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The Stanchies: Few highlights to focus on in Canucks’ ugly 7-3 loss to Flames
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Photo credit: © Sergei Belski-Imagn Images
Lachlan Irvine
Mar 29, 2026, 12:06 EDT
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No matter what era the Vancouver Canucks are in, losing to the Calgary Flames always stings.
Years of key playoff battles, divisional tilts, and good old geography have turned that flaming red C into a symbol of hatred for Canucks fans. So, as much as it obviously behooves the team to keep dropping points, losing 7-3 at the Saddledome is always going to rub people the wrong way.
The Flames could’ve very easily phoned this game in. Sitting third last in the Western Conference, they have just as much to gain as an organization from pooch punting this away. But instead, they took the Canucks to the absolute woodshed.
After the game, Blake Coleman said that was kind of part of their plan.
The responses to it from Flames fans are weirdly negative. It’s as if they’re mad that a player, whose job depends on their ability not to lose games, isn’t purposefully trying to lose games. As much fun as it was to “blame” Andrei Kuzmenko’s late-game and late-season heroics for the Canucks losing out on Connor Bedard in 2023, sometimes it’s good to get a refresher in the old “players don’t tank, franchises do” department. Especially when you’re watching a team like the Canucks languishing in last place. Thankfully, when your team simply isn’t good enough to win a lot of games, that debate dies pretty quickly.
In fact, that only makes the replies from Flames Nation (#notsponsored) even funnier! You didn’t actually think you were going to successfully lose a Tank Bowl when your opponent is the 2025-26 Canucks, did you?!
If you read the last Stanchies, you’ll know the Canucks played some baaaaad hockey against the LA Kings. On Saturday, they found a different way to lose. They actually dominated the Flames in the momentum department, got a lot of shots on goal (including quite a few high danger ones) and genuinely might’ve flipped the result on a different day.
Just look at that gameflow line. How many times has a Canucks game this year had the seesaw tipped in Vancouver’s direction?
But they still left with zero points because they made key mistakes at soul-crushing times. Giveaways at the blue line, big rebounds let out at inopportune times, and a general lack of situational awareness that made this game a unique flavour of unwatchable.
The best news this result brought is that we’re only ten games away from the end.
Soak these last few weeks of chaos in. From a safe distance away.
Best Story In Three Parts
It didn’t take too long for the Canucks to start falling apart at the seams.
First, Evander Kane takes a puck over glass penalty just one minute into the contest. Not exactly the way you’d wanna start Game #999.
The Flames’ power play couldn’t get anything going right away, so Matt Coronato tried a big brain: shooting the puck a couple of seconds after the whistle blew. A foolproof plan, unless P-O Joseph is on the ice of course.
He was, and Joseph gave Coronato the business for it.
The message is clear: Don’t shoot pucks at our goalie!
But Coronato would ignore that warning right after the penalty expired, when Nikita Tolopilo kicked out a Zayne Parekh rebound right into Coronato’s wheelhouse. The Harvard graduate(?) bent to one knee and ripped the rebound home for an early lead.
We don’t really need to play out the rest of the game. Let’s hit the movie theatre instead. I hear Project Hail Mary is good.
Best Middleweight
We finally got the moment fans have asked for since Curtis Douglas arrived in Vancouver, and I gotta be honest: it was not worth the wait.
The 6-foot-9 Douglas Fir squared up with 6-foot-8 Adam Klapka for a tilt early in the game, and I counted maybe two good punches combined.
I might not be the biggest proponent of fighting in hockey, but as long as it’s still in the game, they should at least be more entertaining than this. That wasn’t a heavyweight fight; that was two large children wrestling and trying their hardest not to fall over.
If you disagree, go watch Dave Manson vs. Scott Stevens at the Chicago Stadium, then come back to this one.
Best Errors On Errors
This would end up being a rough outing for Nikita Tolopilo, and I can’t help but feel partially responsible. I (and a lot of other people, to be fair) have been clamouring for Adam Foote to give Tolo some more starts down the stretch. After all, these games are meaningless, so you might as well give your young goaltender some starts down the stretch to get up to speed with NHL competition.
Well, that turned out to be bad advice, because he got thrown to the Dustin Wolves today. But very few Canucks looked good tonight.
The Flames’ second goal was created by a truly dreadful giveaway at the blue line by Fil Hronek to Mikael Backlund. The Calgary captain worked the puck around the boards to Zach Whitecloud, who floated the puck on goal as Joel Farabee got inside positioning on Zeev Buium a little too easily. One deflection later, and it’s 2-zip for the Flames.
This one isn’t on Tolo specifically, but a few down the road will be.
Best ‘He Barely Touched Him!”
The Canucks nearly got a goal back quickly, thanks in large part to Vittorio Mancini bulldozing Zayne Parekh into his own goaltender. With Wolf down, Brock Boeser lifted the puck clean over him.
A coach’s challenge quickly wiped this one off the board. Oh, so we can’t just check defenders into the goalie now? I thought this was a free country!
Best My Öh My
Adam Foote made the tough decision to split up the BRÖ Line tonight, and Liam Öhgren found himself on Elias Pettersson’s wing with Linus Karlsson for a new set of Tre Kronor. And this goal was the direct result of a gorgeous play by EP40.
First, Petey intercepts a Kevin Bahl zone exit attempt, and then draws him in towards the boards just long enough for Karlsson and Öhgren to get a step. As soon as Bahl gets too close, Petey perfectly places a between-the-legs pass on Karlsson’s stick.
All Karlsson had to do was get the pass cleanly across to Öhgren, and they made no mistake.
Things started out a bit rocky, but now they’re leading in shots and seemingly getting back on track. Maybe this game will be different!
