Those dekes look like the old EP40
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The Stanchies: Sharks score three goals in three minutes to erase Canucks’ two-goal lead
Photo credit: Bob Kupbens-Imagn Images
Oct 30, 2026, 11:19 EDTUpdated: Oct 30, 2026, 11:20 EDT
Reality is cruel. One minute, you’re the Vancouver Canucks, soaring high after a come-from-behind victory against the Anaheim Ducks two nights ago, and leading 2-0 against an equally good San Jose Sharks squad on the road. The next, you’re dizzy and mystified at how the score is 3-2, and you’re back in the loss column.
The Sharks represent everything the Canucks hope they can become. They’re just a few years down the road from where Vancouver is now, and still waiting for their playoff invitation in the mail. They’ve got youth, speed and excitement that’s filling the SAP Center every single night. Heck, they have such a glut of talent they were able to deal away William Eklund to the Ottawa Senators, like it was nothing, because they were about to replace him with *checks notes* second overall pick Ivar Stenberg. I can’t even imagine the Canucks getting that kind of draft luck.
The Sharks are under a whole lot of pressure this season to live up to the hype that’s been building since Macklin Celebrini first arrived. Bay Area sports fans have a lot of good options for their entertainment dollars if you’re not doing enough. “The 49ers have only lost once!” “The Valkyries only needed two years to make it to the WNBA Finals! What’s your excuse??” “Steph Curry’s still draining buckets down at the Chase Center!” So Mike Grier’s got his work cut out for him.
That’s probably what the Sharks were thinking about after the first 40 minutes. They’re getting shut out by the last-place team in the NHL, and it hadn’t been all that close. The Canucks were playing aggressively, frustrating the Sharks’ defenders and had a lead! An honest-to-goodness lead! Granted, a lot of that was thanks to the Sharks having a horrible first two periods and looking like a total mess on special teams. But who cares, look at Petey deking in a phone booth again and Liam Öhgren sniping goals like prime Ovechkin.
But as is tradition, in the span of just under three minutes, the Sharks found their mojo and turned the tables with three unanswerable goals. The confident group of Canucks that had challenged San Jose at every turn in the first two periods faded under the brightest lights and snatched defeat from the jaws of victory.
When I said that Tuesday’s win was one the Canucks should enjoy the heck out of, it was knowing full well that there might not be a lot of fun this season to celebrate. You don’t grow up a hockey fan in Vancouver without being able to sense a storm in your leg. I just didn’t expect that joy to wear off in such a quick and tragic way. Maybe I should have.
Let’s wrap this road trip up and hope this game proves to be the scariest part of your Halloween weekend.
Best picking up where we left off
Meriläinen is a really fun goalie to watch. So far a homerun of a waiver pick up. He is one of the few bright spots this season. #Canucks
— 🇨🇦 Trent Leith 🏳️🌈 (@trentleith.bsky.social) 2026-10-30T02:24:39.678Z
Leevi Meriläinen has been very busy this year. And fresh off a wild game against Anaheim, his reward was going to be facing one of the most ridiculous forward corps in the NHL.
But his first test came courtesy of NHL first-timer Filip Bystedt. With his parents in attendance to watch his first spin in an NHL uniform, Bystedt rocketed past Zeev Buium and cut to the net for a chance that Meriläinen had to be on alert for.
No rest for the wicked, because then a few minutes later Jacob Trouba and Michael Misa caught the Canucks with some atrocious coverage in the middle of the ice. Misa split the defence with ease, and Meriläinen had to snag the puck with no time for flair. This is serious business; no shenaniganary allowed.
Best Multiverse torture
Remember in Avengers: Endgame when Gamora from Peter Quill’s universe is dead, and he finds multiverse Gamora, but she doesn’t know him whatsoever? Well, that’s what the Canucks facing Ivar Stenberg feels like. We landed in the wrong universe.
With ZERO disrespect to Caleb Malhotra (who’s playing like a stud at Boston University apparently), this kid should’ve been a Canuck. The Sharks didn’t need him whatsoever, but he’s here anyway! And he’s prepared to torment Vancouver for at least the next 6-8 business years.
When the Sharks got the first power play opportunity of the game midway through the game off an Arshdeep Bains holding call, there was Stenberg, sneaking to the net undetected
At least they won’t have to see Stenberg again for a while. Now who are the Canucks facing next? Oh, it’s Gavin McKenna? The OTHER player the Canucks should’ve been able to draft?!
Best Crisis Averted
We sure got a Halloween scare within the first five minutes of this game when Brock Boeser blocked a Sam Dickinson shot with the inside of his foot and went down in a heap, struggling to get to the bench after.
He left the game for a brief while, and once the team determined he hadn’t broken his foot, he came back to finish the night out. The worst outcome might’ve been avoided, but Brock’s already not the fleetest of foot, and this certainly couldn’t have helped him today.
