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The Stanchies: Quinn Hughes plays hero as Canucks score six unanswered vs. Lightning
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Photo credit: © Kim Klement Neitzel-Imagn Images
Lachlan Irvine
Nov 17, 2025, 01:28 ESTUpdated: Nov 17, 2025, 02:02 EST
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Let’s be honest. The Vancouver Canucks probably shouldn’t have won tonight.
Their first period against the Tampa Bay Lightning was arguably their worst of the season. One shot on goal was all the Canucks could muster against a hockey team that played the day before! It really looked like we were in for a long, underwhelming night of hockey as the Canucks got stomped by an equally injury-depleted roster.
Just look at this graph showing the Corsi stats and balance of momentum throughout the night.
Tampa trapped Vancouver on their side of the graph right away and refused to let them out, taking a 2-0 lead through the first half of the game. But you don’t play the games on paper, and the Canucks turned their lack of shots into an asset, making poor Jonas Johansson do nothing for most of the night, only to send some well-timed bank shots and deflections past him at record speed in the third period.
The Canucks, like their social media posts congratulating the Vancouver Rise on their NSL championship, arrived late. But they got there eventually!
We definitely should not ignore the way Canucks fell behind, or chalk it up to bad luck. That was undoubtedly indicative of the quality the team has been playing at in recent weeks. But we also can’t discredit the effort it took for the Canucks to win in the end. Resiliency isn’t a reserve you can afford to dip into all the time, but if you cash it in at the right time, you might hit the jackpot. And that’s exactly what the Canucks did today.
Quinn Hughes’ return came up huge for the Canucks in this game. He’s struggled and played out of character at points this season. Tonight, he played his absolute best stretch of the season, potting four assists. Elias Pettersson picked up a pair of helpers as well, proving once again that the Canucks’ stars can step up when the moment calls for it. But they also hung in the game thanks to phenomenal goaltending from Kevin Lankinen, who stopped 28 of 30 shots, including 12 of 13 in the first period. Even depth players played a role in the comeback, like MacKenzie MacEachern picking up a goal and an assist, and Linus Karlsson scoring a game-winning goal.
It wasn’t a Picasso by any stretch, but these days in Vancouver, we’ll take any victory we can get.
Let’s break it all down.
Best tone setter
This game started exactly the way a tragic Canucks game would: with a really cool moment wrapped in a few really bad ones.
Conor Garland was locked in from minute one, especially after Darren Raddysh took a couple runs at him along the boards early. That spurred Garland to come back at him behind the net and start a tussle.
6-foot-1 Raddysh accepts Garland’s challenge eventually, expecting a fight taking a walk in the park. Instead, he ends up thrown right through the park bench.
Undoubtedly embarrassed at being thrown around like a rag doll by a 5-foot-10 Conor Garland, Raddysh made sure to throw a classless late punch as the refs stepped in between them. Usually, you get a fight like this when a team is already losing to spark their team. Garland wanted to get that out of the way early.
It didn’t really work, but the effort was appreciated!
But it would also be one of Garland’s only shifts of the hockey game, because he’d leave the game with an injury either related to the fight or from a hit later in the game, and would not return.
Everything is fine, guys.
Best Back to Peak
Kevin Lankinen has taken the ball and run with it since Thatcher Demko left the lineup again, and the Canucks have absolutely needed him to.
For a team that had played its biggest game of the season so far less than 24 hours prior against the Florida Panthers, the Lightning came out guns blazing. They ripped 13 shots at the Canucks net in the first period, including the first seven of the game’s shots. He had to make a number of saves, especially in the first half of the period.
The Canucks weren’t exactly helping him much either, scrambling and leaving lots of open ice available for the Lightning to get shots through. But Lankinen was everywhere he needed to be. He routinely cut down angles and prevented the Bolts from even finding the net, like on this Scott Sabourin chance.
Sabourin had all the time in the world to bury this shot. But Lanks was able to challenge out far enough to make Sabourin clank the puck off the crossbar instead.
Even when the Canucks did get the puck, they usually did something less than ideal with it, like Evander Kane icing this puck after a long shift in the defensive end.
All the concerns about this Canucks team are coming to roost.
Best ad blocker
The KierszenStat for this game was one that some people don’t wanna hear, but it needed to be said! For all the struggles he had scoring, Elias Pettersson is putting in the work in the defensive end.
Emil Lilleberg thought he was going to get Tampa’s eighth shot of the hockey game, but Elias Pettersson jumped in front of the shot like King Arthur taking a magic wand’s bullet for Shrek. Only difference is Pettersson didn’t turn into a frog after.
He’s doing all the right Selke-calibre things for his team and I’m not afraid to admit it!
Best SHOTS!
With 12 minutes left in the first, the unthinkable happened. The unimaginable, the unbelievable, the inconceivable.
The Canucks… got a shot on goal. And it was all thanks to Brock Boeser.
Boeser played this Lightning zone exit attempt perfectly. As Lilleberg skated into the middle of the ice, Brock got right into the passing lane and blocked it. Boeser put his body in between Lilleberg and the puck as he waited for a pass to Kiefer Sherwood skating back into the zone. A little give-and-go between him and Sherwood leads to a Boeser shot that almost found the corner of Jonas Johansson’s net. It was actually such a great play and shot that I fully expected to be writing about a goal here. After all, that’s how Canucks luck usually works. But Johansson read it better than most goalies would’ve and blockered it away.
Ah well, better luck next period.
Best *pretends to be shocked*

