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The Stanchies: Canucks management need to fully embrace the tank after 5-0 loss to Leafs
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Photo credit: © Nick Turchiaro-Imagn Images
The Stanchion
Jan 11, 2026, 00:16 ESTUpdated: Jan 11, 2026, 01:20 EST
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On its surface, the Vancouver Canucks’ 5-0 loss at the hands of the Toronto Leafs (Maple-based, according to rumours) is the perfect result for Vancouver.
It continues their thirst for first.
It continues to drive away that pesky “Hey, did you know the Blues were last place in January before winning the Cup?” response your annoying co-worker brings up any chance they get while they heat up their tuna pasta in the microwave.
And it continues to reinforce that the time to rebuild is indeed right now, because when you watch these lifeless Canucks, I don’t know how anyone walks away from these games thinking “Oh yeah, this group is a piece away from contending.” No offence to Adam Foote, who reminds us we didn’t play the game, so we wouldn’t understand how line changes work and stuff, but this was not a night in which the Canucks were “right there”. Aside from a decent opening period, the wheels on the bus fell off relatively quickly after going down 3-0 through twenty minutes.
Which is to be expected, of course. This is not a good team, and they are not built to win. If anything, this just shows how much heavy lifting Quinn Hughes was doing just to keep the Canucks in the conversation of being “right there” on a nightly basis. Someone on social media called the Canucks roster a house covered with black mould, and it’s time to tear everything down to its studs. It’s hard to argue that.
Which brings me to a sentiment I have begun to see more and more around town:
This isn’t to call out Derek; it’s merely to show that, yeah, there are people who watch the fans grumble after losses like this as proof positive that this market can’t handle a rebuild. That a quick turnaround is a necessary objective for dealing with Vancouver. That people say they want a rebuild, but they don’t have the mentality to echarle huevos for a losing team.
I, however, would argue that this market does have the ability to support a rebuild; it’s just, you know, they’d just like to know it is, in fact, an actual rebuild.
Because, if we’re being honest with each other, it’s been over a decade from two management teams and the same owner, where the second this organization sniffs the tiniest scent of success, they seemingly declare the heavy lifting is over. If they get within spitting distance of the playoffs, well heck, that’s proof positive that it’s all gravy and sunshine from here on out.
Even with Jim Rutherford using the infamous “rebuild” word from Vancouver this season, that was quickly obfuscated with talk from Patrik Allvin of a “hybrid retool”, as if management couldn’t help themselves but put a foot out the door of any talk of having to wait out several losing seasons if it meant long-term success.
This team has done absolutely nothing to earn the trust of its fans, nor does it deserve it, quite frankly, which is why I think you see a lot of people watching these losses and continue to check over their shoulders for any danger. It’s hard to cheer on the losses when a small part of you is worried they’d trade next year’s first pick for a 20-something NHL-ready player.
Which isn’t to say that all rebuilds are guaranteed to work, of course. You can bring up countless stories of organizations failing to turn a team around into a consistent playoff contender. But after watching this team try for over a decade to force through short windows of opportunity only to fail to amount to anything more than a few mildly successful playoff runs, the time is ripe for a new approach. Fans are dying to see this team commit to a plan that, at least on paper, is set up to attempt long-term success.
Because ultimately, it was Vancouver hunting for short-term success that cost them the services of Quinn Hughes. Yes, the JT Miller and Elias Pettersson drama probably cost them an extra playoff run in the mix, but the window the team gave themselves when they traded for Elias Lindholm and Nikita Zadorov was destined to be a short one regardless. If there were a time machine on hand for Vancouver, I would hope they would use it to go to the day they realized Quinn Hughes was a generational defenceman and started building long-term right there and right then.
Instead, we continue this loop of watching a team and praying they lose, so the team is forced to do the right thing.
Because that’s where we are right now, the JT Miller trade tilted the scales, then Quinn Hughes demanding out forced their hands. They didn’t walk into this rebuild with open arms; they were dragged into it kicking and screaming, and in the JT Miller case, looked to have dodged a considerable contractual anchor they otherwise would have happily accepted. This is why many people aren’t fully embracing the idea that this team will be in it for the long haul: it’s been rather reactive than proactive.
