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The Stanchies: Canucks haunted by ghosts in 4-2 loss to Leafs
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Photo credit: © Bob Frid-Imagn Images
The Stanchion
Oct 31, 2026, 23:18 EDTUpdated: Nov 1, 2026, 00:11 EDT
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The Vancouver Canucks’ Jilted Lovers Tour took place on Saturday night, which saw the Toronto Maple Leafs secure a 4-2 victory over Manny Malholtra’s squad.
I think it’s pretty hard to wax poetic about Teddy Blueger scoring an empty-net goal against his former club to seal the game, just due to the fact that the majority of former Canucks playing for Toronto don’t come from an esteemed era in Vancouver. Troy From Richmond and Chris Tanev, sure, we will always have all the time in the world for them. They’re still invited to come hang out at Almond Park on snow days and ride down the best hill in the city.
But Dakota Joshua, Oliver Ekman-Larsson, Zack MacEwen and the aforementioned Teddy KGB just feel like you’re watching a historical documentary on famous military blunders that led to the decline of an empire. Well, maybe empire is a strong word. The decline of an outpost that generated a healthy amount of coal?
Regardless, the Leafs did what they have often failed to do in Vancouver: walk away with the victory. For whatever reason, the Hockey Gods have tended to bless Vancouver with the ability to silence Toronto fans on home ice, but it was not meant to be on this day.
For those worried the Canucks victory over the Ducks would spur on a winning streak that would threaten their draft position, worry not, as the team has now lost two in a row. And to be fair to the Vancouver Canucks, the last two games have been some of their best hockey of the season. The problem is, when you’re a last-place team, there is only so much room to improve. For those who enjoy random video game metaphors, the Canucks aren’t into the whole vertical progression thing; they’re more into horizontal progression. Why win games when you can instead acquire a stick with fire resistance for the new dungeon and all that.
In terms of what went right for Vancouver in this contest, their first period was their best effort of the bunch, as they outshot the Leafs and walked away with a tie game heading into intermission. The second period is where things fell apart, with the Leafs outworking and outscoring Vancouver throughout most of the frame. It was a Sean McDermott special of “bend but don’t break, oh wait, we broke, shoot.” defence.
The third period showed one of those old-fashioned “good effort, boys, a bounce or two here and there and we take this game!” which is the fuel of any good tank season.
There is also something unsettling about having to watch Leafs fans experience joy, even if ultimately you know it all goes away by spring, but overall it was a perfectly cromulent game? It just felt like a very forgettable experience, which I know sets up this article for an exciting time ahead, but the aura around this game was that of a married couple having sex on their scheduled night, to keep the romance alive.
Will we remember this game amongst the 84 scheduled contests of this season? Most likely not. But we might always remember it as part of the season in which the Canucks finished dead last, yet dropped down several draft spots in an unprecedented run of bad lottery luck. As is tradition.
Hyped up yet? Damn straight you are.
Let’s do this.
Best tall mistakes
Jamie Oleksiak has not been the swiftest fellow on the Vancouver Canucks, which has led to some shifts where he gets pinned in his own end for long stretches of time. I don’t know who the champion will be this year for the “appeared the most times of anybody on the Shift Length chyron”, but I have a feeling Jamie is in the running.
So why waste all that time getting tired when you can simply boof the puck right in front of you and just give up the breakaway goal to William Nylander right at the start of the game?
I wanted there to be a puck bobble or some sort of act of God that came into play on this goal, but nope, Jamie just backed up and completely whiffed on picking up the puck. There are also zero scenarios in which Oleksiak is going to be able to turn and start skating in time to beat a William Nylander already in motion, so this one was pretty academic at this point.
Not a great goal against? I don’t know how else to describe this one. It’s one of the cleanest goals of the season in terms of “Oh yes, this is very much this person’s fault, and nobody else’s” which is nice I guess? Like, the coaches don’t need to pull out the video and show Jamie what went wrong on the play; it’s pretty quick and dry.
Best settling down
The Canucks, to their credit, didn’t just roll over and give up. That 10-game losing-streak aura is very much gone from the team (for now), so when Toronto scored early, they put their working boots on and tried to generate some looks on net.
Jake DeBrusk, who has still failed to enter his traditional hot streak of the fall, almost got his own goal off of a turnover after Jack Roslovic lost the puck in a way that makes you want to believe he was paying Jamie back for his earlier turnover:
Much like trying to buy more than one Pokémon box at a Costco, Jake was denied on his attempt, although I imagine the rolling puck didn’t give him quite the shot he wanted.
