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Instant Reaction: Special teams the big story in Canucks’ 3-2 OT loss to Bruins
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Photo credit: © Bob Frid-Imagn Images
Tyson Cole
Jan 4, 2026, 01:00 ESTUpdated: Jan 4, 2026, 01:36 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

Minor lineup changes for tonight’s contest. The forward group remains intact from Friday night’s loss to the Seattle Kraken, but Elias Pettersson comes in on the blueline for PO Joseph. Kevin Lankinen gets the nod.

First period

Tom Willander brought Canucks fans to their feet – and not in a good way, in a near-goal against. With Morgan Geekie pressuring him, Willander lost control of the puck, allowing Geekie to steal the puck and ring it off the far side post. David Pastrnak followed that up with a threatening chance of his own, after sneaking behind Filip Hronek and Zeev Buium and was all alone on a breakaway. Unfortunately for Pastrnak, breakaways are just in-game shootout attempts. So you knew Lankinen was going to stop it:
There was a stretch of about five minutes in the middle of the period where we went without a whistle. And there was no action. It was a lot of going back and forth, dumping the puck in, changing, heading up ice, dumping the puck in, changing, etc. There was one solid chance, however, when Elias Pettersson took the puck off the boards, spun around a defender to collect it, and then ripped a shot off Jeremy Swayman’s right pad.
Later in the period, Marcus Pettersson got his stick up on Pastrnak. To which we had to witness the most boring minute of hockey, with the Bruins gaining the zone on the delayed penalty, only to misplay the puck and clear the zone themselves. This happened at least three times. But I guess it worked? Because the same Pettersson tripped Pavel Zacha as he entered the zone. Four-minute power play for the Bruins, with one of the Canucks’ best penalty killers in the box. And Boston capitalized.
Hometown kid Fraser Minten, playing his first NHL game in Vancouver, accepts the puck in the bumper, and has time to collect it, spin into a better shooting position and wire one past Lankinen.
1-0 Bruins.
The rest of the Bruins’ power play was short-lived after Kiefer Sherwood drew a retaliatory slash from Viktor Arvidsson following a hit. Bruins lead heading into the break.
First period takeaways:
– Lankinen needs to work on his rebound control. It’s been an issue this season, resulting in multiple goals against, and it nearly happened again in the first. Viktor Arvidsson shot it off the right pad of Lankinen, which left the juicy rebound hanging out in the slot. Luckily, Max Sasson was there to save the day and check Charlie McAvoy out of the way. But that’s something that has been costing Lankinen, and something he needs to clean up.
– Didn’t think it was a banner period for young Tom Willander.

Second period

The Canucks waste no time getting their first tally of the game. Filip Hronek fires a pass from the point to the net front that hits Pettersson’s skate and goes through Swayman’s five-hole. The Bruins’ netminder would cause a fuss about the goal against, but to no avail. Tie game.
1-1 tie.
Following the goal, both teams would trade penalties. Familiar face and most penalized player in the league, Nikita Zadorov, dumped Aatu Räty to the ice with a cross-check, sending the Canucks to their first full power play of the game. Willander got another shot as the quarterback of the top unit, but no dice. Then, Max Sasson dumps Casey Mittlestadt along the boards. But another familiar face, Elias Lindholm, would make the Canucks pay.
Pastrnak walks down the left wall, maintains a threatening positioning, leaving Lankinen unsure of whether he will pass or shoot, and threads the needle to Lindholm to get enough of it to re-direct it behind the Canucks goaltender and give the Bruins back their lead.
2-1 Bruins.
Zadorov’s former Canuck was showing, as he sent his former club back to the man advantage after a puck-over-the-glass penalty. Willander remained the defenceman on the top unit and had a hilarious snap hook one-time shot that somehow went in the corner. But later in the power play, Pettersson set him up for redemption. He claps a one-timer off the pad of Swayman, leaving DeBrusk with a wide-open net. Swayman robs his former teammate.
The Canucks were gifted yet another power play, and they finally converted on their fifth opportunity. Buium found a streaming Filip Hronek down the right wall. He tried to feed a pass to Linus Karlsson at the net front, but it went off Charlie McAvoy’s skate and behind Swayman to equalize the match. Sometimes you’ve got to be lucky to be good.
2-2 tie.
And that was the period.
Second period takeaways:
– This has been a boring game. The Bruins had the old LA Kings approach, where they wouldn’t pressure the puck carrier; instead, they sat back and clogged up the neutral zone. And the Canucks just couldn’t get anything through, which was a huge result of them having just 10 shots on goal at 5v5 through the first 40 minutes of the game
– The DeBrusk-Pettersson-Karlsson line has yet to be on the ice for a 5v5 shot attempt against through 40 minutes. That’s bonkers.

Third period

Another period of this game, another Canucks power play opportunity. But, as most of the Canucks’ power plays on the night, nothing too exciting happened.
Halfway through the final period, the shots were 10-4 for the Canucks, indicating they were far outplaying their opponent. However, there wasn’t a single standout chance for the Canucks. They were all fairly non-threatening, especially given how calm and locked in Swayman looked. Sure, he allowed two goals, but both of them were lucky deflections. The Canucks have yet to beat him cleanly.
The Canucks’ best chance of the period came toward the tail end, when Karlsson sprung Pettersson down the left-side boards. Pettersson protected the puck with his body to get around the Bruins defender, flipped the puck to his backhand as he skated through the top of Swayman’s crease, but ran out of room, and his backhand shot attempt hit the side of the net.
The Bruins had chances of their own, but both teams were comfortable with the scoreless third period and took their loser point into overtime.

Overtime

Räty’s bad night on the draws continued, as he lost the opening faceoff and the Bruins went on the attack. Scoring threat Morgan Geekie walked in and nearly ended it on the first shot, but rang it off his second post of the game.
Pastrnak wiffed on a one-time shot, which sent Liam Öhgren on a partial breakaway in overtime. McAvoy was draped all over him, so he had to focus on winning the race for the puck. However, had he stopped up and realized his surroundings, he could have found Buium for a chance.
But as the game started, hometown hero Fraser Minten buried the game-winner with 19 seconds remaining in overtime.
3-2 Bruins Final.
Full game takeaways:
– This game kind of felt like the hockey gods getting a bit of retribution for the Bruins after they dominated the Canucks in TD Garden but walked away with the loss. A similar outcome to this one, but the Canucks were on the losing end of this one.
– Special teams were the big losing factor for the Canucks in this one. They only capitalized once on their six power play opportunities, while they only killed one of the three penalties they took. Faceoffs were another massive loss, as they won just 32.8% of the draws tonight. None of the Canucks’ four centres finished with a faceoff winning percentage above 42% tonight.
– Evander Kane did not play the final 9:39 minutes of the third period and did not get a shift in the extra frame. There was no mention of an injury, so if this was a benching, Kane might be next on the list of veteran forwards who need to sit out a game.
What’s your instant reaction to tonight’s game? Let us know in the comments section below!
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