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The Stanchies: Nikita Tolopilo steals the show in Canucks’ shootout loss to Leafs
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Photo credit: © Bob Frid-Imagn Images
The Stanchion
Feb 1, 2026, 01:15 ESTUpdated: Feb 1, 2026, 02:33 EST
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Watch the Toronto Maple Leafs suffer and potentially hurt your draft position? Or lock down another loss in your thirst for first?
That’s the scenario Vancouver Canucks fans found themselves in Saturday night, who probably walked away with mixed feelings after watching a 3-2 shootout loss to Toronto.
The ultimate end goal is, of course, racking up the losses; we all know that. To be a Canucks fan is to know that even finishing dead last in the NHL only means Vancouver will pick third overall in the 2026 draft. Sure, they “could” get first or second, but this team has been around long enough to know that just isn’t how things work in the National Hockey League, a point the carnival wheel back in 1970 made clear early. At the very least, finishing dead last means you can’t fall further than third, which is as close to an ultimate victory as this team can get this season.
It’s why you have to live in constant fear of the Canucks going on a hot streak and finding a way to claw out of the basement, or setting some obscure record of being the worst team in the standings to finish the year on a 15-game winning streak. If there is a way to historically fumble a situation, it usually tends to find its way to the west coast of Canada, self-inflicted or not.
But on the other hand, there has been a healthy debate about how the way the Canucks have been losing might be affecting their younger players’ development. That even the remainder of this season offers many opportunities for the rookies to grow and learn, which is hard to picture when it’s in the usual form Adam Foote hockey has provided. It’s tough to watch Zeev Buium get trounced 6-0 night in and night out and think, “Excellent, he is going to learn so much from another horrible loss.”
To their credit, however, Vancouver has now played two games straight where, dare I say it, they have looked competent defensively? They aren’t world beaters by any stretch of the imagination, and they still require a healthy dose of luck and bounces to go their way if they want to secure victories, but they’ve at least looked ok.
We haven’t seen endless stretches of the Canucks loading up one side of the ice, or multiple players chasing one guy, leaving the opposition wide open in front of their goalie. Instead, we’ve seen what all lower-tier teams should strive for, which is a stingy team playing cautious hockey and seeing if they can steal a win on occasion. There were times when Toronto would cycle the puck, and I think even they were surprised when Vancouver kept their composure and didn’t lose their defensive assignments, keeping the Leafs to the outside of the ice.
So with the added bonus of the Canucks playing relatively ok hockey, it was also nice to see some of the young players shine during the game. This was about as good a tank game as you can get, to be frank. Tom Willander had a nice offensive rush up the ice that resulted in a goal. Jonathan Lekkerimäki and Liam Öhgren teased the city with the kind of chemistry normally reserved for hit shows on Crave. And Nikita Tolopilo had hands down my favourite game from a Canucks goaltender this season, with a gutsy effort that showed him stopping 39 of 41 shots as he dragged his team to overtime with the Leafs controlling most of the third period.
And while part of me hoped for a Canucks victory, if for no other reason than to see if it would cause Toronto to hold a players-only meeting to try and figure out how they could lose to Vancouver, it was still one of the more entertaining games of the season. One in which, yeah, you could see some glimpses of potential in players that might be part of the solution one day.
Best making deals
The first period from Vancouver played out pretty much how the game against the Anaheim Ducks did.
On one hand, you had the Canucks playing cautious hockey and waiting to see if a goal would happen to come their way. They weren’t going to force the issue, mind you, but if a puck found its way near Toronto’s net, they wouldn’t mind tapping it in.
On the other hand, you had the Leafs, who entered the game reeling, losers of six straight, and coming face to face with the thought that they might be the baddies. A loss to Vancouver felt like it might break them down to their very core, so it wasn’t too surprising to see them starting off the game looking a bit tight, almost like a playoff game.
And much like the game against Anaheim, I whispered “You got this DOC,” knowing Drew O’Connor would put the other team on notice with an efficient forecheck leading to a pedestrian scoring chance:
Drew skates from his own faceoff circle and still beats everyone to the puck, and while I know DOC has trade value, and the Canucks should be like that carpet store on Burrard where it had a store closing sale for around 12 years, I will say I have grown fond of watching him ply his trade here. He just plays a very honest game. He’s the NPC in Red Dead Redemption that you go out of your way to make sure they don’t get killed because he just brings a level of purity to your town.
Speaking of solid games, PO Joseph had one of his better games for Vancouver as well, highlighted early by him shutting down a William Nylander pass to Matias Maccelli in the slot:
Again, not world beating. But even making solid, smart plays in their own zone has been a mountain too high to climb for this team this season, so kudos have to be given to them when they finally tighten things up.