Which is why I would argue it’s the organization that doesn’t have the huevos to stick to a rebuild, not the fan base. If management came out and said they were going to make moves intended to make them a long-term threat, and openly embraced the idea of short-term pain for long-term gain, it would help with these games tremendously. Right now, fans watch the games and have to pray the team loses for fear of them going on a hot streak. Because a hot streak might change their outlook at the trade deadline, that “hybrid retool” leaves a lot of room for short-term thinking.
Whether it’s the job security of management or an owner who licks his lips at the idea of playoff revenue, short-term thinking always feels like it’s lurking around the corner, peering at you from down the hallway like Joel Hofer, afraid to jump into the rebuild game.
I also just watch this team and I see the veterans struggling on the Canucks, the players who are supposed to be the reliable ones. I can’t help but wonder where their heads are at with all of this. Signing with a team that has Quinn Hughes in its back pocket is a far different beast than what they currently have, so I wonder how many of them are eying the exit door, wondering if their sweet freedom is on the way. You just watch these games and see the lack of energy, the lack of urgency, and you just pine for a world in which they trade off anything to do with the old era and start off fresh.
Because part of the joys of a rebuild is starting over. Bringing in new guys who are ready to work in a losing environment and build toward winning again. Who can play games like this where they lose, but they at least look engaged and have some pushback? An environment where a new culture can be built that hasn’t been affected by past memories. Like any relationship that runs its course, sometimes starting over is the only answer for everyone involved.
If the team fully embraces the tank, much like they once embraced the hate, I think you’d find a fan base that was able to ride out the troubled waters far better than they are now. Because trusting the process is a hell of a lot easier to do when you a) know what the process actually is and b) agree with the direction it’s going in.
Until then, let’s watch some clips.
Best not anymore
I will say that I used to follow this ideology, that no matter how bad a season Vancouver has, beating the Leafs should always come first. There is just something about their fan base suffering that makes everything feel right in the universe.
But with the way this season is going, you take any loss you can get, even if it’s against Toronto. Besides, that team is dealing with its own issues of facing its own mortality right now, so beating them no longer carries that same level of satisfaction. We all float down here.
As for the game itself, the Canucks best period? The first. They handily outshot the Leafs 15-6, which, if you’re Adam Foote, you point to that and exclaim about how a bounce here or there, and this night ends differently.
However, the problem with that is most of the Canucks opposition doesn’t have God awful defensive coverage, so with 15 shots, a majority of them created using Hodor levels of creativity in the form of “throw it on net and see what happens”, doesn’t quite land the same as “Oh hey, why did Tyler Myers just skate into the corner to try and triple team a dude on the penalty kill, oh Toronto scored again.”
There is a reason Rick Tocchet probably grinded out low-scoring wins because if your team can’t score, if you at least cut out the egregious defensive zone coverage mistakes, you do in fact have a chance to win on a point shot into traffic, especially when Quinn Hughes is running on a full tank of gas and doesn’t hate his life.
A good example of this is here are two of the shots the Canucks got in the period, both of them from the stick of Nils Höglander on a wraparound attempt:
Nothing against that shot; I like the moxie, and I enjoy it whenever I see the Canucks not shooting into traffic from the point, but this is a low-percentage play. It’s a greasy goal attempt in which you hope Nils either pushes it past Joseph Woll, or that Evander Kane manages to whack it in. Which can score, of course, but when you’re a team blowing coverage and giving high danger open looks to the other team, then yeah, you kind of understand that simply outshooting your opponent doesn’t tell the full story of the night.
The Canucks best player at even strength continues to be Drew O’Connor, as we all expected, as he was the most noticeable of the Canucks from where I was sitting.
He is effective at both ends of the ice, as he is able to stop William Nylander on a back-door attempt, something the team has struggled with this season:
Whatever you want to call Adam Foote’s system, I think it’s fair to say that a lot of players on the team have struggled with it. The swarm/man-to-man nature of it lends itself to chaos in your own end if you don’t switch off properly or get lulled into chasing the puck carrier, which is something Drew made sure NOT to do on this play. He tracked back and resisted the pull of the one puck that rules them all, and as a result stayed in position to make the defensive play on the cross crease one timer attempt.
DOC also tends to provide the most noticeable energy on offensive shifts on the team, as he does here by chasing down a zone-clearing pass attempt from Toronto, before unloading a shot in the slot:
And hell, when the occasion calls for it, he’s not above trying to do a little dingle dangle as he attempted midway through the first, when he dragged a puck off the boards and tried to shoot from betwixt his legs:
I honestly came down pretty hard on Drew O’Connor in the first month of the season, but I will willingly eat my words as he has been one of the best and most consistent Canuck skaters throughout the season.
