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The Stanchies: Quinn Hughes’ attempt to drag Canucks to victory falls short in 5-2 loss to Flames
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Photo credit: © Simon Fearn-Imagn Images
The Stanchion
Nov 24, 2025, 01:48 ESTUpdated: Nov 24, 2025, 04:24 EST
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There are highs and lows to every Vancouver Canucks season. More lows than highs over the last decade, but you still learn how to ride the waves. Sometimes the highs are impossibly fun, and before you know it, you’re wondering if you should change the name of your cat to Nikita Purrdorov. And sometimes the lows are incredibly depressing, like watching in real time as Jim Benning trades for Oliver Ekman-Larsson that even the worst fantasy hockey commissioner would have vetoed before sending out a stern e-mail about “the importance of maintaining league integrity.”
Through it all, you manage to hold on, because that’s what sports are; it’s about the journey, damn it. That’s what makes losing all the more important, you see. Because it makes the eventual winning all the more sweeter. Or so I assume based on the reaction of other fan bases when they actually get to win.
But what they don’t tell you is the bleakness that takes over when a team is stuck in the mushy middle; afloat in a sea of Granlunds, wondering how long until drinking your own pee becomes the only option for survival. Instead of anger or excitement, there is that word every sports team trying to sell tickets should fear: apathy.
And after Sunday night’s loss to the Calgary Flames, this might be the most apathetic the season has felt for Vancouver.
It’s not just the fact that the Canucks were playing in the impossibly large shadow of the success of the Whitecaps and Goldeneyes over the weekend.
It’s not just losing to the only team lower than them in the Pacific Division.
It’s also not just how the team markets itself, presenting every single aspect of the Canucks in the blandest way possible, as if doing everything in its power to avoid connecting to the city in any meaningful way was the end game here. It’s as if they entered “How can we present the team like mayonnaise?” into ChatGPT and ran with it. Hell, Thomas Müller in a couple of months has done better PR work than the Canucks have done in years, just by embracing the city and showing a side of humanity sorely lacking from the hockey club. You can’t tell me there isn’t a trickle-down effect from the top of the organization in how it views hockey, infecting everyone in its path.
It’s not even the way the team jumps at the first chance it gets to gouge its own fan base when the team has a tiny bit of success. Want to see the fastest human alive? Watch the Canucks make the playoffs and see ownership make the call to raise ticket prices immediately. Which, hey, business is business, and the Canucks are certainly not alone in this regard, but it just feels extra predatory from a team that hasn’t sustained a level of success for many, many years.
It’s the fact that all of the above items listed exist in a world in which the entire franchise’s future rests upon the shoulders of Quinn Hughes in every single way possible, and we still don’t know if he’s coming or going. And I truly don’t know how you can sell tickets in this environment other than praying that Canadians love hockey too much to quit on them.
If all you have to look forward to is a decision from your captain next season at some point, not even the snazziest team slogans are going to generate much excitement in this town.
“Hey, did you hear if Quinn Hughes is staying yet?”
“No idea, but this year the team slogan is “Shoot every puck like it’s your last! Wanna go in on season tickets??”
So aside from going on a PDO bender, it’s hard to imagine things getting better anytime soon. No offence to Lukas Reicel, John Beecher, or Alexandre Texier, but the needle doesn’t move much when these are the names in the mix for Vancouver. Sure, Filip Chytil returning would help the team, but asking a guy with concussion issues to be a sustainable part of the lineup feels like a reach. It once again feels very much like the “ok but seriously, what if everything went right?” game plan.
Ultimately, it just feels like this season will be about watching Quinn Hughes trying to do his best attempt at a modern take on Sisyphus, while we all wait to see where his next contract is signed.
Which feels a lot more like “the beatings will continue until morale improves” territory more than anything else.
Let’s jump into this.
Best work smarter not harder
Perhaps inspired by the words of Jeff Paterson and Daniel Wagner on CanucksArmy this week, Filip Hronek opened the scoring for the Canucks with a little bit of brilliance, if I may be so bold:
Sprung on a two-on-one by a Jake DeBrusk backhander, Hronek simply waited until every Calgary Flame committed to stopping the pass instead of the shot. I think my favourite part of the goal is Hronek just sort of watching Kevin Bahl slide out of frame before he calmly went top shelf where mom keeps the location of her Twitter account hidden.
