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Instant Reaction: Kevin Lankinen makes 37 saves in Canucks’ 2-1 loss to Senators
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Photo credit: © Marc DesRosiers-Imagn Images
David Quadrelli
Jan 13, 2026, 21:31 ESTUpdated: Jan 13, 2026, 21:32 EST
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Welcome back to Instant Reaction, the series here at CanucksArmy where we give you our instant reaction to tonight’s Vancouver Canucks game and ask our readers to do the same in the comments section below!

Starting Lineup

First Period

It was a quiet start for the Canucks, but the good news was that it was also a relatively quiet start for the Senators as well. The Canucks’ first solid shift of the game came when the Kane-Räty-Höglander trio wreaked some havoc in the Senators’ end. Kane lowered his shoulder and drove the net hard after realizing he had the defenceman beat, but Kane elected to go for a wraparound attempt and stuffed the puck into the side of the net.
After that, the Senators began to crank up the pressure, with multiple shot attempts either hitting the post or just missing the net by a matter of inches. After 12 minutes of play, the Senators were outshooting the Canucks 8-1. The Canucks had some decent quick-strike opportunities thanks to some neutral zone takeaways, but they struggled to convert those opportunities into actual shots on goal. Jake DeBrusk, for example, fanned on a one-timer attempt after Elias Pettersson stole the puck and sent a cross-ice feed to DeBrusk.
They had their chances, but the Senators simply had more. And they made good on one of those chances with just over four minutes left in the period. After a faceoff loss in the Canucks’ zone, Artem Zub sniped one far side on Kevin Lankinen.
1-0 Senators.
After the goal, Victor Mancini iced the puck and brought a faceoff right back into the Canucks’ end. This time, it was Elias Pettersson who lost the faceoff, and the Senators scored a goal nearly identical to the one 15 seconds earlier.
2-0.
Some takeaways from the first:
-Nice to see Zeev Buium get back in tonight. I like the idea of Tom Willander getting his turn for a reset as well in a busy month of January for the Canucks. Will Victor Mancini be the next young defenceman to sit?
-The Canucks are a bad team, obviously, but we gave the players plenty of credit for how hard they battled earlier in the season. So when they play a period like this one, where they lost nearly every puck battle and hardly possessed the puck, it’s only fair to call them out. This was a bad opening 20.

Second Period

Filip Hronek took the game’s first penalty when he chipped the puck out and over the glass from his own end less than two minutes into the second frame. Last night, it took four seconds for the Canadiens to score against the Canucks’ penalty kill. Tonight, it was going to take at least two minutes, as the Canucks killed this one off.
Kevin Lankinen turned in a save of the year candidate when he scrambled to rob Dylan Cozens with a quick sweep of his blocker to stop the puck from crossing the line.
Jake DeBrusk had one of the Canucks’ best chances of the game when he received a cross-crease feed from Linus Karlsson on a 2-on-1. Unfortunately for DeBrusk, his shot hit the outside of the post, and the Canucks continued to trail by a couple of goals.
The Canucks got their first power play of the night after Claude Giroux slashed Zeev Buium’s stick in two. On the ensuing power play, the Canucks managed to get set up at first, but by the end of it, they were the ones chasing the Senators’ penalty killers around, which is never a good sign. Not a great PP.
Not a great PP, not a great period, not a great first 40 minutes of play, really.
Some takeaways from the second:
-A couple of nice bursts from Liam Ohgren.
-30 shots through two periods was a season-high for the Senators, and they finished with 32 after 40 minutes.

Third Period

The third period began with some hard work on the forecheck from Jake DeBrusk, which led to a turnover that Linus Karlsson promptly fed into the middle of the ice to Elias Pettersson, who sniped his second goal in as many games.
2-1. That goal moved Pettersson to 10th all-time in Canucks franchise history.
This goal seemed to invigorate the Canucks, and they had some of their most spirited string of shifts right after the Pettersson goal got them on the board. Liam Ohgren narrowly missed tying this game up, and at the other end, Brady Tkachuk missed his chance to put his team up by two.
The two sides traded chances, with the Sens desperately trying not to lose their fifth straight, and the Canucks trying to avoid making it eight straight for them.
Trailing by a goal. the Canucks pulled Lankinen and sent out an extra attacker. They couldn’t find the tying goal, Conor Garland took a tripping penalty with 27 seconds left, and this one stood at 2-1 for Ottawa.
Some takeaways from the third:
-36 more games to go.
-10 goals in his last 20 games for Elias Pettersson… you hear that, other NHL teams?
-Brock Boeser is officially snakebitten.
-The Canucks were right there.
-Great game for Kevin Lankinen.
-Ottawa was reeling heading into tonight’s game. Nothing like a game against the 2025-26 Canucks to get things back on track! PSYCH!
What’s your instant reaction to this game? Let us know in the comments section below!
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