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Instant Reaction: Special teams the story as Canucks lose 4-1 to Devils

Photo credit: IMAGN IMAGES via Reuters Connect

By David Quadrelli

Oct 10, 2026, 18:08 EDT

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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!

Lineup

DeBrusk – EP40 – Lekkerimäki
Cotter – Rossi – Karlsson
Öhgren – O’Connor – Boeser
Bains – Sasson – Gallagher

Buium – Hronek
Oleksiak – Willander
EP25 – Schenn

Meriläinen

First Period

The game got started with a pretty low energy start from both teams, and less than five minutes into the afternoon’s festivities, the Canucks’ power play got their first chance of the game. The Canucks’ PP had converted on just one of their past 12 attempts heading into this one. This time though, they figured things out. Entering the zone has been a big struggle, but today, they managed to get into the Devils’ end with relative ease. Brock Boeser made a nice pass from the right half-wall to the right-handed Linus Karlsson, who ripped home a shot from the bumper spot to get things going for the visitors.

The no-look pass from Brock to Linus was just perfect. 1-0 #Canucks

— Lachlan Irvine (@lachinthecrease.com) 2026-10-10T19:50:44.498Z

1-0 Canucks.

Jonathan Lekkerimäki took a high-sticking penalty to give the Canucks’ 32nd-ranked penalty kill their first chance to work of the night. Yes, special teams haven’t been great for this team early on this season. And in a similar way that the Canucks’ power play found success, the Devils found Nico Hischier in the bumper, and he let go of a shot far side on Leevi Meriläinen.

Power play goal for New Jersey!Scored by Nico Hischier with 11:57 left in the 1st. Assisted by Arseny Gritsyuk and Luke Hughes.NJD: 1 | VAN: 1#VANvsNJD #NJDevils #Canucks

— NHL Goals (@nhlgoals.bsky.social) 2026-10-10T20:02:57.369015Z

1-1.

That’s four straight power plays where the Canucks’ PK has allowed their opponent to score.

Leevi Meriläinen’s right skate blade popped out while making a save, and because it was taking a while to get the new blade in, Kevin Lankinen came into this game. Lankinen has had a rough start to the season, posting a .796 save percentage through four games.

And it didn’t take long for him to allow a goal in this one, either. After Filip Hronek bobbled a puck while skating backwards in his own end, Amadeus Lombardi took a shot that Lankinen got a big piece of, but not all of it, leaving a rebound on the goal line for Jesper Boqvist to bang home.

Tough play for Fil Hronek, who can't handle the bobbling puck in his own end, and it turns into a Devils goal. #Canucks

— Lachlan Irvine (@lachinthecrease.com) 2026-10-10T20:14:24.736Z

2-1 Devils.

Some takeaways from the first:
-Some really nice saves from Meriläinen in that period, particularly the one where the puck ended up right in the slot and with strong positioning, clean and efficient crease movement, Meriläinen was able to make a very tough save look easy.
-That was certainly a period of hockey.
-Three shots, one goal against for Kevin Lankinen.

Second Period

As they did to kick off the first, was another sluggish start to the period. This ended up with Brock Boeser taking a penalty. And yes, the Canucks’ penalty killers had to go back out there. The Devils looked for a back door play, but Meriläinen read the play exceptionally well and cut down that chance with his right pad before it could materialize. That lead to a rebound in front and a lot of bodies hunting for the puck.

You have to assume Hronek figured that his goaltender was completely dead in the water after the mad scramble, so he did his best to play goaltender himself. Unfortunately, he served as a blocker for Meriläinen, who actually recovered fairly well and could have potentially made the save if Hronek weren’t in his way. The shot from Jesper Bratt went off the Canucks defenceman and into the back of the net, as the Canucks’ PK moved up to five straight goals against in as many PK opportunities.

Power play goal for New Jersey!Scored by Jesper Bratt with 15:24 left in the 2nd. Assisted by Nico Hischier and Jack Hughes.NJD: 3 | VAN: 1#VANvsNJD #NJDevils #Canucks

— NHL Goals (@nhlgoals.bsky.social) 2026-10-10T20:48:35.287149Z

3-1 Devils.

Leevi Meriläinen was a bit under siege in this period, and made some nice stops that will certainly make their way into The Stanchies later today. But the porous defensive play in front of him was certainly not going to make Manny Malhotra very happy.

Meriläinen was very active in this second period, and for the second time this game, his skate blade popped out. There’s something you really don’t see every day.

Luckily, Red Hamilton was Johnny on the spot, and popped that blade in quickly. Makes you think there was something else wrong with Meriläinen’s skate the first time.

Trigger warning: The Canucks’ PK got their third chance to work when Drew O’Connor tripped up a stickless Luke Hughes with just under two minutes left in the second period. The Devils PP were whipping the puck around with speed and confidence, and found a cross-crease seam pass that pushed the Canucks’ PK to six straight power play goals allowed.

Power play goal for New Jersey!Scored by Nico Hischier with 00:10 left in the 2nd. Assisted by Jack Hughes and Jesper Bratt.NJD: 4 | VAN: 1#VANvsNJD #NJDevils #Canucks

— NHL Goals (@nhlgoals.bsky.social) 2026-10-10T21:16:56.632882Z

4-1.

With under ten seconds left in the frame, Marco Rossi and Evan Rodrigues lined up against one another for a faceoff at centre ice. Rossi lightly shoved Rodrigues away from him after the Devils centre jumped early and over the red line, and the former Florida Panther (an important detail to note in this instance), responded by spearing Rossi in the neck. I don’t know, seemed a little excessive, I guess.

Crazy that was lowered to a double minor. We're just letting guys spear each other now? #Canucks

— Lachlan Irvine (@lachinthecrease.com) 2026-10-10T21:15:28.874Z

Canucks got a four-minute power play out of that, most of which would come in the third period.

Some takeaways from the second period:
-Jake DeBrusk had some extra pep in his step this afternoon. Coming off a two-goal performance, of course.
-Really, the top line as a whole looked good. Elias Pettersson and Jonathan Lekkerimäki seem to read each other well.

Third Period

The Canucks began the third and final frame with 3 minutes and 51 seconds of power play time to work with. They struggled to enter the zone with poessession, and lost the puck down low multiple times. Elias Pettersson finally managed to enter the zone with poessession, but that came after the first half of the Rogrigues double minor had expired. And just six seconds into that second power play, Brock Boeser went to the box for the second time in this game, bringing the game to 4-on-4 and giving me my headline.

At 4-on-4, Jack Hughes found himself on a partial breakaway, and Leevi Meriläinen made one of his best saves of the night as he stared down Hughes and didn’t allow a rebound.

You wouldn’t think it from the scoreline, but he was great in this game.

The Devils continued to pepper Meriläinen with shots as the third went along, as the visitors just didn’t have much of an answer in the third period of this game. That’s not to say the effort wasn’t there; the Devils just played a very solid game.

Some takeaways from the third:
-Disliked a lot about Brock Boeser’s game today. If we had game-to-game NHL EDGE data available, I’d be very interested to dive into the specifics of his skating data from this game.

What’s your instant reaction to this game? Let us know in the comments section below! And be sure to tune into Rink Wide Vancouver LIVE on YouTube moments after the game.