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The Stanchies: Quinn who? Canucks extend winning streak to three games with 4-1 win vs. Islanders
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Photo credit: © John Jones-Imagn Images
The Stanchion
Dec 19, 2025, 23:59 EST
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Maybe the best way to convince Quinn Hughes to stick around by winning games was by trading Quinn Hughes?
I’m not sure what logical loops we need to jump through to make this the landing point of the entire situation, but watching the Vancouver Canucks go 3-0 since they traded their captain has me convinced of my conclusion.
Small sample sizes or not, it has been fun watching a Canucks team play the game of hockey without any overarching questions about team drama better suited as a plot point in a season of The OC. No more wondering if Julie Cooper and Quinn Hughes hate each other and/or have a secret love child that is dating Ryan Atwood, no, instead, Vancouver is simply winning hockey games.
Now, a lot of that has to do with their level of competition. A large chunk of it can also be attributed to Thatcher Demko’s addiction to ruining draft pick positioning. I think it’s also reasonable to suggest the Canucks are probably enjoying life without wondering if/when their best player is going to be traded out of town.
But you know what? Give them credit for their 4-1 win over the New York Islanders, because the Canucks also busted their asses to secure that victory. I honestly think they played the style of game Rick Tocchet always dreamed about, as the Canucks made life pretty miserable for the Islanders on Friday night. They constantly harassed New York whenever they got the puck, forcing the Islanders to work for every inch of the ice. I think the Canucks mentally beat Patrick Roy’s team before the first period was even done, as Vancouver made it pretty clear early on that hard work was going to have to win the day.
Vancouver didn’t kick the sh!t out of the Islanders, mind you. It was a decently close game for the most part, which is where Thatcher Demko came into play. Whenever New York did manage to generate a good look on net, the Canucks goaltender shut it down pretty easily. And when you’re facing a team that’s willing to battle you for sixty minutes, with a red-hot goalie as the last line of defence, that tends to make for a pretty long night.
I think it’s important to watch these games with an eye for the future. See who stands out, see which young players might have the juice. Take a moment to ponder why Adam Foote hates Aatu Räty, of course, but then get back to watching Liam Öhgren and trying to see what Vancouver has in him.
You obviously have to keep in mind that Vancouver will win enough games to become buyers at the deadline, as the “think of it more as a rebuild hybrid” terminology has started to get tossed around today. You should always worry that the Canucks management team has a hair-trigger response to buy now and go all-in the second they think they might make the playoffs. You wouldn’t be wrong to fear a world in which Derek Forbort and Teddy Blueger return to the lineup to lock down the penalty kill, with Elias Pettersson rediscovering his form upon his return, leading to a red-hot Canucks team racing into the mushy middle, as is tradition.
But there is time enough for that later.
For now, just sit back and enjoy getting to know the new players and enjoy a world in which you don’t have to actively worry which player is unfollowing which on Instagram.
Let’s dive into the game.
Best you wouldn’t like him when he’s angry
The turning point in the game might have actually come within the first few minutes of the game. With the Canucks already serving a penalty, Kiefer Sherwood generated a potential scoring chance on a cross-crease pass to David Kampf, before promptly putting the Canucks down two men after taking down Matthew Barzal:
Having an extended two-man advantage is a tough hill to climb, but you know what helps? An angry Tyler Myers.
For the most part, Myers doesn’t really play like a large dude. Sure, he uses his wingspan, but it’s not like he’s out there living life as a Bash Bro, taking guys out with huge hits.
Except when you piss him off.
Normally, it’s when someone slashes him, you kind of see his eyes go red, and you can tell he’s gone full tilt. A Tyler Myers looking for revenge is on some Game of Thrones level where you know it either ends in a questionable hit or a penalty, and usually it’s both.
But when you’re already down two men, the refs tend to let you get away with murder, which is something the Chaos Giraffe used to his advantage by first taking out Anthony Duclair with a solid cross-check/loving shove from behind:
This gentle love tap resulted in Vancouver clearing the puck down the ice, much like this next hit from Myers on Max Shabonov did as well:
This was the more egregious of the two Myers plays, but the refs swallowed their whistles and let the boys play on, which led to the eventual killing off of both penalties.
And like all things in life, anytime Myers wasn’t there attempting murder, Thatcher Demko was there to make sure nobody scored.
If the Islanders score here, maybe it’s a different outcome, but the early penalty kill was a massive swing point in this game, in my humblest of opinions. A humble opinion on par with my apple pie being the crumblest.
Best breaking bad
Marco Rossi and Brock Boeser appear to be generating some chemistry with each other, even if Boeser is not currently legally allowed to score a goal in the NHL.