And when the Canucks did stumble, Nikita Tolopilo was there to make the save. He never looked panicked; he never looked frazzled. In fact, at times, he looked bemused that Toronto thought they could score on him. I think he reads the puck really well, which allows him to be in position for shots, so you don’t see him lunging and putting himself out of position too often.
Max Domi tested Nikita early on when he found Auston Matthews with a betwixt the leg pass that caught Aatu Räty out of position:
Aatu Räty continues to concern me with his defensive zone coverage, but this is also a team that has had an entire roster looking like old bananas left in their locker for over a semester, so I don’t want to come down on his play too harshly. There is probably no better time than now to play him and see if he can work through some of these kinks, but even with the Foote System asterisks beside his name, I do wonder if his defensive issues will hold him back from carving out a traditional bottom-six role.
And speaking of working through their kinks, Tom Willander made the type of pass that will give all coaches heartburn when he tried to sauce a backhand pass through the air on a backcheck, which, were it not for Marcus Pettersson, could have been a clear-cut breakaway for Bobby McMann:
For the most part, though, Vancouver kept their mistakes limited and made sure the first period was kind of boring. Which is a good thing, mind you.
They had some shots, but none of them were super threatening. Natural Stat Trick had the Canucks with one high-danger chance in the opening frame, and that lines up with the eye test. A lot of their chances were low-high passes to the point man, who would throw it on net:
The odds of Chaos Giraffe scoring on that shot are slightly higher than if anyone else took it, merely because it’s Tyler Myers, and an anvil could fall out of the sky and take out Joseph Woll, as those are the Acme rules CG57 lives by. The main takeaway from that play is the nice pass from Filip Chytil, who continues to struggle to have an offensive impact, but you can see his game is peaking at you from around the corner. It’s smiling shyly at you from across the bar, hoping you’ll come over and buy it a drink so it can open up to you and see if this thing between you is real.
Chytil passing aside, it was, yeah, just a lot of “hammer some shots on net and see what happens”:
The shot looks more dangerous because it gets deflected, so it forces Woll to make an awkward toe save, but you get the gist.
As for Toronto, they had a couple of really good looks on net, but Tolopilo, or ‘Tolipedo’ if you’re Craig Simpson, shut them down easily:
Nothing to write home about after one period, BUT, for a team that has been incredibly bad this season, people outside of this market have no idea how much of an improvement that is. It’s like applauding yourself for getting up in the morning and making breakfast for once. Sometimes you just have to celebrate the small things in life to build momentum.
And yes, eating yogurt out of the container is making breakfast. I don’t like the tone of your voice, thank you very much.
Best shooting out the lights
There was a time when the Canucks drafted Patrick White, and Dave Nonis talked about his release and his shot. It bordered on comparisons to Markus Naslund, which felt lofty, but hey, it was the 2000s; times were different back then. Sugar Ray was a thing, Tommi Santala was the best fourth liner in the NHL, and abandoning your car in the basement of GM Place was a time-honoured tradition.
So when people talked about Jonathan Lekkerimäki’s shot after the Canucks drafted him, you initially prepared yourself for the inevitable decline in the hype.
But as we’ve seen over the last few years, this kid’s release is so sick that no known antibiotics work on it:
That’s a grown-ass man’s release right there. That’s the kind of release someone does in beer league, and you automatically go home and search for them on HockeyDB because you just know that guy was drafted in the NHL once and he is clearly smurfing for the other team.
It clearly helps that he has space to pick his spot, to which I remind you of the Mason Raymond rule, in that everyone in the NHL can look like Ovechkin during practice, where they have all the time in the world to do their thing. But we also know Jonathan Lekkerimäki can pull off this shot in tight windows and with little time. It’s the kind of shot you want to see more of because it’s such a god damn weapon. You almost flinch watching it because you know how cruel it is that he’s using that against another human being.
Now, he has a long way to go, and a sick shot does not make a career, but like any good tank game, you can see the vision.
You can also see the chemistry Liam Öhgren might have with his former Swedish linemate, and you can’t help but wonder if that might end up being a thing. You dream about a world in which the size and speed of Liam opens up time and space for Lekkerimäki to pick his spot cleanly, leading to many a goal celebration.
You also find yourself wondering how attached the Buffalo Sabres are to Noah Ostlund, but that’s a dream for another day.
For now, it’s just delightful to see two young kids make an impact in an NHL game, because that’s the direction this team needs to keep heading.
Best visuals
Anything that reminds me of the 1994 playoff series between Toronto and Vancouver is a good thing, so count me in as someone who loves this jersey matchup.
It looks even better when Tolopilo, aka The Human Tolopedo, stops Max Domi dead in his tracks, before being bailed out by the post on the follow-up shot from former Canuck Oliver Ekman-Larsson:
It doesn’t look as good when Raty is stopped in the slot, and Drew O’Connor pushes the rebound wide, but still, pretty cool:
Best are you sure about that?
