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The Stanchies: Conor Garland makes it interesting, but Canucks fall 6-3 to Sharks
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Photo credit: © Bob Frid-Imagn Images
The Stanchion
Dec 28, 2025, 02:26 ESTUpdated: Dec 28, 2025, 03:01 EST
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The Vancouver Canucks‘ “worst for first” drive continued Saturday night, as they closed out a solid 6-3 loss to the San Jose Sharks at Rogers Arena.
As with any good loss, the Canucks made sure to showcase a little bit of promise, before ultimately losing their grip on the game and thus solidifying their position at the bottom of the standings. At one point in the third period, the Canucks were a mere power play goal away from tying things up, before ultimately losing out to the more advanced rebuild from the Sharks.
For the rest of the season, we’re going to be kind of caught in between two planes of existence, the one where you recognize that losing is good, even if it makes a lot of the hockey excruciating to watch. And the other plan in which you allow yourself to enjoy a few moments of high-level play from the Canucks. You’re watching the team lose, but also trying to walk away with some positives to help you sleep at night.
And what stood out to me in this game, aside from the youth of the Sharks’ forwards being light years ahead of the Canucks, was the play of Conor Garland. With a team having every reason to lose and fold up shop, it felt like Garland kept dragging his team back into the fight in this one. And that isn’t to say the rest of the team isn’t trying, far from it. I will say that when you watch this team, it’s genuinely a talent issue, not an effort issue.
But Garland was the one guy with enough skill to combine with the will to actually tilt the ice in his favour at times. With Quinn Hughes gone, those shifts where a Canucks player steps up and tries to win a game for their team, it’s kind of few and far between. Jake DeBrusk, Brock Boeser, and more of the passenger-type players who need someone to drive for them, leaving Conor Garland and Elias Pettersson to do most of that heavy lifting.
And with Garland, I think he’s been the most reliable forward for the Canucks in that regard. Even when down two goals, there was Garland chirping Adam Gaudette on the bench, telling him there was a lot of time left in this game. He just has no quit in him, and you can see it on the ice. The guy battles every shift, even in a season in which it’s pretty clear things are going off the rails.
Which brings us to Elias Pettersson, who deserves some grace for this being his first game back after injury. But this is also a player who has struggled to be consistent in the offensive zone, and has had relatively few games in which he has carried the play like a top player should. Yes, defensively, no one can question his efforts, but on a night like tonight, you just watch the attitude and play of Garland, and you can’t help but wish EP40 could emulate some of that. We just haven’t seen that kind of swagger from Elias in several seasons now, and the spotlight is only going to get brighter as the season continues.
I don’t know; it just feels like the JT Miller/Elias Pettersson feud poisoned the water, and you can’t help but wonder if he needs a fresh start, too.
That being said, I just watched Macklin Celebrini have an “off game” in which he had two points and around 738 shot attempts (roughly), so perhaps my cynicism is suffering from the recency bias of watching another team’s superstar player develop into a top player in the league right before our very eyes.
Then you turn around and see the Sharks have plugged in Igor Chernyshov into the lineup, a 6″3, 200 pound forward, and he already has five points in five games.
Then you hear a noise behind you and you remember Will Eklund is coming into his own.
Then you turn around and see Will Smith isn’t even playing and you realize it could have been much worse.
Then you do one final spin and realize the Sharks are terrible defensively and still have a ways to go on their full rebuild, and you realize the Canucks really need to make the next two drafts work in their favour to try and keep up.
All of which is to say that there are probably going to be a few more long nights ahead of us, as the trade deadline is rapidly becoming the most important part of this season for Vancouver.
Let’s jump into this one.
Best farm family forever
Sure, Hughes got three assists and helped the Wild tie the game up last minute and win in overtime, BUT THAT DOESN’T MATTER. The important thing is the true North remembers.
Best you hurt the ones you love the most
Elias Pettersson made his return to the lineup for Vancouver, which means the trade rumours can begin anew. I just sort of assume everyone from the 2024 NHL All-Star picture must be traded as quickly as possible, in a less violent reboot of Final Destination. No one gets hurt or maimed by trucks carrying logs, but you eventually get sent away from Vancouver because of some sort of close encounter with death/Gary Bettman and/or two players had a hissy fit and ripped apart an entire locker room.
Also somehow Collin Delia is a central figure to this curse. I don’t know how or why, but I feel it in my bones. Like, he’s the guy who reads from the book in the Mummy. He fed a cursed seagull at Granville Island or something.
Best enjoy what you can
Tom Willander skates real good and stuff, which can be enjoyable when he goes on an offensive foray, or when he tracks down an opponent on the back check.