Best yeah, I’m thinking he’s back
Doc was so excited to score he became the puck
Ladies and gentlemen, he’s doing it.
He’s doing his dekes.
The Sharks simply weren’t prepared for a full-powered EP40 to charge in after a giveaway, steal the puck back and whisk them around like eggs in Elizabeth Holmes’ yellow bowl (Is that a spoiler?). At one point, THREE Sharks are in Petey’s vicinity, and he dangles the puck around them all while holding the blue line. Just insane.
His eventual shot on goal turning into a juicy, juicy rebound for Run-DOC was merely the icing on an already delicious cake.
I want you to take one more look at this mastery before you move on to the rest of the highlights. Live in this moment for a second. It’s sure nice, isn’t it?
Everything feels right.
Best It’s All Coming Together
i can’t believe the canucks killed a penalty AND scored first
Best Kiefer Bar
Sherwood's missed both of his great opportunities tonight he's clearly still a Canuck at heart
Every time Kiefer Sherwood lines up against the Canucks, you still imagine what could’ve been. We wanted to see this guy skating in playoff games for the blue and green so badly. Instead, he’s back to being an agitator and a chance-creator for the opposing team.
The Canucks weren’t without their faults in the first period, even with the lead. And they very nearly coughed it up on the power play when Linus Karlsson and Filip Chytil got their wires crossed on a drop pass in their own zone, the Sharks disrupted it, and Sherwood got a shorthanded breakaway.
Lucky for Karlsson and Chytil, Meriläinen’s mind wasn’t already on the nice fresh towel waiting for him in the locker room to wipe all the sweat off. He really had to stretch to keep that one out.
Best Mogging
its crazy serious rn
Best Iron Man
they've got tom willander in some sort of medieval torture device
Poor Tom Willander. When he stepped onto the ice near the 16-minute mark of the second period, he had no idea it was going to be the longest skate of his life.
The Sharks weren’t exactly dominating with scoring chances and zone time, but the Canucks were really struggling to corral the puck long enough to get a full line change. And Willander was the one who paid the price with a three minute shift. At some point, I don’t think any of his teammates or the coaching staff would’ve faulted him if he cheated and gave the Sharks a brief 5v4 chance just to get fresher legs out there. But he didn’t, and he used the last gas in the tank to drag himself to the bench.
Look at the relief on that kid’s face as he gets to the bench. Not everyone can be Matthew Schaefer and play five minutes of OT without breaking a sweat.
Tom Willander has that dawg in him just for sticking out there.
Best Playing with Fire
You know what they say about playing with fire: it’s totally safe to do, and fun too!
The Sharks’ power play at one point in this hockey game was scoreless on four attempts and actually being frustrated by the Canucks’ penalty kill. It was so bad that San Jose head coach Ryan Warsofsky started their last power play opportunity in the middle frame with the second unit, practically daring the Celebrini-Smith-led PP1 to wake up. It eventually worked, but they’d use this one just to power up.
Any hockey coach will tell you the goalie has to be your best penalty killer, and Meriläinen was fed to the Sharks on this one. There was one opportunity for Mason Marchment in close, but Meriläinen had his stick perfectly placed to poke check it away.
Then there were a pair of merciless chances from Celebrini and Dmitri Orlov that the Merlin Wall had to battle for, and the Canucks managed to bend without breaking.
Who are these Canucks’ penalty killers and where have they been all season?
Best Chel Goalie Glitch
LIAM ÖHGREN YOUUUUUU ARE A VANCOUVER CANUCK
liam “jonathan lekkerimäki” öhgren
No one knows the goalie animations in an NHL game better than Liam “Hutty” Öhgren.
The man who brought his game console to training camp knows full well that if he eases off the gas a second behind Marco Rossi, it’ll create a screen that Yaroslav Askarov’s CPU won’t account for in his positioning.
Notice on the back camera angle where Askarov’s body is. He’s still square to Öhgren’s body, which is the wrong place to be when the puck itself is about a foot to his right. But the screen by Rossi successfully threw Askar-off; he didn’t adjust, and Öhgren caught him with a perfectly placed shot off the far side bar and in.
And everyone knows a two-goal lead is the safest lead in hockey. The only thing safer is three goals. Right, Anaheim?
Best blood in the water
That's on me. I jinxed it.
Canucks PK looks great tonight!
The Sharks powerplay looks so much better once they draw Mancini up. It was a similar story on their previous powerplay. On the Smith goal, he took away the short side lane, the opposite of what a defenseman is supposed to do when blocking a shot.
I admittedly made a tragic mistake in the intermission of this hockey game. I truly believed this game was the Canucks for the taking.
The Canucks have a 2-0 lead in the third period; they’ve been the better team for the majority of the evening, and even gotten the San Jose fans to boo the home team in the later stages of the second. For a rebuilding team, a rare successful road trip is genuinely on the table here!