It looked like the Canucks had gone up 2-0 on an Elias Pettersson goal, but it was waived off due to Conor Garland’s goaltender interference:
Make no mistake: if this had been a playoff game, I would have spent four straight days complaining about how the league got this one wrong. About how Woll was already out of the blue paint and put himself out of position. How Garland barely leaned on Woll, and that the Leafs goalie pushed himself out of the crease because he lunged for a shot. About how Colin Campbell was probably behind this somehow, someway, I just haven’t proven it yet.
But it’s a tank season, so I found it hard to get too riled up over it.
I could see it from both sides, to be honest. I think Garland doesn’t go out of his way to not impede Woll, and possibly pushes him a bit. I also think Woll wandered too far from his net and was dead in the water anyway after he misplayed the initial shot. Him trying to fight back through Garland looked like it was outside the crease enough for the goal to count, but again, what are you going to do?
Sometimes it’s best to take the Tony Soprano approach.
Best glimmers of hope
Öhgren and Lekkerimäki didn’t score on this play, but damn it, it’s fun to watch them create chances:
Morgan Reilly and Matty Knies do a good job of breaking the play up, and the pass from Liam wasn’t the most accurate thing in the world, but we’re clearly at the point of “play these two kids together forever/rest of the season because we have nothing else to look forward to.”
Just give us kids enjoying hockey together instead of wondering if players have too much emotional baggage from moving on from a Quinn Hughes-led team. I shouldn’t be measuring the sadness in a player’s eyes after every game; I don’t want that metric in my life anymore.
I cannot remember the last time a player enjoyed a media scrum in Vancouver. Yet, there was Liam last game using a goalie stick to interview Defensive Minded Elias Pettersson. This is the future we need. Raffi Torres eating pizza in the background, or Öhgren using goalie equipment as a microphone. Without goofy stuff like this, we die in a hockey market; it’s like Tinker Bell rules, but modified for sports.
Best all the little things
I think we saw the best and worst of the current iteration of Elias Pettersson in this game. We saw the defensively clutch, extremely smart hockey player that can knock down passes in his own zone and set up counterattacks in the blink of an eye:
And seeing that casual shot from Evander Kane and Conor Garland’s recent play, it does make one hope for a future in which he gets some new linemates who can do more with his playmaking setups. It’s been many a year of saying “he needs linemates,” and there is an argument to be made that at 11.6 million dollars, you should be able to generate offence on your own. But I also think it’s very true that this year has been a rough ride in terms of his linemates not producing on the chances EP40 is setting up, so his point total this season isn’t as alarming to me as previous years.
That being said, we also saw him falling down an awful lot in this game, which is something I truly thought would go out of his game as he got older. The Sedins wrote the book on adding balance to your game, but we just aren’t there with Elias. If you will allow me to fast forward to an overtime shift, at one point, John Tavares absolutely bullied EP40 off of the puck like he was his younger brother:
Elias Pettersson continues to have one of the most fascinating career arcs to me, as I truly have no idea how it is going to all play out.
All I know is he was one of only two forwards who didn’t register a shot on net tonight, and that feels like such a fixable problem for him, yet here we are again.
Best it was good while it lasted
While the Canucks had a solid game defensively, they still had some breakdowns, one of which led to the Leafs’ first goal. Chytil and Lekkerimäki were the forwards down low on this rush, yet neither of them took Nicholas Roy, who skated directly into the middle of the ice for the one-timer goal:
You can see Teddy Blueger, the last man back, skating his ass off to try and make a play on the puck, but alas. In a perfect world, Teddy as the centre protects the middle of the ice, but he is clearly not in position to do so, which is where Chytil or Lekkerimäki need to cover for him.
Not the most egregious mistake on the night, but a costly one.
Best immediate response
The Canucks would then score on the next shift, as Evander Kane sauced in one of the most beautiful passes of the season to a hard-charging Tom Willander:
Tom Willander’s career is just starting, and while he certainly has holes in his game, his skating remains an elite asset for him. He needs to keep fine-tuning it and knowing when to jump up in the play, but he nailed it on this goal. With four Leafs players caught deep, he knows he has some leeway to jump up, giving Evander a target to pass to. The finish is also clinical.
Now, let’s get back to that pass from Evander. Just an absolutely perfect, filthy, disgusting pass that you know would be really fun to hang out with at the bar. Oh, the stories that pass would tell.
That’s the Planet Ice in the offensive zone that drives up his trade value. For all of his defensive issues, the man has some serious skills in those hands.
Linus Karlsson would then almost score to end the period, but once again, Woll’s foot is begging for an OnlyFans account to be created:
And if that wasn’t enough, here is DPetey showcasing some more of that snarl we saw last game, when he pushed back against Scott Laughton, trying to get up in his business:
See? This is the kind of game fans want. Just show that you care, and people will get happy and support it.