I am excited to ask Hronek about this goal when he gives his next media interview, three years from now.
And if the depressing intro in which I told you that by the end of the night you’d feel nothing for this team didn’t get you stoked to keep reading, I can honestly say this was the high point of the game. Even the highlight reel goal from Quinn Hughes later in the game mostly felt sad because everyone knew there was no real point to it. It had a lot of “you didn’t have to do this, really” to the friend who brings over a nice seven-layer dip to a funeral, energy to it.
Best a rose by any other name
Most of the Canucks highlights were a) generated in some form by Quinn Hughes and b) occurred in the first period. You would think the fact that Calgary had played the night before would be in favour of the Canucks, but you would be sorely mistaken. In fact, as the game wore on, the Canucks generated fewer and fewer scoring chances.
First period? Flames and Canucks tied at five high-danger chances apiece.
Second period? Flames had three. Canucks zero.
Third period, with the game on the line? Flames had two; the Canucks managed a single high-danger shot.
If you’ve ever screamed at your TV because you couldn’t run in camp in Red Dead Redemption 2, then you have a pretty solid understanding of what it was like watching this game.
That being said, we have to post the Quinn Hughes clips for posterity, so here he is sending in a tactical nuke of a pass to Max Sasson, who promptly missed the net:
From a “that’s pretty bad ass” level of skill, it is extremely fun to watch Quinn Hughes slow the game down until he can locate a guy with a perfect breakaway pass.
From a “Quinn Hughes and Josh Allen probably call each other late at night and commiserate about their jobs, don’t they.” level of pondering, it’s kind of sad.
Best those footprints in the sand were mine
Kevin Lankinen did not have an amazing night of hockey. Not that I think him being locked in would have done much, mind you. If a dude bursts through the door with 19 bullet holes in his chest, you don’t often comment that he might be feeling better if he’d only been shot 11 times.
That being said, here is Lankinen making a save back when the game felt winnable, stoning Kevin Bahl and eating some flesh for his troubles:
Not only did Bahl get denied on his shot, but he also took a penalty. And on top of that, he got to watch Quinn Hughes try to go end-to-end with the puck before setting up Jake DeBrusk for the scoring chance. This is the kind of play that happens to me in beer league hockey and often leaves me gazing into the mirror, asking myself what I’m doing with my life.
Luckily for Bahl, he can actually play hockey at a high level, so he probably blamed bees or something.
Best Starship Troopers approach
I will give the Flames credit for being good visitors, as they made sure to let everyone know this game wasn’t going to be close for too long.
The first goal from the Flames came near the middle of the opening frame, and this might shock you: the Canucks got caught chasing the puck and blowing coverage:
“Chasing the puck and blowing coverage,” aka the name of your high school band, has been a prominent feature of these Vancouver Canucks this season. And I will say the biggest tip of the hat to Rick Tocchet, for whatever issues you might have had with him, I do think it says something that almost every defenceman has played worse under Adam Foote. Again, maybe they need time to adjust to the system, or maybe they simply do not have the skills needed for Foote’s system, but all we know is that it has been ridiculously easy for opponents to get the Canucks swarming the puck and leaving guys open as a result.
Which is what happens here, as Double Mac loses a battle for the puck along the boards, while at the same time Linus Karlsson is cheating the zone a bit for an offensive rush. To Karlsson’s credit, he turns around right away and jumps on the puck, but the problem is that Max Sasson also decides he should be invited to the puck party, so he drops his keys in the bowl as well.
With three Canucks up high, Calgary swings the puck across the point, allowing Rasmus Andersson to jump up into the rush. Quinn Hughes then releases Morgan Frost for reasons (Bees? Or he thought Tyler Myers was going to cover and didn’t realize Tyler already had a guy? Or bees?), so both Double Mac and Hughes rush Rasmus, allowing Morgan Frost to be all alone for the tip in front.
Which, hey man, a lot of goals against involve plays breaking down, that’s kind of the nature of the beast. But when you’re a bottom-five team and your defensive coverage is tanking, and you continuously see goals happen on blown coverage, it’s fair to say there are issues somewhere in the system.
Best harsh but fair
I have some good news for you. The Flames’ second goal? It wasn’t because the Canucks blew coverage and chased the puck for 30 seconds.