The first good look Boeser had on net was due to a perfect backhand pass from Rossi through the middle of the ice, created after the Canucks kept the puck in the zone at the blue line:
And the second good chance was again due to the Canucks managing to pester the Islanders into turning the puck over in their own zone, as Rossi was able to find Boeser alone in front of the net after stealing the puck near the blue line:
Boeser had a couple of more chances to score this period, but I feel like his fans have been through enough the last month, so just trust me when I say he probably could have had four goals in this period. But as my high school janitor told me, theoretical goals are Satan’s highway, so if the Canucks truly want to ruin the season by getting the 14th overall draft pick, they really need Boeser to start scoring some actual goals here soon.
Best stonks rising
I used to think only Kiefer Sherwood and Evander Kane could fetch the Canucks a first-rounder, but after watching David Kampf’s first as a Canuck, I’m convinced he’s in the running as well:
This goal is a pretty good example of how the Canucks played all night long. Nobody took too many shifts off, and for the most part, Vancouver was 100% locked into that annoying effort level you run into at beer league. You know where one guy is trying way too hard at like an 11:30 pm puck drop, and you just know this guy is dealing with some emotional baggage, and he REALLY needs the win?
That’s how Vancouver was going the entire game. They were just constantly putting pressure on the Islanders, which, when you’re facing off against a team that doesn’t have that high-end skill of a Colorado Avalanche team, tends to pay off more often than not. New York couldn’t out-skill their way out of the heavy forecheck, which led to a lot of extended shifts in the offensive zone for Vancouver.
On Kampf’s goal alone, the Canucks caused two turnovers in a few seconds, thanks in part to their hard work along the boards, which, again, tells me that somewhere in the world, Rick Tocchet didn’t look up into the sky and smile and/or howl with delight.
Best elite playoff performer
Kiefer Sherwood’s hat trick was the fuel for this game, and while his third goal was an empty netter, you’d be hard pressed to find a better resume leading highlight goal than his first one of the night:
He gives Matthew Schaefer a quick little “welcome to the NHL, kid” moment by stripping him of the puck at his own blueline, then walks in and just absolutely lasers home his 14th of the season. Some real Han Solo energy on this goal if we’re being honest, and I can firmly say that Han shot first here.
Again, we have no idea if the Canucks “hybrid rebuild” aka “Quinn Hughes forced us to trade him so we’re going to pretend it’s a rebuild, but the second we win some games we might say its already done” game plan involves keeping Kiefer Sherwood around, but if you were looking to boost trade value this is the goal that does it. There is just something about a guy outworking and outthinking another player that gets GMs going to the point that, yeah, maybe a first-rounder is your starting point in any conversation.
Speaking of rookies learning on the job, Zeev Buium did his best to showcase an end-to-end rush, only to get shut down hard along the boards:
Buium had another quietly strong game, forming a very effective partnership with Tyler Myers on the night, however. They led the defence in Corsi and angrily threw cross checks.
As for the Islanders, their scoring chances were few and far between in the first period, leading to many of what I assume is one of only two looks Patrick Roy can have: Angry, want to murder you looks, and slightly bemused, want to murder you looks.
New York’s best chance in the opening frame was when Anthony Duclair harassed Marcus Pettersson behind the net by calling his cell phone repeatedly, leading to Callum Richie sending the puck high and wide from tight in the crease:
Best bumpers for the boys
Kiefer Sherwood’s second goal of the night came right out of the Bo Horvat playbook, as he finished off a perfect pass from Fil Hronek in the bumper spot:
It’s a new world without Quinn Hughes, so it will be interesting to see how this team’s special teams evolve without their former captain. No longer can they constantly feed the puck back to Hughes the second they run into trouble. No longer can they stand in one spot, transfixed by the skating of Quinn. Now the team has to find old-fashioned ways of getting scoring chances with the extra man.
It’s actually kind of funny because the Canucks really moved away from featuring the bumper spot on the power play once Bo left town, so maybe that’s an area they revisit now that they need to figure out a new way to live.
Best making them sad
After being unable to score for almost an entire period, the Islanders resorted to cheating when Anders Lee high-sticked a puck past Demko near the end of the first:
I have to assume he just wanted to know what it felt like to score on Demko at this point.
Best a whole new world
It’s fun to talk about Quinn Hughes being the problem all along because it makes him the problem, and not the horrifying knowledge that this team might never win with the current owners in place.
But realistically, every team in the world wants a Quinn Hughes, and we have several years of “how the actual f*** did this happen?” ahead of us as we try and figure out why it had to come to this.
That being said, there is probably a certain level of momentum happening on Vancouver’s end from being removed from all of the “is he staying or is he going?” that was following the team around. We saw the Psycho Mantis levels of damage this team went through last season, so it’s not too forward to suggest that the Hughes situation was affecting the team to the point of it reaching the ice. It just felt like near the end of the Hughes era, we were watching some dystopian version of hockey in which Hughes would be given the puck and everyone just waited for him to create magic.
