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Instant Reaction: Tolopilo makes 26 saves with no help in front of him in Canucks’ 2-1 loss to Golden Knights
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Photo credit: © Bob Frid-Imagn Images
Tyson Cole
Apr 8, 2026, 00:42 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!

Starting lineup

Lineup changes for tonight: Up front, Nils Höglander draws back into the lineup for Ty Mueller. On the backend, Elias Pettersson (D) replaces PO Joseph. Nikita Tolopilo gets the nod for the second straight game, with Kevin Lankinen out with an injury.

First period

Hey! It’s the first TV timeout at 6:04 into the game. And you’re probably wondering why we haven’t written anything yet. Well, that’s because nothing has really happened to this point. The Golden Knights have a pair of shots and eight attempts compared to the Canucks’ lone shot attempt. It’s clear that one team is playoff-bound and the other has its sights set on its beach vacation in a few weeks.
After the TV timeout, Vegas just dominated play in Vancouver’s end. All the Canucks could do when they got the puck was ice it to give them a quick break from the relentless Golden Knights pressure. A few minutes later, big man Curtis Douglas took a cross-checking penalty in front of the Canucks bench, sending the already rolling Golden Knights offence to the man advantage.
I will give the Canucks credit; they did a good job of swarming the Golden Knights’ top unit and limiting their offensive zone time. It took the Canucks nearly 10 minutes until they managed to put together an offensive zone shift. The Max Sasson-Teddy Blueger-Linus Karlsson had possession of the puck in the offensive zone. But nothing threatening came of it.
Brock Boeser had a rush down the wing, which was kind of exciting until he had his shot attempt blocked. It’s now been 14 minutes, and the Canucks still have not registered a shot on goal. But then, the fourth line found its way into the offensive zone. Victor Mancini rang a shot from distance off the post for the first real Canucks chance of the game.
Seconds later, he had his redemption when he officially logged the first Canucks shot 14:31 minutes into the game. Yay!
The Ivan Barbashev-Mitch Marner-Mark Stone line had a few solid chances, but the teams would walk into the first intermission at a scoreless tie. Vegas outshot Vancouver 10-2 through the first 20.

Second period

This period, again, started slowly. This time for both sides. It took a few minutes before there was a real chance, when Stone set up Marner in the slot, but Tolopilo made a great save, kicking out the right pad.
Something that has often been talked about with this Canucks team and their struggles in second periods is that they get hemmed in their own end, and the forwards don’t get the puck deep enough to allow the defencemen to change. And that’s what happened here in the first five minutes in the second, when Zeev Buium and Filip Hronek were stuck on the ice for over two minutes.
However, Buium did a great job of getting them off the ice when he maybe slightly oversold a high-sticking penalty, sending the Canucks’ red-hot power play to the man-advantage. They had their looks: Boeser had his shot blocked, Pettersson wide, and Carter Hart made a nice glove save on Rossi. But the Canucks could not convert.
And just as we all expected after the constant Golden Knights pressure, the Canucks opened the scoring.
Coming down off the rush, Sasson takes the pass from Blueger as he enters the zone and fires a simple wrister that handcuffs Hart and lights the lamp on the far side on only their fifth shot of the game, 32:50 minutes into it.
1-0 Canucks.
Just a few short minutes later, the Golden Knights found their equalizer.
As the Golden Knights move the puck around the perimeter, Brayden McNabb takes the puck from the point, down the left wall and fires a wrist shot through traffic that beats Tolopilo clean to tie the game.
1-1 tie.
The Canucks had the final chance of the period when they caught the Golden Knights on a bad change and were in on a three-on-one. With a clear shooting lane, O’Connor has the opportunity to pick his spot. However, he chooses to throw a pass off the pads to a streaking Elias Pettersson, who has a sitter in the crease. But he can’t finish it as the puck goes knicks off Hart’s pad and trickles wide of the net.
After Pettersson broke his 20-goal drought with a two-goal performance against the Florida Panthers, Pettersson finds himself in another goalless slump of nine games.
But hey, the Canucks managed to get a whole five shots that period! More than doubling their first period total of two! Per the Sportsnet Broadcast, the Canucks tied their season low of shots on goal through 40 minutes: seven against the Tampa Bay Lightning. They went on to score five goals in the third period and walk away with a 6-2 victory. Let’s hope for more action in the third period!

Third period

I can’t talk too poorly of the Canucks in this third period because it’s not like the Golden Knights were much better. It took them nearly five minutes to get their first shot on goal as well. Their next shot was a solid chance when the Canucks left Pavel Dorofeyev all alone at the net front, but Tolopilo made the blocker save in tight.
Curtis Douglas had the Canucks’ best chance of the period just over seven minutes in when the puck landed on his stick at the net front. But he had a weak backhand attempt at it and sent the puck wide of the net.
With the game tied halfway through the third period, it didn’t seem like either team wanted this game. There wasn’t much offence from either side with the game within reach. That was until Cole Smith hounded Liam Öhgren in the neutral zone, causing the turnover, and sent a wrist shot five-hole on Tolopilo to give the Golden Knights their first lead of the game.
2-1 Golden Knights.
It took the Canucks 14 minutes into the period to get their first shot of the frame off the stick of Aatu Räty. But aside from that, the Canucks did not look like they had much fight in them to claw their way back in this one. They weren’t connecting on their passes in the defensive zone, which kept them pinned in their end.
But they were given a glimmer of hope when Rossi drew an interference penalty on Rasmus Andersson, who was not too pleased with the call, voicing what I assume were pleasantries in the Canuck forward’s face.
Despite Räty’s best efforts in the faceoff dot of continuously giving his team possession in the offensive zone, the Canucks weren’t able to tie the game.
Tolopilo deserved a better result in this one. He stopped 26 of the 28 shots he faced, while the guys in front of him were only able to muster up 10 shots through 60 minutes.
Takeaway from the game:
– Truthfully, there really wasn’t much to take away from this game. The Canucks were bad. The Golden Knights weren’t all that much better, considering they are pushing for playoff positioning. Marner and Tolopilo were the only guys I consistently noticed throughout the game.
What’s your instant reaction to tonight’s game? Let us know in the comments section below!

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