Can we get a stat check on how many first shot goals we've given up this season? 🙄🙄 #canucks
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The Stanchies: Canucks log fourth straight loss in low-event affair vs. Kings
Photo credit: © Jayne Kamin-Oncea-Imagn Images
Apr 10, 2026, 11:28 EDT
This game could’ve been an email. For a couple of reasons.
Number one, the Canucks have nothing to play for beyond pride and being a spoiler. Neither of those reasons have been strong enough to improve their game in the last few games, so why would it today?
And number two, the LA Kings entered tonight’s contest on the cusp of the last wild card spot with a game in hand on the eighth seed Nashville Predators. They have everything to play for, so of course they put together a clinical effort in a 4-1 romp.
Earlier today, I talked about the types of plays the Canucks would need to watch for against the Kings, like zone entries along the boards and passes back to the blue line for shots. With two chances at dragging the Kings out of the playoff hunt, you’d hope the Canucks would want to make a real impact in the last way they can.
Not only did the Canucks not heed those warnings, but they also managed to leave the front of the net open for all four Kings goals as well. D.J. Smith’s squad didn’t even play a particularly impressive game, and yet it absolutely didn’t matter.
This game was boring as sin, a waste of everyone’s time and attention, and par for the course in this absolutely dismal season. For all the people clamouring to keep the head coach in an effort to secure this same standings finish next year, I’d implore you to try watching this game again, from beginning to end, and see if you really think another 82 games of this is a good idea.
Let’s get this over with, shall we?
Best It’s Gonna Be Like This
That goal is a perfect example why Adam Foote cannot be back. The middle of the ice cannot be that easy to access. It has been that way all season, and hasn't gotten any better. #Canucks
The tone for this game was set right away.
As we talked about earlier, the Kings love nothing more than a pass from the corner back towards the middle of the ice. But the Canucks made it a little too easy for Milan Hejduk impersonator Adrian Kempe. Instead of taking his usual position above the circles, the Canucks left Kempe all the room in the world right in front of the net.
Brandt Clarke simply had to flip it in front from behind the net.
We’re a minute and 29 seconds in, and I’m already wondering if we can ask the scorekeeper to start a running clock. Usually, you need to be up by at least five goals for that, but I think we can make an exception for this team.
Best concepts of a plan
#Canucks too much dump …..Not enough chase ….
— JJHOLIDAY (@jjholiday.bsky.social) 2026-04-10T02:49:14.071Z
Max Sasson usually reserves his best plays for when Wyatt is in charge. But tonight he had a couple of good plays worth highlighting. This was the first one, when he and Teddy Blueger linked up to win a board battle behind Anton Forsberg’s net before Sasson found P-O Joseph for the scoring opportunity from range.
Best Glimmer
We are alive!!!#canucks
— Terry & dog 🦮…🇨🇦🍁 (@aweebitdaft.bsky.social) 2026-04-10T03:03:21.471Z
Marcus Pettersson went all season without a goal, and then this past week suddenly became prime Niklas Lidstrom. He scored a game winner against the President’s Trophy-winning Avalanche, and tonight he showed off the kind of skills that earn you the high score on a pinball machine.
The BRÖ Line wins the board battle off the zone entry, Brock Boeser finds Marcus with some open space near the left circle, and he winds up and rips the puck directly into a tumbling Brian Dumoulin near the lip of the crease. Dumoulin’s backside perfectly redirects the puck into the goal before he goes tumbling in with him.
Moments like this are when I wish the NHL had soccer rules for own goals, cause that would be one for Dumoulin’s statline. But still! Good for Marcus finding his scoring touch!
Best Harsh Reality
Marcus Pettersson and Elias Pettersson have the same amount of goals over the last 32 games Depressing
All I can really say as a Gen Z’er who doesn’t take bad news properly is… oof.
Best Same Ol’, Same Ol’
That was shortlived.#Canucks
— DJTaxman77 (@taxman77.bsky.social) 2026-04-10T03:06:11.284Z
I swear we can’t enjoy a goal for 30 seconds #Canucks
About a minute and a half after M’Petey’s goal, the roof caved in on the Canucks and landed right on Jake DeBrusk.
DeBrusk didn’t realize Jared Wright had snuck behind the coverage, and ended up getting knocked over and creating a two-on-one for Scott Laughton and Joel Armia. Bingo bango, Armia has his 13th and LA is back in front.
This whole play feels like a microcosm of DeBrusk’s season. And his team’s, for that matter.
Best Emotions
the 2025-2026 vancouver canucks:
DePetey seemed to show some fight in the early portion of this game, when he and Jeff Malott got tangled up in the first period and ended up each taking penalies (the only ones of the game).
These are the faces of two players who are spared from having to play as much of a bad game. Two minutes well spent.
Best BRÖ Close
The BRÖ Line had some opportunities early on, but their best was this stretch pass to spring Liam Öhgren in the dying seconds. Three Kings couldn’t chase him down in time, but Anton Forsberg got his mitt in front of it.
