advantage in transition and small-area situations.
The other cornerstone of his game is his motor. Björck plays with edge, refuses to quit on pucks, and brings a level of compete that jumps off the screen. Pair that with a strong hockey IQ, and you get a player whose details give him a real shot at developing into something.
There’s some skill there, too. Will it fully translate? Hard to say. But he has a good shot, he thinks quickly, and he’s got the hands to activate when he needs to. He works the half-wall on the power play for a reason. At minimum, he’s a fun player to track — and for a fifth-round pick, he’s shaping up to be an exciting long-term bet.
Rest of the world
Over in Switzerland, Basile Sansonnens continues to skate with Lausanne’s men’s team, where he’s averaging just over 10 minutes per night. The usage is limited, but within those minutes, he’s been quietly effective in a shutdown role and has handled the pace and physicality of the National League surprisingly well for a teenager.
At 6-foot-4 and 205 pounds, Sansonnens already looks the part of a pro, and the strength he brings at just 19 years old stands out immediately. Despite the heavier competition, he’s held his own in board battles, stayed composed in front of his net, and shown the ability to make simple, reliable plays under pressure. The offence and puck control are still non-existent in his game, but his value comes from being hard to play against and his skating.
He remains a near-lock for Switzerland’s World Junior roster, where he should see top-four minutes and take on a primary shutdown role.
Until next time — stay tuned, stay curious, and stay on the prospect hunt.
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