In this case, Jeff Skinner, who is officially in his Tommy Vanek hired gun phase of his career, was shut down by a speedy Willander effort:
I’d like to think in five years when Jeff Skinner is on his 9th team, scoring his 15 goals a season, Willander will be there again to shut him down on a rush or two.
I also hope somewhere Jeff Tambellini does the Rudy clap of approval after seeing it.
Best a view from the other side
Kiefer Sherwood is basically on Love Island at this point, and it would be silly of him not to explore a relationship with any of the new bombshells that come into the villa. And as it stands now, there are probably around 10 teams minimum that would be interested in taking him for a chat in Soul Ties before one of them got mad about him making out with the Ducks and slept in the daybed out of protest.
You might have thought I was done dishing on Love Island but believe me, it’s a far better alternative than jumping back into the game, so can we have a real talk about Love Island Australia needing to up their budget and move away from the truth bike? If your Love Island show doesn’t have Casa Amor, what are we even doing here? In closing, gang gang.
Anyways, would the Sharks be interested in Mr. Sherwood? They are still a team finding their way, but they have a lot of pieces in place to turn into a good team real soon, maybe Kiefer is a guy that aligns with their timeline.
And what better way to show your stuff then by landing a huge offside hit and demanding to know why the ref called the play dead:
In a perfect world Sherwood would remain a Canuck because I truly think he brings a needed element to any hockey team, but the team is not really in a position to sit on assets at the deadline. I know, I know, it’s quite easy to run out of time, or so I have been told, but I do think this team can pull it off this season.
That assumes he can still be traded under the hybrid retool rules, which I think he can?
Best poop goal shenanigans
The Sharks opened the scoring when Ryan Reaves got his second point of the season by shoving Thatcher Demko’s blocker and puck into the net off a dribbler of a rebound:
If it wasn’t Team Tank season, maybe this goal angers you. Maybe the Sharks first goal brings to mind the wild wild west days where the Jonathan Toews and Patrick Kane Chicago Blackhawks could just sort of push your goalie into the net for a goal and it would count. Back in the days when we used to be a society and things mattered.
But ultimately this is the correct landing point for the Canucks, to lose games.
Would it be nicer if the games were exciting? Of course it would be. But that’s the next stage for Vancouver. Trade off veterans, bring in new blood, and then pray the stench of depression and malaise finally drifts over to Tacoma where it belongs.
Then the Canucks start losing games 6-5, exciting losses, which brings in yet another wave of new blood the year after. Suddenly there is hope in the world because you’re watching 19-22 year olds score goals, and not wondering if David Kampf is secretly Nils Aman in a mask.
If the Canucks bring in enough draft picks over the next two seasons, hell, I bet that would even align with their weird hybrid retool labelling.
This is what the owners need to accept. Short term losses for long term gains. If you don’t have the wallet to ride this wave out, you don’t belong in the game.
Best putting the work in
Ty Dellandrea then almost scored after banking the puck off of the glass and back through Thatcher Demko’s legs:
It wasn’t a particularly pretty or enjoyable game at the best of times, but again. Big picture here.
Best can’t stop them all
Demko was by no means awful on the night, but he also wasn’t going full bubble in this game.
That being said, he probably really really really wants the Sharks second goal back:
John Klingberg, playing on his sixth team in six years, just throws the puck on net, and it kind of finds its way past Demko, to the point that I can’t even get mad at any of the defenders. Can’t even summon up a single swear word to toss Hronek’s way, dude did his job, Demko just didn’t track the puck.
And it’s not even an in-his-prime, 67 points, high-fiving Alex Radulov (remember him?) Klingberg, it’s the current one who has been slowed down by injuries Klingberg. Just throwing the puck on net because hey, why not, what else are you gonna do?
Fun fact: Radulov won a championship in the KHL playing with Richard Panik, who once played with Conor Garland, who once played with Michael Grabner, who as we all know, once played with Mason Raymond.
Makes you think.
Best imitation is the sincerest form of flattery
With the Canucks trying to figure out life on the power play without Quinn Hughes jogging around for a minute and openly sighing at Elias Pettersson never shooting, it was Conor Garland on this night who got it working on Vancouver’s first goal.
And how did he do it? By passing the puck to Linus Karlsson, utilizing the mini stick hockey approach (sometimes called the Deep and Delish maneuver in Delaware):
The confidence from Garland is what stands out to me on this play. He isn’t afraid to handle the puck and try and wheel by his check, to see if he can open up some room on the ice. This is the kind of thing where you’re like “ok surely Elias Pettersson can do something like this??” because that dude has a shot go go with his handles. Nobody is scared of Conor Garland’s shot. Nobody.