This might’ve turned into a different game if Öhgren had converted. Instead, it just went by the predictable Hollywood script.
Best ARE YOU NOT ENTERTAINED?!
that's 11 shots
The Canucks actually reached their shot totals from the Vegas game by the halfway mark of this game. A clear and undeniable improvement!
The magical 11th shot was courtesy of a Fil Hronek keep-in that found its way to Drew O’Connor. Run-DOC tried the jam play at the front of the net, but Forsberg held it out just long enough.
Would it shock you to know that this was one of the only interesting plays the Canucks made in the final 40 minutes? It shouldn’t!
Best Predicatable Writing
The Canucks very nearly escaped the dreaded middle frame without their season-long curse of allowing second period goals arriving. But it turns out the curse just got stuck in traffic on the way from LAX to Crypto.com Arena. Those SoCal freeways are endless gridlock.
Anze Kopitar’s line has tormented the Canucks for years, and tonight he and his last linemates, Artemi Panarin and Adrian Kempe, did it again. With 30 seconds to go they ripped the game away.
Joel Edmundson stepped into a shot from the blue line, and Kempe the Kanuck Killer struck again with a tip in front of Nikita Tolopilo.
Kempe has played 28 games against the Canucks in his career, and he has 22 points in those matchups.
Best All the Stars are Here!!
Can report that Nathan Fielder goes to Kings Canucks wearing a Canucks jersey
It wouldn’t be a game in Hollywood without some celebrity sightings.
Nathan Fielder hasn’t forgotten his Vancouver roots. We don’t have photo evidence of him being there, but I can imagine the very stoic expression as he watched his hometown team dig itself into a hole of epic proportions.
Meanwhile, Will Ferrell was sitting rinkside in a gorgeous Tre Kronor 4 Nations jersey. I wonder if he’d be willing to give EP40 a Chazz Michael Michaels-style pep talk.
Best… Sure. Why Not?
What it feels like being beaten by the LA Kings
Yes I’m aware the Canucks are coming off an awful showing against the Golden Knights on Tuesday. But even though they more than doubled their shot totals, this game was somehow an even bigger snoozefest than the last one.
The Kings made sure to put the Canucks out of their misery quickly and painfully. Midway through the third, Alex Laferriere grabbed a puck out of midair, brought it down to his stick and floated it on goal. And that’s how we got our second own goal of the game, this time off the outstretched stick of EP25.
Trevor Moore would be credited for the goal long after everyone had gone home, but I think DePetey was just trying to get this game over and done with. And we should all thank him for that.
Best Morale Improvements
Ya know what L.A. got right? They still have their arena organist. Classic #NHL hockey vibes that the #Canucks should still have.
— CrankyCanucksFan 🇨🇦🏒 (@crankycanucksfan.bsky.social) 2026-04-10T04:46:15.730Z
There are a lot of things the Canucks could do next season to boost fan morale and make for an enjoyable hockey environment again, especially with a lot more losses likely on the horizon.
One of those would be bringing back the arena organ, because hockey just doesn’t sound the same without it.
The second? BRING BACK THE ORCA BLIMP. People would pay the price of admission just for the chance to see an inflatable orca float through the arena and drop concert tickets on people. In a rebuild, you need all the star power you can get, and the Orca Blimp is definitely a star.
Max Sasson is auditioning to be one of those positives of the rebuild, and he and Linus Karlsson gave the Canucks their best chance of the hockey game after a turnover behind the Kings’ net.
It makes sense that two of the season’s biggest success stories would come the closest to putting a puck in. But not actually get it done, of course.
https://media.giphy.com/media/zZUlUOjtPmJxqWPAhQ/giphy.gif
Best Joke
pulling the goalie here is a hilarious bit of work
The Canucks spent the final three minutes of the game at 6-on-5 for reasons that don’t make any real world sense. Did Adam Foote pull the goalie to embarass his own team and their lacklustre efforts? Or did he acutally think the last-place hockey team he’s coaching would somehow find three goals in three minutes against a team fighting for their playoff lives.
Naturally, it amounted to zero scoring for the Canucks. But it also didn’t turn into an even bigger deficit, so it was essentially meaningless. Like all the games here on out will be.
Just four games from freedom.
Best Shot and Chaser
Sutherland is reffing? We're not getting a PP are we, #Canucks?
— NucksMisconduct (@nucksmisconduct.bsky.social) 2026-04-10T02:56:27.273Z
no power plays either way tonight. A few missed calls in second period. Refs just wanted this one to be over
I don’t know if it’s still a thing for #Canucks fans, but they’ll get a Kelly Sutherland sighting tonight in LA. Just the second Canucks game he’s worked all season and first since mid-October
Not even Kelly Sutherland could be bothered to rattle the Canucks tonight. He knows their continued existence is punishment enough.
And thank god, because this game didn’t need to be any less competitive.
Best Futility
#Canucks Kierszenstat of the Game: Vancouver falls for the 48th time in regulation this season. That is the second-most in franchise history. The record is 50, which was set during the 1971-72 season.
I say they do it.
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