There was no teamwork. There was no creativity. There was no enthusiasm. It was just watching Hughes lug the puck around the ice for over thirty minutes a night, losing hockey games, and generating very little in the way of actual points on the board. It was like watching a reboot of The Road, only somehow more depressing. It was about as close to a “show up, clock in, clock out” level of hockey as we have seen in some time in this city.
Which is depressing for many reasons, but mostly because Quinn Hughes’ hockey should be beautiful hockey. You’re seeing that come to life in Minnesota, in which he is once again making love to the puck, winning games, and creating must-watch highlights. It’s almost annoying in a way watching people from Minnesota go “Gawrsh, he is SO good at hockey!” as if Vancouver hadn’t been screaming that for the past seven years.
So while the rest of the world showcases proof they didn’t stay up late enough to watch Quinn Hughes play hockey when he was with Vancouver, at least both Quinn and Vancouver are playing a more rewarding style of hockey that doesn’t feel like James Bond getting sacked in the nuts with a heavy rope repeatedly.
Best silver linings
Being noticeable as a former mid-first-rounder can be a very good thing or a very bad thing.
Turning over the puck so many times that it gets nicknamed a pizza whenever you do it? Not the greatest PR.
Being strong on the puck and looking good in bursts in the offensive zone? That’s the good stuff.
We have no idea what Öhgren’s ceiling will end up as, of course. For every Todd Bertuzzi in the world, there are a hundred Nikolay Goldobin and Mirco Mueller’s HockeyDB pages waiting to tell you all about the exciting world of Swiss and Russian hockey leagues.
Early returns from Liam, though, feel positive. He just seems to be around the puck in a good way on most shifts. He’s not making mistakes, while you go, “well at least he’s from Abbotsford??”, lying to yourself about the likely career path you see ahead of him.
Instead of making terrible shots from the corner, he’s able to generate shots off the rush, and then has the instincts to be in position to grab rebounds and get further shots on said net:
It just feels like he might have the right IQ for the NHL game, that the game isn’t too quick for him, nudging him past that quad AAAA player line.
Speaking of noticeable, Zeev Buium has also showcased good defensive instincts with Vancouver so far. We all know the hype around his offensive game, but all it takes is one bad contract, and you find yourself turning into Seth Jones, with the cashew-eating Russians making charts and graphics showcasing how god awful you are in your own zone.
A great example of his defensive prowess was during a Canucks power play where he made sure to get back in his own zone to shut down a shorthanded rush with ease:
It’s extremely easy to get lazy defensively when you’re on the power play, so kudos to the kid for making sure he took care of his own end on this play.
Which isn’t to say we haven’t seen a little of that offensive swagger to his game, either. Obviously, there is only one Quinn Hughes, but just in terms of being that new-age mobile defenceman that can make moves along the blueline to create room for himself? He has that in his bag as well:
Nothing outrageous, just a little shimmy and misdirection to give him some room to skate into, but he also finished the play with a smart, safe pass, and didn’t just bomb a shot on net that went around the boards and out.
And speaking of hyped new-age defenceman, Matty Schaefer made sure to remind the world that he is going to be an exciting player in this league for a long, long time when he broke around Fil Hronek, Evander Kane and Tom Willander to almost score an end-to-end goal:
I think this kid might be good. I won’t commit to anything yet, but I think that’s where he’s trending.
Also, how in the world did Willander not get a penalty there?
I don’t think Tom tripped him, mind you. But usually, if you’re close enough to the scene and you get a stick near a dude who busts out a move like that, the officials hand out a pity penalty on the play.
Best embrace the future
Kiefer Sherwood once again showed that worth-a-first-rounder effort as he dove back for a puck, only to have to watch as Demko made yet another save in which you instinctively held your breath, wondering if human contact was going to injure him again:
Demko would be fine on the play, but I must say the Canucks really have a pickle on their hands with Thatcher. If the “hybrid rebuild,” aka the rebuild they plug in and leave in the garage overnight, is their end game, then Demko is most likely a huge part of that. When Demko is on his game and not hurt, he is a top-five goalie in the league.
The problem is that he is injury-prone, and there is nothing to suggest that won’t continue to be the case. So do you sit here, watching Demko raise his value by rocking absurd numbers in December, making people forget his injury history, and try and cash in on a trade?
Or do you keep him and see if he’s part of the next wave?
A proper rebuild most likely involves dealing with the American goaltender, but again, this is a hybrid world we live in, apparently, so who knows at this point.