Well ok, maybe Stuart Skinner.
But that’s it! His shot isn’t a threat! It’s why his mini stick hockey approach works because he literally makes it so the puck bounces in off of him. He doesn’t have to do any of the work.
Elias, though? We all remember that first NHL goal he scored. He can laser it in with the best of him. Yet we continue to see him pass out of shots and man, it just feels deflating at times. Why can’t he dangle and create some room for himself and unload some wristers now and then? He used to do that! I remember it! You remember it!
Anyways, Linus Karlsson is a gem and I really enjoy his blue paint game.
Best they would have won if it wasn’t for those damn kids
One thing you noticed pretty quickly in this game was Macklin Celebrini just sort of popping up like that “Toasty!” guy in Mortal Kombat out of nowhere and getting a shot on net:
The puck is just sort of bouncing around in the Canucks zone and then all of a sudden the puck finds its way to Macklin’s stick and he’s shooting from a high danger spot on the ice. It was something that happened all night long, which just sort of hammered home the “Didn’t Elias Pettersson used to do a bit of that?” disparity I found myself mired in for most of the night. Celebrini finished with just under 20 shot attempts in this game, and that feels like cheating?
Like, if we were playing Warzone, I would definitely report him. That’s all I’m saying.
As for the Canucks, leave it to Conor Garland to find new ways to shut down the kid, as at one point his strewn aside stick blocked a pass from Celebrini to help kill off a penalty near the end of the first period:
That’s just thinking outside of the box right there.
Imagine one day when we’re told if Derek Forbort and Teddy Blueger are still alive, and they join this penalty kill.
Best of the worst
The second period? Straight up hot garbage. The kind of garbage you left in the kitchen too long and now you’re embarrassed to take it down the elevator to the trash room because a neighbour might get on and smell it.
There just wasn’t a lot of offensive creativity from Vancouver, and to prove it, I will showcase the highlights.
First you had Max Sasson getting a shot off from the wing after a good pass from Drew O’Connor:
Which, to be fair, that’s a good shot from Max, and Drew O’Connor? He is quickly turning into like the stud of the bottom six. If there is ever a revolution from the bottom two lines, and they want to take out the top guys, it’s going to be lead by DOC, that’s all I’m saying.
Then you had Evander Kane getting a shot off on the rush, this time from a similar looking playing from Kiefer Sherwood:
And then the most dangerous looking chance was probably when Conor Garland set up Brock Boeser for a shot in the slot, a player who last scored when 7-11 still had arcade machines in their store:
All three shots came from the same sort of spot on the ice, so you get the idea. The Canucks generated a handful of chances, but none of them were too dangerous.
Meanwhile Celebrini and Chernyshov were just riding along, taking shots on net, and being all youthful and full of energy:
Bunch of jerks I tell you.
Best show us what you got
Zeev Buium did not have a great game for the Canucks, as he had several noticeable defensive miscues on the night.
But I will say he continues to show flashes of offensive skill that bode well for the future, such as this evasion that led to a zone entry:
Again, it’s a small thing, and I don’t expect people will be lining up to buy $200 tickets to see a player dangle around another player once on the night, BUT it at least shows promise.
It also shows just how insanely skilled Quinn Hughes was when he first joined the Canucks and was doing stuff like this multiple times in a game from day one.
Honestly, it’s going to be an unfair shadow for Buium to live in, because his normal progress as a young defenceman is never going to be able to live up to what Quinn Hughes did, you just have to hope he can ignore that noise and find a way to continue to evolve his game.
Best good intentions paved the way to hell or something
The Sharks would get their third goal, this time at the hands of ultra good host Marco Rossi, as he tipped in a rebound past a flummoxed Thatcher Demko:
William Eklund got credit for the goal, but this is where I think we need to copy soccer and denote things as own goals. How can Eklund look his family in the eyes and tell them he scored tonight? How can he live with that lie?
And while it wasn’t exactly a skilled goal, this is what happens when you outshoot your opponent 37 to 27 and double them up in high danger chances. Luck tends to favour the bold and all that.
Best cause and effect
Part of the process. Just have to hope the owners accept it.
Best locking it in
At no point did I think a pass or shot would get completed on this two on one from David Kampf:
Described by one person on social media as “Vey and Chaput mixed into one”, this is just sort of the Kampf offensive zone experience.
Which isn’t even me being snarky. I know it reads that way, but it’s more of an acceptance of his limitations. He is being used in a top six role he is not suited for due to roster issues.
Penalty killing? He’s fantastic. Fourth line center? Feels like a perfect world for him to live in. He’s an upgrade over Nils Aman, 100%.