No, the good news, nay, the moral victory on the Flames’ second goal, was because it was a bad bounce for Vancouver:
Yes, we have officially entered Moral Victory season.
Did you just fall down the stairs and hurt your back? No, no, my friend. You fell down the stairs, and somehow your phone didn’t break. That’s how we’re viewing this moral victory.
Now, Aatu Räty has been quietly having himself a “this guy might be an NHL regular” kind of season so far, so you can only do so much when trying to come up with jokes at his expense on this goal. The kid tried to make a good play by knocking down the puck, and then Michael Backlund gets a shot on the redirected puck, which allows Connor Zary to bash in the rebound.
If you want to criticize something on the goal, it’s clearly Tom Willander and Aatu Räty not being strong enough on their checks, as they basically allow Zary and Backlund to walk in and get a stick on the puck. Willander in particular has lost a lot of crease battles during his call-up, so that is clearly an area he will have to work on as he adds more muscle and adjusts to the NHL game. This is where the big boys and Kevin Nash play, after all.
Also, if you don’t shore that up, it’s what leads to the head coach screaming really loudly during practices.
Maybe “compete is in our nature” was the secret to all of this? Maybe without that slogan, the Canucks have lost the will to battle it out??
Best paging Dr. Hughes
One of the best, most exciting aspects of Tom Willander’s game is watching him activate on the rush. And when he gets a shift or two with Quinn Hughes, it’s fun to see him get caught up in it:
Willander is smart enough to see Quinn Hughes wheeling and dealing, so he skates down low to give a passing lane to the captain, which Hughes gladly takes him up on. Willander then tries to feed the puck in front for a bang-bang play to David Kämpf, which doesn’t work, but here is the best part: Willander skates back hard and ends up generating a takeaway when he throws a body check on a back check.
He doesn’t get lazy; he doesn’t sit back and watch to see if his team will get the puck back. He hurries his ass up and gets back into position and is able to get the puck back as a result of it.
And since Quinn Hughes is Quinn Hughes, he draws a penalty a few shifts later and once again goes full Josh Allen, scanning the field and praying Keon Coleman Jake DeBrusk can get open:
Jake doesn’t score in his Tim Horton’s office, but that was probably the third-best scoring chance on the night? That has to count for something, right?
And just in case you thought it was a fluke, here is Quinn Hughes once again long bombing a pass to Jake DeBrusk to start the second period:
I feel like Jake is starting to understand the “get kind of open and Quinn will find you” strategy he can rely on in games.
Best generating good will
It’s true. Nobody thought it was possible, but we now have definitive proof that Evander Kane can back-check when he wants to:
Blake Coleman’s fingerprints were all over this game for Calgary, and I know this mostly because I kept muttering “that Coleman guy again? In this economy?” for the majority of the game. And on this play, he hits the stick lift button and gets around Marcus Pettersson (that used to mean something, damn it), only to run into Evander Kane shutting his sh!t down. It’s a fantastic play from Evander Kane, and surely he would do nothing to squander that goodwill later in the game.
Moving on, we haven’t seen Quinn Hughes in a while, so here he is avoiding detection and completing his Hitman mission flawlessly:
I don’t even know what NHL players think when they try to run down Hughes and get evaded that easily. I can only assume you mutter to yourself, “well sh!t, that just happened,” and pine for the days when standard definition TV hid most of this.
Best ring of fire
The Flames would get their third goal off of a well-meaning Tom Willander, holding on for dear life to Joel Farabee and praying that today is the day he wins a net front battle:
Bit of luck, bit of skill for Kevin Bahl as he knows what he’s doing, sending the puck in behind the pad of the lesser Kevin like that.
As for Willander, Farabee sets a low centre of gravity and outright wins the battle, setting up shop in the crease, and just creating general chaos for Bahl to shoot into, as Willander just sort of leans over top of him and wonders why he won’t go away.
Tyler Myers would have cross-checked Farabee and then given him a Stone Cold Stunner. I’m not saying that’s the right play; I am just confirming your suspicions about what Chaos Giraffe would have done.
Best annnnnnnnnd it’s gone
You know what they say when you’re down 3-1, make sure you sh!t talk the other team so much that you get an unsportsmanlike penalty on the play:
I will say there is a time and a place for things like this, and I don’t think a team near the bottom of the standings should be doing too much talking. Even in games the Canucks are winning handily, we’ve seen Evander Kane “scoreboard” the other team, and it’s like my dude, nobody looks good on this team right now. Don’t be that guy on Xbox chirping into his mic all night when he’s got a 3/19 KD ratio.