Best who needs Quinn
I will say there is some grim amusement in watching Tyler Myers out here playing elite-level lockdown hockey now that the team finally said the word rebuild. Near the end of the second period, the Islanders tried to get the puck behind him, but nope, Tyler one-handed chops the puck away, doesn’t take a penalty, and shuts the play down perfectly:
Leave it the Chaos Giraffe to always leave us on our toes I guess.
Speaking of raising your game, Evander Kane had what was probably his best game as a Canuck? Planet Ice can generate a lot of shots on net, but the majority of them will end up being like shots from the second row. He just shoots from anywhere, so a 20-shot game from Evander is usually like three good shots followed up by gaming the system and juicing his shot totals.
But on this night, Evander Kane showcased a true, honest-to-goodness power forward game, as he used powerful skating to constantly drive the puck on net.
On one shift, not only did he create a two-on-one scoring chance with Drew O’Connor, but he also followed up with a couple more shots on net in the same shift:
Kane, a big fan of uppies, then called for Hronek to airmail a lob pass over to him, creating yet another rush on net, this time drawing a penalty:
It was just a solid game from another player that, yeah, if you are looking to trade some of the veterans, you’re probably using video from this game to dump in the group chat as soon as possible.
Best forcing the issue
While I agree that this was Öhgren’s best game as a Canuck, and Sherwood aside, he might have been the Canucks best player on the night, it felt like the entire team was working hard and playing smart hockey.
A great example of this is just the small things where, yeah, they would extend a shift an extra five seconds or so by making it hard for New York to exit their own zone:
Öhgren’s hard work at the end of that clip forces the Islanders to take seven more seconds to get out of the zone with the puck. And while those seven seconds might not seem like a lot, that’s the sort of thing that buys time for line changes or prevents a team from getting out of their zone with speed. It limits their ability to find a guy in behind your defence.
Best hey while you’re down there…
Hey, who amongst us hasn’t pretended to hit a dude with a weapon to see if he’d flinch:
Best keeping up the pressure
Early in the third period, Evander Kane once again generated a scoring chance by skating hard with the puck on the counterattack:
We talked about it earlier in the season, but Kane is coming off of major surgery just last year, so there is a very possible chance his game will continue to get better as this season goes along.
Definitely worth at least a first-rounder.
Best uppies
I blame Evander Kane for spreading the Canucks love of the high-arcing long bomb, as the team has really seemed to jump on board with it.
The latest example? Jake DeBrusk popping the puck up in the air for himself, only to run headfirst into Ilya Sorokin at the local Tim Hortons:
A for effort, C+ for execution.
I also think it’s hilarious that someone tried to fight Jake DeBrusk. Dude just wants to score goals in the crease and collect Pokémon cards, he doesn’t want any heat, let him live his best life.
Best showcasing the talents
The Islanders third period push was met with, well, Thatcher Demko being Thatcher Demko.
Oh, Matty Barzal wants to score on a point-blank shot? Sorry, Thatcher isn’t having any of that:
How about some more uppies from Vancouver, as Marco Rossi sends a high spiral up and over to a Brock Boeser and Conor Garland breakaway:
Kudos to Sorokin, that’s a brilliant save to be fair.
And how about Marco Rossi extending a shift and forechecking hard, leading to the Islanders once again having no easy shifts on the night:
The Canucks played hard. They played smart. It was one of the most complete games from the team this season.
Best train of logic
Look, I enjoy giving a penalty as much as the next guy, but when you watch the replay, Tom Willander’s stick came nowhere near Schaefer on this play:
The problem, you see, is that Schaefer literally tried to skate horizontally when making his cut to the net, so it wasn’t too shocking that he fell flat to the ice. Only Connor McDavid can make that kind of cut at that speed, and I’m still convinced he’s a boring robot sent to kill John Connor, except he discovered a passion for hockey and forgot to finish the job.
Best pity goal
Anders Lee finally got an actual goal, when, after pulling their goalie, New York managed to break down the Canucks defence for the tap-in goal at the side of the crease:
Tyler Myers was already playing the puck carrier in a hyper-aggressive manner, so I think Elias Pettersson needs to back off there and protect the middle of the net. Instead, DP25 pushes over to make a play on the puck, leaving Lee open for the easy finish.
A small blip on an otherwise solid night from Vancouver.
Best tricks involving hats
And to complete the hat trick, Hronek does the time-honoured tradition of “I’m going to slap the puck really hard! Ha ha, just kidding, I’m passing instead” as he finds Kiefer Sherwood to ice the game:
Hey, it was a good game from Vancouver. The kids show encouraging signs. It was the perfect game, aside from hurting the draft position. Like I said, though, worry about that another day. You might as well finish off the year enjoying a game of hockey or two.

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