But anything higher than that, and the guy just isn’t able to put points on the board at a consistent level.
Best right in the kisser
With the Canucks snagging a power play late in the second period, I would be remiss if I didn’t showcase one of Evander Kane’s favourite pastimes: taking a penalty in the offensive zone:
I don’t know, I just giggle every time it happens now. It just feels so familiar and comforting to me now.
Best getting one back
Speaking of Corolla Garland dragging the team back into the fight, here he is creating room in the offensive zone, before ending in a goal from Marco Rossi:
Garland’s tenacity pays off as he drives through two Sharks, keeps the puck in the zone, and eventually sets up a point shot that leads to the rebound goal.
Now, is Garland raising his game because he loves and respects sharks in nature, so it naturally brings it out of him in games against the Sharks? Of course he is. But that’s all the more reason to admire him.
Best tanking it hard
With Tyler Myers already in the box serving a penalty, Marcus Pettersson got a penalty for tapping another man’s stick, causing him to drop it (aka one of the dumbest penalties in hockey), which led to an extended two man advantage for the Sharks.
And at first, you just assumed Celebrini would score right away, because that’s sort of his thing.
Demko, though, had other plans:
Then with Macklin feeling a bit too smug, Sherwood stripped him of the puck in his own zone, and almost scored a shorthanded goal:”
Chalk that trade deadline value of Sherwood up to a first rounder and a roster player at this rate.
But alas it finally came to an end when former Canuck and noted head kicker Adam Gaudette made a picture perfect pass to Igor Chernyshov for the Russian’s first NHL goal:
I will give credit to both teams, the third period got considerably more entertaining if anything else.
Best talk your shit
See? This is the kind of guy you ride with. The guy who isn’t down in the dumps and is still mixing it up with the other team telling them this ain’t over.
I mean, it was over. But Garland at least made them think it might not be over. And that’s all you can ask for.
Best hard disagree
I’m kind of a trial by fire guy, so I am all for Buium rocking that first unit as long as possible.
Though I do agree when something like this happens, you do hope you aren’t hurting his confidence:
Giving up a breakaway on the power play and then taking a penalty chasing the guy down isn’t a normal strategy to use, but if anything, it’s a unique one?
Best didn’t hear no bell
Perhaps inspired by Garland’s shit-talking of Gaudette, Drew O’Connor would score the Canucks final goal of the night, when he intercepted a pass in his own zone, and sped down the ice to snipe home a sexy looking shot past a slightly dismayed Yaroslav Askarov:
Like I said, if you’re going to tank, at least put on a bit of a show to entertain the fans for a period.
Best passenger players
It’s worth noting that Drew O’Connor is actually a play driver for his line. He just skates super hard and generates chances on his own.
We live in a world in which Drew O’Connor is currently more effective at carrying a line over DeBrusk and Boeser.
Best extended clip
To get around video clip limitations, I encourage you to watch the video in the tweet, because this was both the most exciting part of the game for the Canucks, and for the people who enjoy dreaming of a better future.
It was the most exciting part of the game because, yeah, that was as close as the Canucks came to tying the game up. They were an inch or two away from making it 4-4 on that shift.
It’s also exciting for the future because Buium showcased his offensive chops on the shift, and made several really good plays during it.
But it’s also kind of sad because Elias Pettersson once again passed out of a prime shooting spot:
Look, we all sat under the Henrik Sedin learning tree, so we all know him passing to Jake DeBrusk isn’t a terrible idea.
But this season is kind of toast, so why not just use it to get your groove back? Get selfish with that puck my man. I agree that his shooting lane was blocked pretty effectively when he first got the puck, but those guys were sliding left to right. Hold onto that puck for half a beat and your shooting lane is wide open again.
That’s the kind of confidence people want to see from Elias. They want to see him holding onto a puck and finding a way to get a shot on net. Nobody is really waiting around hoping to see what scoring spot EP40 will pass out of next.
Just shoot man. Find a way to get the puck on net.
Best ice cold
Call me crazy, but I think this kid is going to be a good player one day:
We live in a world in which two local players in Connor Bedard and Macklin Celebrini are most likely going to light the Canucks up for the next decade, and the closest the Canucks got to having a local kid on their team do well recently was Jake Virtanen.
That feels unfair.
Best closing comments
Yes. Yes he is. He is big and skilled, and I am not a size elitist at all, but I do think the Canucks could benefit from having some bigger skilled players.
Yes. This game felt like a warning sign that the Canucks need to stick to the plan and not get too juiced after watching one good road trip.
Gotta feel the burn to make it worth it.
Best jersey Botch
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