Brock Boeser was up next after he tried to use his Big Tipper X-Factor on a Fil Hronek point shot that Anthony Stolarz stopped despite having no idea the puck was there:
All of which leads us to the Canucks first goal of the night, where once again Brock and Fil hooked up, in a decidedly non-Heated Rivalry way, after Hronek sent a long-range missile of a pass to a streaking Boeser:
Was it the greatest pass of all time? Only Allan Walsh knows the answer to that. What we do know is that it was pretty slick for Fil to do a little head fake like he was going to play the puck back into his zone, only to quickly turn and find Brock skating in behind the Leafs’ blue line.
Jonathan Lekkerimäki picked up his 13th point of the season with the initial pass to Fil, which amuses me only in that the NHL’s rules for assists continue to be asinine. Pass the puck 18 minutes before a goal goes in, but only two teammates touched the puck? Clearly that’s a tremendous assist. You calculated all the odds, you put a lot of planning into this, you were a vital part of this goal.
Dangle through the zone and send the puck into the middle, only to see the other team flail at the puck before it ultimately gets picked up by your teammate, leading to a goal? How dare you think Elias Pettersson deserves an assist for that? This isn’t a charity, sir.
Best Leevi jeans
I think one of the main goals for Vancouver was to not get scored on by Gavin McKenna; otherwise the intermission segments were going to be absolutely brutal. And Leevi Meriläinen, he heard you, and he came through for you.
Hot shot rookie wants to score at the side of the net? Leevi isn’t having any of that:
McKenna finished the night with zero points, which begs the question: what kind of rookie can’t game plan passing the puck to someone eight minutes before they eventually score a goal? It’s like the kid isn’t even trying out there. Playmaking begins on the bench.
Best Boys Club Member
McKenna got another chance at the side of the net, this time with the two-man advantage, but was denied yet again by Leevi. Even better? Defensively Enthused Elias Pettersson wasn’t having any of that noise, either:
It’s a long season with a lot of losses ahead, but it sure is nice to see DP25 find the snarl in his game again. Last year was truly one of the worst seasons I have seen from a Canucks defenseman in Elias, but this season it feels like he has found his role and is performing it admirably.
You need guys to be a$$holes in your crease; there is no way around it. Everyone who has ever played hockey loves having that guy on your team. Luke Schenn used to do it at the start of the season before The Sadness settled in.
Fast forward to another power play, though, and this time it was Auston Matthews throwing a spin pass to Darren Raddysh, aka what AI thinks Elias Pettersson looks like, only to be denied by Leevi as well:
It was another solid game from Leevi, who continues to have a stranglehold on the starter position due to Kevin Lankinen’s struggles, and the fact that I am pretty sure the hockey gods are actively working against Kevin. Somehow a penny is going to roll down the steps at an ice rink and cause a truck carrying logs to score a goal against him; I just know it.
Best holding their own
The first period was clearly Vancouver’s best in terms of generating shots on net, as they landed 13 of their 28 total on the night in the first twenty minutes.
Zeev Buium had one of those twinkles in his eyes, a glimmer of hope shift, where he maneuvered around the blue line until he could find an open shooting lane to try and give Max Sasson the tip chance in front:
Brendan Gallagher ended the play with a clap bomb attempt (a popular approach on the night), as he had what was probably his best game in a Canucks jersey? He would get an assist on the Canucks second goal, but more than that, he was a net positive when he was on the ice in terms of shots for vs. shots against, placing second on the team in Corsi at evens. Tom Willander was first, for those wondering, as the young defenseman had one of those quietly efficient games that stat nerds make their best graphic stat cards from.
It wasn’t exactly rocket science as to how Vancouver was creating offence; it was just a lot of concerted effort of chasing down the puck, as shown here when Marco Rossi harassed Easton Cowan into the turnover, leading to a shot from Prime Time:
I like the confidence Jonathan Lekkerimäki has been showing since his two-goal game, as he just walks in and unloads his wrist shot, which is what he should be doing every shift. It’s the ABU of hockey: always be unloading, any chance you get.
Also, shoutout to Drew O’Connor for the follow-up harassment, which led to Marco Rossi getting a high-danger chance that was narrowly thwarted by Stolarz.