I thought Lanky got there. How did that find a hole!? #Canucks

— Ryan avgtraveller (@viewfromtherog.bsky.social) 2025-11-16T22:47:22.482Z

It was only a matter of time.
The fact that it took damn near the entire period for the Lightning to finally put a puck in the net was success in itself. But a couple reoccurring problems bit the Canucks in the butt on Nikita Kucherov’s one timer.
Firstly, Evander Kane: who are you covering on this play? The ghosts of Kokusai Green?? It ain’t any of the players on the ice, that’s for sure.
Secondly, the Canucks have had an absolutely dreadful time defending cross-ice passes all season long. Darren Raddysh victimized them on it after spinning out of coverage and finding a path through four Canucks sticks to Kucherov, waiting in his favourite spot on the ice. Lankinen nearly got there in time, but the puck squeaked through.
The Canucks’ willingness to sit back and let opponents pound them through the middle of the ice is a big reason why their season has gone the way it has. It’s why they can’t dictate the pace of play, why the penalty kill has struggled, and why winning games has been such a grind. You have to grab the bull by the horns at some point.
Best is that good?

Lightning have as many goals as the #Canucks have shots in the first period.Canucks on pace for a 3-shot game vs the #Lightning, meaning they can only max out at two goals.

— LesnielBC 🇨🇦 (@lesnielbc.bsky.social) 2025-11-16T23:00:28.214Z

Best preview

#Canucks are only 1 shot away from tying this game…

— Ralph In The Ridge🇨🇦 (@ralphintheridge.bsky.social) 2025-11-16T23:09:45.568Z

The Canucks were clearly humbled by their first period effort, because they came out for the second with a vengeance. Within two minutes of the period starting, BOOM! A second shot on goal.
EP40 made this play happen by wheeling out of coverage from J.J. Moser, and finding Hughes pinching to the top of the circles. Hughes couldn’t get more than a close angle shot at Johansson, but it was the kind of chance around the net the Canucks weren’t getting earlier in the game. Perhaps this is an omen.
Best missed connections
Even with the Canucks’ newfound confidence in the offensive zone, they couldn’t help but give up another goal. And it’s to a name they’re all too familiar with.
Once again, Erik Cernak is able to get a puck through to the net because his checker is Kane, who completely abandons his post again to float like soft serve in the middle of the ice. Cernak gets the puck to the net, where it’s deflected in front of Lankinen by noted Canucks killer Jake Guentzel. Maybe they should’ve traded for him back in 2024 after all.
This game is going exactly the way you’d expect it to. The Canucks might as well pack it up and get a head start on that team trip to Disney World. I heard the line for Terror of Terror is only 15 minutes if you pay for Lightning Lane.
Best use of the commercial break
Best Heating Up
Just when it looked the Lightning were about to pull away, the Canucks found life after MacKenzie MacEachern (remember that, now) was held in the neutral zone by Moser and earned them a power play.
The Canucks’ power play has found the secret sauce to scoring; namely park Elias Pettersson up high and let him draw the Lightning defenders to him. The plan goes off without a hitch, as Pettersson gets a shot through that Johansson stops, but the juiciest of rebounds pops out. And Jake DeBrusk is nothing but money from in close like that.
DeBrusk has had a slow start to his season, but he’s evolving back into his goal scoring self at the speed of light. Surrender now or prepare to fight.
Best No Lies Detected
Best Agitator

The Never Day Sie #Canucks strike again.Absolutely hilarious that this game is tied.