Best Parallel Universe
The Flames’ third goal was essentially a carbon copy of their second, if it were flipped to the opposite corner and didn’t start with a giveaway. Puck works up to Olli Maatta as Ryan Strome (who’s a Flame now apparently?) gets inside position on Tom Willander, and is ready to tip the puck past Tolopilo’s glove side.
At the end of the day, these are the kinds of lessons it’s better to learn now instead of when it matters in big moments down the road. The more mistakes made now, theoretically, the less you’ll see from them whenever the next contention window opens up. I imagine this’ll be a big talking point in the video room before they face Vegas.
Best SURELY it can’t get worse?
This was Tolo’s softest goal allowed. The Flames are swarming and sending the Canucks’ backcheckers into panic mode, and Ryan Strome’s initial shot is blockered away by the big Belarusian, but he redirects it right into the slot. And Olli Maata picked a perfect time to pinch, poking the puck in from behind an unsuspecting Hronek.
It took Foote an eternity to give Nikita another chance, and then he took him out almost faster than the Canucks kicked a writer out mid-game earlier this week. Almost.
Tolopilo just never looked comfortable in the net in this game. He had trouble getting clean stops, and there were a lot of Grade A rebounds that a better team probably would’ve pounced on more. But when you’ve gone two weeks between starts, it’s harder to stay up to game speed. Consistent reps are crucial. And there’s a good chance you’ll need him to play some games next season, so let’s maybe give him another opportunity a bit sooner next time?
Best It got worse
I feel like Adam’s KierszenStats have taken a real dark turn this year.
Anyways, Kevin Lankinen couldn’t get a full night off. And the Flames immediately put him to the test in the worst way possible, like when you’d get back to class from spring break and your math teacher immediately threw a pop quiz on your desk.
Matt Coronato chips the puck near the blue line to Morgan Frost streaking through the middle under pressure from Blueger. Teddy does a good enough job backchecking not to let him get an open shot, so Frost goes to the short side on his backhand. But Kevin was so not ready for it and left far too much room open between his glove side and the post.
Maybe whoever’s in net wasn’t the problem. Maybe the real mistake was playing hockey today in general.
Best 4D Chess
As it turns out, Blake Coleman and his teammates were simply playing 3D chess, which I think in layman’s terms is called ‘chess’.
Now watch them win the draft lottery anyway, because we can’t have anything nice!
Best Almost A Goal Scorer
Brock Boeser lost two goals in this game. The first was because Victor Mancini committed *checks notes* textbook goalie interference. The second was thanks to Jake DeBrusk cruelly stealing it from him.
With Kevin Bahl in the penalty box, Elias Pettersson (the only one playing in this game, just so we’re clear) caught the Flames’ penalty kill completely napping. By the time Yegor Sharangovich realized his unit’s mistake, the Flow was already labelling the puck for the net.
The replay doesn’t fully catch it, but apparently DeBrusk got a piece of the puck on its way through, because the goal had been credited to him by the time the team returned for the third period.
Which means the Canucks’ leading goal scorer, as of March 29th, is still a player who left the team months ago.
Hi Kiefer! How are you enjoying San Jose?
Best Rude Moment
The Flames are already up by three, in a game that has zero real implications on the standings for anyone in a positive way. We can just mail this in so no one gets their feelings hurt, right?
But no, these are the Flames facing an archrival. So Zayne Parkeh polished off the second period with a nasty goal that hit the top shelf netting so perfectly, the puck reacted like he went bar down.
You didn’t have to do ’em like that, Zayne. The Canucks have families.
Best let this end
 The third period was a clinic put on by both teams. The lesson they’re teaching together is “How to make it look like you’re playing hockey without actually doing it.”
Up until the final few minutes, I had exactly one thing worth clipping, and it was a highlight pack of half-decent saves from Lankinen.
You know you’re no longer watching an entertaining game when you have to gas up a breakaway save on Adam Klapka, who set his personal scoring high last season with six goals. We’re really scraping the bottom of the barrel here.
Best Worth the Game Enitrely
Nils Höglander made this game worth the struggle all in one beautiful late power play shift. Up to this point, Höglander had barely cracked five minutes of ice time because Adam Foote has his mysterious reasons. Sure, he hasn’t been super effective in the time he’s gotten, but it’s not like stapling him to the bench in a lost contest does anyone any good.
So imagine the laugh we all got when Höglander gets a shift late on the power play, and in a pursuit of the puck, absolutely decks unsuspecting referee Graham Skilliter into next week.
If there was a sound effect added to this hit, I think it would be “BOOF!!”
With Skilliter unable to call a penalty due to not getting the license plate of the bus that just ran him over, Höglander has enough time to get to the front of the net and deflect Victor Mancini’s shot, cutting the Calgary lead in half.
I cannot stress enough that there was less than a GIFs length of time between Höggy trucking the ref and scoring a goal. If that kind of energy can’t make Adam Foote’s heart grow three sizes this day, nothing ever will.
Best Salt in the Wound, with Rusty Nails
With the game well within reach (citation needed), Adam Foote attempted to pull Lankinen for the final four and a half minutes of play. But Marco Rossi eventually had to hook Sharangovich to prevent an easy scoring chance, which meant a Calgary penalty and Lankinen returning to the goal
But unsatisfied with beating the Canucks by three goals, the Flames had one final mean trick up their sleeve. And that was an admittedly well-executed give-and-go between Adam Klapka and Brennan Othmann.
I’m sorry for referring to his six-goal personal high earlier, it clearly struck a nerve.
But hey, the Canucks won the expected goals category 2.96 to Calgary’s 1.76, so who are the real winners tonight? That’s what gets you respect in the handshake line, baby.
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