Liam Öhgren then almost caught a lucky bounce when a Luke Schenn shot bounced off of the end boards, forcing Stolarz to hustle cross-crease to stop the shot:
It was a solid piece of hockey from Vancouver, but ultimately Toronto won the game in the rest of the second period.
Best picking your spot
The Leafs would go up for good when Auston Matthews, first of his name, third of his house, went full Leon after Elias Pettersson’s stick broke blocking a shot, leaving too much time and space for the Arizona Assassin:
Now, do I respect EP40 chasing down Raddysh at the point, sans stick? Of course I do. There will always be something noble and heroic about watching a knight enter into battle without their sword. If you don’t clap like Charles S. Dutton when watching that, then sports are just not for you.
Do I have questions about what the whole plan was once he got to the point? I sure do. I don’t know if “running right at you whilst waving my arms” is the best approach to take in the NHL, as it clearly didn’t work here. Raddysh just sort of side steps him as if to say “ok, sure”, which leads to the give and go with Matthews that ends with the Leafs second goal of the night.
For much of the rest of the second period, Toronto just kept the pressure on Vancouver, leading to a lot of bend but don’t break moments defensively.
Remember old friend Dakota Joshua? He almost scored multiple times in this game, with his best chance coming off of a loose puck in front:
Luke Schenn did everything in his power to keep that puck out of the crease; you can see him spamming the poke check button like a wild man, and it ultimately saved the day.
Elias Pettersson and friends also did their best to stuff the shooting lanes, resulting in five blocked shots in the game for EP40:
The problem with the bend but don’t break approach is that if you don’t push back at some point, you will break. There is no way around it.
Best all paths lead to this
Old friend Zach McEwan finally made Vancouver pay for their offensive sins, throwing a puck in from the point that Leevi pushed away with his glove, only to watch in horror as the puck would then bounce in off of Luke Schenn:
Bad luck? Of course. But you can’t get a lucky break if you’re not at the other end of the ice, which is how Vancouver ultimately lost this game. Great first period, but they never really found their footing after that, which led to Toronto just sort of taking over for the rest of the night.
Even being down two goals, Vancouver was still holding onto their butts as Colton Sissons just barely missed unloading on a shot from the slot, that Troy From Richmond would eventually get to and force Leevi into having to make a save through traffic:
And just moments after Nick Paul hit the post, Vinni Lettieri would clang iron like a Pittsburgh steelworker, in a moment that was inches away from either making it 4-1, or a spirited reboot of the first Mighty Ducks movie:
When your luck in a game is “sure glad those other guys hit the post!” it’s probably a sign you aren’t generating enough offence on your side of things.
Best of the bunch
Vancouver only really threatened Toronto once in the second period, when Marco Rossi got off a shot in the bumper slot on the power play on a pass from Paul Cotter:
That is not the hardest shot I have ever seen, but at least it was a high-danger chance.
Best third period comeback?
Unforced turnovers reared its ugly head again in this one, when William Nylander flubbed a Paul Cotter centring attempt, leading to a Brendan Gallagher shot that Max Sasson happily chased in on the rebound:
The shift after that, smelling momentum in the air, Paul Cotter drew a penalty after charging hard towards the net on an odd-man rush:
And fueled by that Flaming Moe-mentum, Jake DeBrusk did what he does best; he almost scored a goal, leading to the vaunted “hey that was pretty close” reaction from all of us:
Elias Pettersson didn’t have a grand game in this one, certainly not enough of one to enter it into the “He’s so back” Wars of 2026, but you have to give a tip of the cap for that high-skilled pass along the boards.
While I don’t want to wade too deep into the “he’s back!” debate wars, I will say we are seeing a promising amount of high-skill moves, dangles and passes from Elias Pettersson that we haven’t seen in quite some time. Certainly enough to entice another team into looking at potential trades, should the Canucks want to go that route.
Best time to go home
Hey, remember when we said a bounce or two this way and Vancouver ties this game up? It basically came down to Marco Rossi in the Prime Time spot just missing high-and-wide moments before Toronto iced it with an empty-netter:
Unlike Jonathan Lekkerimäki against the Ducks, Rossi was unable to negotiate the way to the back of the net, stalling the comeback in its tracks.
Toronto would then close it out with a Teddy Blueger goal, because of course:
Hey, it could have been worse. It could have been a goalie goal.
And that was about it. Like I said, this was not a memorable game, nor was it an exciting one. In the end, it was merely just a game. Yay.
Which I guess in a rebuilding season is kind of par for the course.
68 games left. We got this.
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