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The Stanchies: Canucks lose a game they never trailed 3-2 in overtime to Jets
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Photo credit: © Simon Fearn-Imagn Images
Lachlan Irvine
Feb 26, 2026, 11:10 EST
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Over the past two weeks, we’ve been witnesses to some of the best hockey ever played at the Milano Cortina Olympics. Insane comebacks, surprising upsets, and bogus 3-on-3 overtime periods to settle the gold medal. It wasn’t all perfect, but it was really damn fun.
But now, we have to go back to reality. One where, instead of getting to watch high-flying Team Canada, we get to watch two Canadian teams play a game of hockey that might usually be best described as ‘sleep-inducing’.
The Canucks, for their part, tried their best and showed some improvement from where they left off at the start of the Olympic break. They scored the first goal of the game, they never trailed, and even kept Winnipeg to within five shots on goal of their own. Sure, the results were the same at the end of the day, but at least they got a point and raised the stock of a few trade chips.
The quality of this game definitely screamed ‘two basement dwellers rusty from vacation playing not really to win’, but the Canucks came out on top if that was the ultimate goal.
The Italian vacation is over; let’s get back to our 9-to-5s.
Best Last Chaos Roll
The Canucks being in a state of flux is one of the few guarantees we have in the final half of the season. Many players will leave before next week’s deadline, and you’d assume the first to go (after the ones already gone, of course) would be the pending unrestricted free agents. Half the league’s pro scouts are here to watch someone, right?
So you can imagine my shock when I opened up Twitter and saw Rick Dhaliwal telling the world that Tyler Myers wouldn’t play tonight for trade precautions.
The rumours around him have been floating for a while, but where Myers is expected to be going is still a mystery. All we can say is that it sounds like the Canucks presented him with the offer a few days ago, giving him the time to decide on waiving his full no-movement clause.
If this was the last time we see him in a Canucks uniform, it’ll be remembered in a way he’d like it most: warming up with his wife and kids watching.
Wherever you end up, we wish you all the best, Chaos Giraffe.
Best O’ne Shot
No more Tyler Myers in the lineup means there’s a fan favourite power vacuum to fill. And one player that’s gunning to fill that void is Drew O’Connor.
Scoring on the Canucks’ first shot of the game is a great way to boost those rankings!
The Jets’ Logan Stanley sort of handed this one to them, when his clearing attempt didn’t make it past the outstretched glove of Brock Boeser. Boeser bats it down to his stick and finds Run-DOC left completely open on the far side, who slides the puck right through the wickets of Jets goalie Eric Comrie for his team leading 16th goal of the year.
If you’re wondering why Comrie was starting tonight, Connor Hellebuyck was a little busy. Something about Big Macs.
Best Chipped Shoulders
The two Jets involved on the tying goal both have something to prove.
Kyle Connor, who stole the puck from Marcus Pettersson behind the net, was scratched early in the Olympics by Team USA and watched from the sidelines as his teammates won gold. Mark Scheifele, who took the puck behind the net, was left off of Team Canada’s roster entirely as they ended up with silver.
In his first step to proving why Canada was wrong not to take him, he sets up a backpass from behind the net that was so slick, Nikita Tolopilo was completely fooled and left all the room Connor needed to shoot it in. (Or Nathan MacKinnon needed to miss, for that matter. I’m not bitter!)
Anyways, the Jets have found their tying goal, and I’ve found out I didn’t repress the gold medal game on Sunday hard enough.
Best Hydrogen Bomb vs. Coughing Baby
If you haven’t listened to this radio hit yet, you are MISSING OUT. Shorty making an elite reference to it on the broadcast is just another plus in the long book of great bits he’s done in the play-by-play booth.
Best Trade Stock Boost
The Canucks wasted no time in the second period getting their lead back. Try 38 seconds!
Faceoff in the Jets zone, Elias Pettersson versus Adam Lowry. Tonight wasn’t a banner night for Petey in the faceoff dot, winning just 47% of his draws. But he’d win this one, and do it with absolute authority right on the tape of Evander Kane.
All Kane had to do was fire, and Comrie wasn’t set as the puck zipped past his glove.
If Kane is trying to get himself sent to Los Angeles or one of the other teams that had scouts in the building tonight, scoring on the top line is a great way to bump those trade offers up.
Best living with the bounces
The Jets have gone from the Presidents’ Trophy winners last season to crashing into the basement this year, but they’re not entirely out of the hunt yet. So after the Canucks kept up with them in the first period and a bit, Winnipeg eventually pulled away in the momentum department. The Jets outshot the Canucks 13-4 in the second, really proving that standings points aren’t an accurate portrayal of the differences between these two clubs.
Eventually, the Jets tied the game again late in the second when the top line of Scheifele, Connor, and Gabe Vilardi hemmed the Canucks in, and Scheifele threw a bad-angle shot at the traffic in front of Tolopilo. Vilardi got in behind the coverage of DePetey and deflected it in.
Scheifele has two primary assists on the night now, and he’s gonna get at least 30 more before the season is out, just to stick it to Doug Armstrong.
Best Goalie Corner
Memarzadeh
Memarzadeh
@ArashMemarzadeh
·Follow