— Daniel Wagner (@passittobulis.bsky.social) 2025-11-17T00:13:29.781Z

The Lightning are a team that’s made a living off their physical brand of hockey for years. A style of play that’s chippy and mean, dragging teams into the mud with lots of penalties and, crucially, lots of power play chances. Even up calls from the refs are inevitable, so why not take a lot of penalties if you have a lethal power play?
Tonight’s game didn’t work out that way. If anything, in the third period, the Canucks arguably had a more accurate depiction of their style of play than the Bolts did. Kiefer Sherwood found a way to get under Yanni Gourde’s skin in the third with this hit, and came back for a conversation with Laurel after the whistle.
A few minutes later, Scott Sabourin gets rung up for bowling into Kevin Lankinen on a rush, and the Canucks power play goes to work. Brock Boeser has the puck along the boards and spots Sherwood’s waiting stick in front of the net. In the ultimate bounce and turning point of the hockey game, Sherwood proceeds to bank the puck off of Moser’s leg and past a completely unsuspecting Johansson.
The Canucks are, against all odds, tied with the Lightning. In a game where they have 11 shots. The story of this team.
Best flip it on its head
Do you hear that sound? It was faint earlier, but it’s getting louder.
It almost sounds like the PDO Machine going brrr.
Not even a minute after the Sherwood goal, MacKenzie MacEachern is able to hold the puck in at the blue line under pressure from the Lightning. He tries to take a shot on net, but it’s blocked. His second shot, a backhander, gets through to and miraculously finds Linus Karlsson, who deflects it past Johansson. 3-2 Canucks, out of NOWHERE.
Let’s take a moment to appreciate that celebration by Linus Karlsson as well. Karl drops the one knee down and heads for the boards with total jubilation. NOW we’re having fun and Karlsson gets his birthday present.
Best ARE YOU NOT ENTERTAINED?!

Hughes your daddy!!!!#Canucks

— Optimistic Canuck (@optimisticcanuck.bsky.social) 2025-11-17T00:15:26.740Z

This is where the condensed schedule of an Olympic year can take over a single hockey game. The Lightning are playing their second game in under 24 hours, and seemingly emptied the tank to win the game in the first period. The Canucks, with the extra day off, were only barely able to keep up with Tampa the entire night before they started to get the bounces to go their way.
But some of that is creating your own luck, and Quinn Hughes did exactly that by walking the line with his usual fancy feet before getting a shot through against the grain. Once again, the puck ricochets off the stick of newly lethal goal scorer Drew O’Connor in front of Johansson and past his blocker. Three goals in less than two minutes, Hughes has three points on the night, and the Canucks have a two-goal lead.
The Canucks have successfully pulled off the “call an ambulance! but not for me!” meme in real life. The Lightning thought they’d be home in time for dinner with two points made to order. Instead, the Canucks bought out all the restaurants in town and closed them to build condos.
Best like he never left
I know this sounds crazy, but Quinn Hughes might be a really important reason for any Canucks success. Please don’t put me on blast for this scorching hot take.
Best tides turned
The Lightning nearly forced their way back into the game midway through the third. They had just enough gas left in the tank for one final push, and they appeared to make it count when Charle-Edouard D’Astous pounced on a Lankinen rebound to the corner and got a shot away before Lanks could seal the post, cutting the Canucks’ lead to one.
But controversy! Adam Foote’s coaching staff finds something before they drop the puck. Namely, Jake Guentzel high sticking a clearing attempt in an effort to keep the play alive.
Canucks call for a coach’s challenge, and it doesn’t take long for the refs to waive it off. This is officially Vancouver’s night. Signed, sealed, delivered.
Best Big Mac
Before today’s game in my Stanchies Pregame video, I predicted that this game would be full of offence and scoring between two teams missing a lot of players. It took longer than expected, but I ended up spot on in the end. (Let the record show there was thunderous applause.)
MacKenzie MacEachern had himself an incredibly good game. At one point, it looked like he had two goals, initially being credited for Linus Karlsson’s go-ahead tally. While that got demoted to an assist, he absolutely scored the fifth goal.
This play is – stop me if you heard this – started by Quinn Hughes, circling Johansson’s net and drawing the Lightning defenders in. He finds Fil Hronek for a one-timer, and Hronek’s shot takes yet another bounce in front, off MacEachern’s stick and into the net. Had his first goal stood, MacEachern would have broken his career high in one game. Instead he ties it, but I don’t think he’s complaining.
Perfect time for a legacy game.
Best sticking a fork in it
Considering they were down by three, The Lightning elected to pull the goalie with over four minutes left. It took about a minute for Marcus Pettersson to sink a shot into it.
EP40 was the initial shooter, but his attempt hit a Bolt’s leg and bounced right to the Dragon. M’Petey’s first goal was also apparently the Canucks first empty netter of the year.
“Wait a minute Lachlan, didn’t Quinn Hughes hit an empty net in Dallas last month?” Supposedly, that wasn’t credited as an ENG because Casey DeSmith hadn’t left the ice yet. Whoops!
Anyways, the Canucks won the game, but not before Scott Sabourin gave Linus Karlsson a garbage slewfoot in the final minute of play. Somebody call Scott a wah-mbulance.
Best let him cook
Has Elias Pettersson been his classic self all year? No, but does that mean he hasn’t played very well overall? Also no.
The points are finally matching the process. Just wait for the goals to start matching up too.
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