We will not erase Jonathan Lekkerimäki’s incredible efforts two nights ago, but this game was a much tougher outing for him. The most prominent number on his statline in this game were the four penalty minutes he ended up with. The second trip to the sin bin was this interference on Celebrini, where he looked like he was trying to draw a charge, but forgot they weren’t playing basketball a few moments too late.
After flirting with disaster for 40 minutes, that’s when the power play dam finally burst. Victor Mancini’s attempt at blocking a shot from Will Smith somehow covered the wrong lane and merely acted as a high screen for Meriläinen. Smith went Wild, Wild West with the puck instead to cut the Canucks’ lead in half.
As soon as Smith’s shot went in, the crowd rose to its feet, and the goal song started playing. Through the din of the crowd, you could faintly hear the insult of all insults: the sound of Green Day’s ‘Holiday’.
Do they not know? Have they forgotten the legacy of fear that song struck in the hearts of opponents who visited Vancouver for two fantastic years in the early 2010s? Oh, how far we have fallen.
I’ll bet most of the fans in the building don’t even know who Lee Sweatt is.
Best I’ve forgotten the darkness
losing to the canucks is so embarrassing that they reunited willmack
As soon as Smith scored on the power play, it was like the spell that made the Sharks forget how to play hockey disappeared. The crowd definitely factored in as well; if you’d been to SAP Center during the peak Thornton-Marleau years, you’ll know sound really reverberates in that steep concrete bowl. When San Jose is good, it’s a very intimidating building to be the opponent in.
It sure feels like that era is returning, because the Sharks circled their prey two minutes after their first goal. Celebrini had a great shot to tie the game, but Meriläinen swallowed it.
Off the ensuing faceoff, DePetey’s attempt to clear the puck didn’t get past Michael Kesselring at the blue line. He threw it back in, Celebrini read the bounce off the back boards perfectly, and as Fil Hronek tried to cut off his lane to the net, North Vancouver’s favourite son slipped the biscuit to a waiting Smith. Tie game in the blink of an eye.
We all know where this is going.
Best Looking on the bright side
Canucks got them lined up for comeback win #Canucks
— thespookydandino (@thegreatdandino.bsky.social) 2026-10-30T04:12:48.780Z
11 seconds.
That’s all the Sharks needed to flip this whole game on its head and turn what had been a successful trip through California into a devastating finish.
The Canucks lined up for the faceoff after the tying goal, lost it, and then made the dire error of sitting back and letting the Sharks just… walk right into the defensive zone.
Mason Marchment got the puck from Kiefer Sherwood, snapped a shot on goal and, in a rare mistake, Meriläinen overshot his angle. Marchment’s shot handcuffed the outside of Leevi’s glove and found the back of the net.
All in all, it took approximately 2:50 of game time for a 2-0 Canucks lead to flip into a 3-2 Sharks scoreline, surprising few and making the believers among us reach for the liquor cabinet (if you’re my editor reading this, I swear I’m kidding).
It also marked the second night in a row that the Canucks’ generosity won the locals dinner: three Sharks goals apparently means free Taco Bell tomorrow for everyone in attendance. If nothing else, the 2026-27 Canucks are at least doing their part to end world hunger.
Best Kitchen Sink
The Canucks tried their best to put together another Anaheim-style comeback, and even got a power play opportunity late.
Jake DeBrusk tried to get on one knee to put a puck through Askarov, but Yaro and the Sharks PK were ready for it. Same goes for Hronek’s shot from the blue line with not too much traffic for Askarov to deal with.
Hronek set up EP40 for his patented one-timer, but Petey just couldn’t get the timing right on it, and the puck went right into Askarov’s chest.
With Meriläinen on the bench and an empty net, the Canucks nearly caught Askarov over committing to a Filip Chytil one-timer from Petey’s spot, as the rebound and Asky slid out into no man’s land. But the Sharks protected the net perfectly, and DeBrusk couldn’t muster a wraparound on the yawning cage. The clock wound down, and the Canucks settled for two out of four points on the road.
Some nights you’re the shark. Others you’re the chum.
Best game in one photo
in mourning
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Breaking News
- The Stanchies: Sharks score three goals in three minutes to erase Canucks’ two-goal lead
- Instant Reaction: Sharks score three unanswered in the third, beat Canucks 3-2
- NHL Notebook: Red Wings suspend Larkin for sitting out until trade, Oilers targeting Matt Rempe?
- Canucks interested in acquiring Capitals forward Ivan Miroshnichenko: report
- Scenes from morning skate: Canucks stick with winning lineup against Celebrini and the Sharks
Vancouver CanucksTeam Cap Summary
Cap Summary
2026-27
2027-28
Projected Cap Hit
$87,294,913
$71,329,167
Projected Cap Space
$16,705,087
$42,170,833
Current Cap Space
$19,760,896
$42,170,833
Active Players
23/23
13/23
Draft Picks
Round
'27
'28
1
1
1
2
2
2
3
1
1