Best view from the other side
With the third period barely underway, Max Domi would tie the game up on a bit of a lucky goal:
It’s basically as if EA Sports scripted this one, as the puck rolls up over Tolopilo and ends up dribbling into the net. The only thing missing was the custom goal celebration and someone complaining about Domi’s HUT value.
I also find some peace in the fact that other fan bases are as excited about trade value as Vancouver is for veteran players.
Best grit
The third period was all Toronto, and that’s when Tolopilo shined. This was the period where I got into that zone of almost wanting the other team go get shots, because I couldn’t wait to see how Tolopilo was going to stop them. That kind of braggadocio only occurs when a goalie is feeling it, and it’s safe to say Nikita was locked in after letting in the Domi goal.
Which is a good sign! That’s the kind of goal that Dan Cloutier would have taken three years to move on from.
Nikita, though? Stone cold assassin.
500 career goals, John Tavares wants to go glove hand? Not today, buddy:
Oh, you want to throw in a shot from the point and see how he deals with traffic? Buddy, Nikita drives in Vancouver, that doesn’t faze him:
John Tavares’ shot wants to test that glove hand again? Thought the first save was a fluke? Sit down:
You want to scramble in the crease and see if Nikita can keep his composure? Not an issue:
The thing I loved most about Tolopilo’s game was how quickly he recovered and got back into position, and how he fought through traffic to make the save.
To Vancouver’s credit, they didn’t bleed chances as they have in games past, but Nikita still had to make seven high-danger saves to keep the game tied. It was just a gutsy effort from a goalie who probably didn’t think he was going to get much NHL action this season, and now we’re at the point where he clearly deserves his third start in a row on Monday.
Or at the very least, get to play a few minutes in Kevin Lankinen’s game so he can know what it feels like to have a shutout stolen from him.
Best what about Vancouver
The Canucks push back in the third period? Not much, to be honest.
We saw Chytil’s offence across the bar again, giggling coquettishly and dropping their handkerchief on the ground to catch our attention, but unfortunately, he spun and put the backhander high:
And we also saw Chytil set up Linus Karlsson for a vicious one-timer that forced Woll to make a game-saving stop on:
So again, Chytil is showcasing some of that offensive skill. He just hasn’t fully clicked yet and put it all together.
Which meant this game went to overtime, which ended up giving us the best extra frames of the season in terms of entertainment value.
Best overtime shenanigans
First up, yes, your eyes do not deceive you, that is David Kämpf taking the opening draw in overtime. Only to watch as Jake McCabe sprinted by him to almost score a goal:
That’s a massive stop from Tolopilo, and he had to face down another huge scoring chance when William Nylander just ran out of room on a breakaway:
You’ll notice Nikita gets back into position almost immediately and starts tracking the puck, and is already in position for the second Nylander shot, no sweat, no problem.
The much-maligned Conor Garland then tried to summon his inner Corolla by jumping on a fortuitous bounce off the end boards that he just failed to convert into a goal:
Garland would again have a chance to end things when Jake DeBrusk committed Jake on Jake crime by picking the pocket of McCabe and finding Conor all alone for a mini breakaway, but much like Nylander, he skated himself out of a scoring position:
All of which led to Uncle Fil loading up the cannon to unleash an absolute piss missile of a shot, just kidding, he faked the shot and found Elias Pettersson down low, who couldn’t stuff the puck in, and ended up with Auston Matthews getting a breakaway:
I know some people might be frustrated the Canucks didn’t score there, but I am here for the creativity on this play. Sometimes I get tired of shots into traffic, so if it’s three-on-three, sure, why not have at it? Fake your shot and feed EP40 down low, make it look pretty. If that goal goes in, it’s a top highlight of the year, and what else do we have going for us, really?
Now, since Garland trucked Matthews on the breakaway chance, Auston was awarded a penalty shot. But you know who didn’t give a sh!t about that? Nikita Tolopilo:
Just an ice-cold assassin out there. I absolutely loved watching Nikita in net on this night.
Best tanking for the best
The game would go to the shootout, where Jake DeBrusk pulled off the rare double post no goal:
Before Nylander and Matthews beat Tolopilo to secure the win:
Ultimately, losing that game is what’s best for the standings, but the Canucks continue to crawl towards a team that can be enjoyable to support during a rebuild.
With the trade deadline looming in a month, all that’s next is shipping out some contracts and getting more draft capital.
The blueprint is right there.
Best he’s not wrong
Best putting in the work
That’s impressive, it truly is. But the man needs to start setting some shot records soon. It can’t all be defensive.
Best jersey Botch
I see what you did there.
Best whoops how did this get in here

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