Best second period highlight
I ran the numbers and watched the videos, and I believe I have found the Canucks best scoring chance of the second period, via the hands of one motivated by local media, Fil Hronek:
If that doesn’t sell tickets, I don’t know what will.
Best a matter of perspective
If you asked Blake Coleman, he would tell you it was 4-1 after this play:
That fool, the game wouldn’t be 4-1 until much later.
I bet Coleman thought he made it 5-1 on this play?
Ha ha, you dummy, it wouldn’t be 5-1 until the third period. What a fool.
Best drowning in a pool of sadness
The Flames would then make it 4-1 on a rebound off of an Andersson shot near the end of the second period:
Sharangovich scores, which feels like it was made considerably easier by the fact that nobody was covering him? In fact, two Flames had set up shop in front of Lankinen, and the Canucks, at best, seemed only kind of put out by it? Like, I am sure they knew the Flames were near their goalie, I just don’t think they particularly cared to do anything about it.
Which again doesn’t really lend itself to a strong defensive strategy.
Best numbers don’t lie, ok sometimes they do, but not here
Best please let this end
Yay, time for third period “highlights”. Anytime I use the word “fun”, it’s going to mean “brutal”, but in order to try and keep the positive vibes going, we will say the word “fun”.
So first up, we have the Canucks opening the third period by generating a Marcus Pettersson point shot:
That was a “fun” scoring chance for a “fun” team that really needed to score some goals.
Next, we had Quinn Hughes once again locating someone down the ice with a Hail Mary pass, and in this case, it was Drew O’Connor:
The play ended with a “fun” scoring chance from Jake DeBrusk, who basically tried to bank the puck in behind the net after the point shot from Elias Pettersson just went wide.
And thus ends the third period highlights, aside from a Quinn Hughes moment coming up.
“Fun.”
Best can’t spell Blake without Blake
Blake Coleman finally got to celebrate for real as he managed to crack the code on the Canucks power play:
Yes, feeding the puck to Quinn Hughes whenever possible is something other teams have picked up on, as Brock Boeser’s return pass to Quinn Hughes is stolen easily by Coleman, ending in a “fun” breakaway. The Canucks power play has looked faster and more dynamic this season, so I will give them credit for that, but this is once again another situation in which the Canucks shot themselves in the foot with sloppy play.
Best why does it feel bad
Ah yes, the fueled by spite goal, I know it well:
Who amongst us hasn’t been so angry, so pissed off, that they went out and did something all by themselves to show the world who’s boss?
Which is what Quinn Hughes does on this play. Why make the delightful long passes if nobody is going to score on them? Why dangle all the way down the ice if all you’re going to do is pass the puck off to someone who will miss the net? Why not just do it yourself?
It’s a wonderfully skillful goal, and continues the long resume for Quinn Hughes as an elite, generational talent that is probably worth a random in return were he to ever be traded.
The Canucks, inspired by the bravado and skill of their captain, promptly responded by letting Morgan Frost hit the post:
And then letting John Beecher skate right around DOC for the dangerous scoring chance:
This was not a good hockey game for Vancouver.
Best sign you don’t even have moral victories to fall back on
Best fighting until the end
I will say that even down 5-2, with under three minutes to go, Quinn Hughes was doing everything in his power to score, and even drew a penalty late in the game:
Which again, this is very much “no, no, seriously, you did NOT have to do that” energy, but it’s who he is, the dude wants to win, and we can all respect that.
The problem is this team once again fell into the “hey let’s just send the puck to Quinn Hughes and let him deal with it,” which the Flames easily read, and almost scored as a result of it:
Hey, it could have been worse. It could have been 6-2.
I think my main takeaway from this game, to take us full circle back to the intro, is just the lack of response from the fans. No booing. No anger. No jersey tossing. Nothing.
And hey, maybe it’s just a relic of the weekend. Maybe all the other feel good stories made this game easy to take.
But after watching this team stuck in a time loop of never being good enough but never quite bad enough for a legitimate rebuild for so many years now, it wouldn’t surprise me if this was the start of a long stretch of apathy from the fan base unless major changes are made.
It just remains to be seen whose hand forces it.
Best called it
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