It's been a brutal year all around, but we might need to start giving Nikita Tolopilo some flowers here. Often will give you a big save or two per game while keeping them in it. Has been a bright spot in a troubling goaltending situation.

Jeff Paterson
Jeff Paterson
@patersonjeff

I hear you, but they will present it. Somebody is going to be named Most Exciting. Can't be Quinn Hughes. Can't be Kiefer Sherwood. But it's going to be somebody...

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Nikita Tolopilo has been an absolute pleasant surprise in his starts this season. Tonight was among his strongest efforts, even if the .893 save percentage doesn’t scream it. Simply put, this game could’ve been put away a lot sooner by the Jets if not for some timely stops by Tolopilo.
Nikita has no qualms about throwing his whole body into stops in a more old-school way, like on this classic cross-crease, Luongo-esque glove save.
https://media.giphy.com/media/FAGwMoFtD8mRPPbdJZ/giphy.gif
Tolopilo’s success this year is exactly what a proper rebuild is all about. If the Canucks were still focused on pushing for the wild card, he’d be getting a lot fewer starts, and we wouldn’t know what he’s truly capable of. Instead, he’s bound to get a hefty chunk of the final regular season games and be a lot better off for it in the long run.
Best making your own fun
Calling this game low event would be an understatement. The Jets did their best to give the Canucks scoring opportunities, but since Vancouver doesn’t have the scorers to convert those chances into goals, it wasn’t exactly a barnburner until regulation ended. Spoiler alert: a lot of the games left this season are going to have this flavour, but the Jets provided the unique element of playing equally uneventful hockey.
With neither team able to reach 30 shots on goal, fans had to find their own way to make this game a party.
You know people are desperate for something fun when they take a page out of Australia’s culture and start doing Shoeys on the jumbotron!
My only question is whether or not they dried their shoes off in the bathroom before putting them back on their feet again. It takes a certain amount of unhingedness to walk out in runners soaked in Molson.
The dating scene is rough out there these days.
Best glass half full?
The goal is still the same for the Canucks. Hold onto those top lottery odds and make sure the majority of your victories are moral ones. Tonight, the Jets never led until the end, and the Canucks salvaged one point from a possible two. Perfect!
Adam Lowry enters the zone and draws Jake DeBrusk below the goal line with him, not knowing Marco Rossi has gone back to the bench and put them on a 3-on-2. That opens up room for a Lowry pass to Cole Perfetti uncovered in the slot. By the time the lone defender back, Tom Willander, realized what was happening, the game was already called for Winnipeg.
Canucks hockey is back like we never left. But hey, at least this team losing in 3v3 overtime won’t result in the most obnoxious, embarrassing celebration in hockey history like that other game.
Canadians know to act like they’ve been there before. Because we have — and will — regularly!
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