logo
CanucksArmy has no direct affiliation to the Vancouver Canucks, Canucks Sports & Entertainment, NHL, or NHLPA
3 Canucks Stars of the Week: Canucks put up two resilient wins in a row on California road trip
alt
Photo credit: © Matt Marton-Imagn Images
Arielle Lalande
Apr 13, 2026, 18:33 EDT
Comments
Welcome back to Stars of the Week at CanucksArmy! Every week, we’ll be bringing you our Top Three best and brightest performers on the Vancouver Canucks that week. Disagree with our picks or have your own stars to nominate? Let us know in the comments below!
We’re in the home stretch of what might just go down in history as the most excruciating Vancouver Canucks season to date. This has been a three Canucks stars of the week column during said excruciating season. Science said it wasn’t possible. Some weeks, I also said it wasn’t possible. 
Whether it has been the worst season in Canucks history is largely subjective and hard to nail down in terms of criteria. There have been plenty of hard times to reflect on since 1970, many before my time, I am sure. So, is it the Canucks worst season? For some, perhaps. Has it been excruciatingly long, invoking denial, anger, bargaining, and depression, just to finally land on acceptance? That is a resounding unanimous “Yes.”
The Canucks have heard the calls and prayers of their fans to do the funniest thing possible at the end of their 2025-26 campaign, and start spoiling the fun of other teams. The final six games of the Canucks season are a Pacific Division reunion tour — minus the Seattle Kraken — that this week produced a 2-1 loss against the Vegas Golden Knights, a 4-1 loss against the LA Kings, a 4-3 shootout win against the San Jose Sharks, and a 4-3 overtime win against the Anaheim Ducks. This has been both a fun reminder of just how inexplicably bad the entire division has been this season and a significant humbling, since the Canucks are still the worst amongst them.

Rock Bottom Stats Corner

Games played this week(s): 4
Games won this week(s): 2
Goals scored this week(s): 10
Goals against this week(s): 12
Total points gained this week(s): 4
Games since last win: 0!
Games won in 2026: 8
Goals scored in 2026: 98
Goals against in 2026: 171
Players traded in 2026: 7

The Tendy Tandem

What a week for Kevin Lankinen and Nikita Tolopilo. Someone get them some gift cards, or a nice, relaxing spa day…or maybe just the first flight to Cabo next week. 
Kevin Lankinen pulled out his elite shootout final boss skills to hold off the Sharks in the shootout, like taking candy from a baby, except the baby is the entire young roster of the San Jose Sharks and Kiefer Sherwood (who is missed dearly).
Lankinen was also named the Canucks’ nominee for the Bill Masterton Trophy this week, which is awarded to the player who best exemplifies perseverance, sportsmanship, and dedication to hockey. Lankinen is a consummate professional and absolutely deserves this nod. 
Nikita Tolopilo backstopped the team in three out of four of Vancouver’s games last week, too, also helping secure an overtime win against Anaheim that spoiled their chance to clinch a playoff spot that night. The Ducks were pushing hard in the back half of this game for that very reason, and also to spare the embarrassing scenario of one final loss to the 2025-26 Canucks. But Tolopilo held out, and the Ducks probably had to leave the Honda Center with the Shame Bell ringing behind them that night.
Even earlier in the week, when final scores did not favour Vancouver, Tolopilo kept it together. The low-scoring event that was the Vegas game was almost entirely thanks to Tolopilo’s efforts, earning second star of the game honours despite the loss, logging a .931 SV% after saving 27 out of 29 shots.

Brock Boeser

Brock Boeser scored a shorthanded goal this week. That’s it, that is the sentence. 
This is like coming home to find out your golden retriever, who knows how to ride a bike, has somehow taught himself to skateboard, but he’s honestly kind of good at it, so you can’t even complain. 
Brock Boeser, known penalty killer and 2026 King Clancy nominee, to the rescue. Also, if this moment wasn’t uncanny-valley enough, it was a great time to remember that John Carlson is in Anaheim now. 

Teddy Blueger

While Blueger appeared on the scoresheet with a power play goal of his own against San Jose, that was not even his best contribution of the week. Blueger was on one in the game against Anaheim. His best contribution was answering the bell against the Ducks captain and hockey’s  2026 public enemy number one, Radko Gudas.
Gudas laid out Liam Öhgren, which Blueger took offence to, and took a minor penalty for. Gudas didn’t take the bait. Later on in the game, however, the pair would give the crowd what they wanted.
That right there is leadership from team dad and future captain… *checks notes* Teddy Blueger? You know what, sure. 
Gudas is no stranger to being disliked for his, shall we say, physical style of play, but it is rare that one player inspires such ire across both league and national team rivalries. A shared grudge of Radko Gudas might actually be the most unified the U.S. and Canada have been in years.

Honourable Mentions

Since it’s the end of the season, it’s about time we just start enjoying the good moments when they happen. For once, there have been moments recently that have actually made a three stars of the week slot competitive. Jake DeBrusk scored another two power-play goals this week; Curtis Douglas scored his first NHL goal and led the team offensively against the Ducks for some reason; Kirill Kudryavtsev picked up his first NHL point; and Linus Karlsson ultimately called the game against the San Jose Sharks in the shootout. Strangely enough, there’s a lot to love about the end-of-season chaos Canucks. 

Marco Rossi

Marco Rossi is shaping up to be the exact kind of player he was promised to be — and one hopes that GM Patrik Allvin, who pursued the acquisition of Rossi like a cat pursues a laser pointer, shares this sentiment.
Despite a rough game against the Golden Knights, which was rough for essentially every skater on the team, Rossi looked great this week and seems to have very few issues finding chemistry with every combination thrown at him out on shifts. Besides, he got to be the overtime hero against the Ducks. 
Sponsored by bet365

Editorials

Breaking News