Best start late start barely
Matias Maccelli opened the scoring on the power play for Toronto just eight minutes into the game on a seeing-eye pass from Willy Nylander:
The penalty kill has struggled without Derek Forbort, who I assume has entered witness protection at this point. Sometimes I wonder when the day will come when I ask about him, and the Canucks claim to have never heard of him.
But even with the services of one Mr. Forbort and/or Teddy Blueger, no team can survive with this kind of penalty kill structure. Just before the pass from Nylander, the Canucks have overloaded the boards and have three skaters outside the faceoff dots, leaving Elias Pettersson as the lone skater to try to defend two Leafs players.
Watch the clip, and you see Tyler Myers commit the most egregious act of chaos as he chases down Auston Matthews before peeling off wide and heading to the corner down low. If Nylander hadn’t found Maccelli, he could have easily found a wide-open Matthew Knies as well.
Again, this is good for the tank, but hard on the eyes at times.
Best getting your cardio in
The Canucks went 0-for-6 on the power play on the night, and to their credit, it wasn’t an egregiously bad night for them in terms of puck movement and looks on net. They managed to create some scoring chances, but I wouldn’t say they had any high-quality shots either.
They continue to find Kiefer Sherwood in the bumper spot, so depending on how the rest of the season goes regarding trades, enjoy it whilst you can:
It’s nice to see the team leaning on EP40 as a one-timer threat and distributor from the Petterzone, something that feels like it had gotten lost in time.
But like much of the night, the Leafs simply created better looks on net, as they were able to cut through the Canucks coverage at a much higher rate than Vancouver. To add insult to injury, Oliver Ekman-Larsson was technically being paid by Vancouver to make this high-level pass down low to Auston Matthews for the backhander on net:
Now, I know this might come as a surprise to some, but that was Evander Kane blowing coverage on that shift, as he drifted off the Leafs captain and skated to the point, as is tradition. Live by the Planet Ice, die by the Planet Ice, as they say.
Best team Vittorio
A lot of Canucks defencemen have struggled this season, and Elias Pettersson sure is one of them. I just think he makes some bad reads at times, and I don’t know if that’s the system working against him or if the spotlight on him is too bright without Quinn Hughes around to lighten the load for everyone.
I will say that the Leafs’ second goal felt like a combination of the two, as DPetey looks like he’s trying to skate back over to his side of the ice and thinks Fil Hronek is going back to the right, but then Fil pulls up, and chaos once again ensues. With both defencemen caught on the left side of the ice, Max Domi is able to skate in and snipe one past Thatcher Demko:
I find that the Adam Foote system feels like a house of cards, where one mistake can bring the whole thing down with little effort. Players will chase a puck or decide to keep tracking a player out of position, and then everything falls apart as the team cannot figure out how to get back into man-on-man coverage.
Feels very high risk, low reward, which feels not optimal?
Best finishing strong
The Leafs would then make it 3-0 off a Steven Lorentz pass over to Willy Nylander, with a lone Marcus Pettersson spinning into space behind him:
This is life when you don’t have a defenceman who can generate zone entries at will, as Tom Willander skates in and forces a pass into the middle, before bouncing into the middle of the ice for Lorentz to start the counterattack. Marcus Pettersson is playing pretty high up on the back check, and when he can’t make a play on the puck, he gets spun around, like a record baby right round round round, giving Nylander all the time and space to skate the puck around Demko.
Which, to my earlier point, it’s nice that Vancouver outshot the Leafs in the opening frame, but at the end of the day, there was only one team making the big mistakes on their in-zone coverage, so yeah, shock of shocks, it was Vancouver who was down three goals as a result of it.
Best see you next year
Thatcher Demko did not return to the game due to a lower-body injury, and, according to Adam Foote, he will be evaluated over the next few days. Which means I assume he will get the dreaded “day to day” diagnosis, and the next time we see him will be in the year 2027 with a new name, new haircut, and new life somewhere in Cabo San Lucas.
The change in nets didn’t change all that much, as once again Marcus Pettersson showed his commitment to the Dead or Alive lifestyle by spinning once more, this time after Easton Cowan (no relation to the Brabarian, but yes relation to Darren McCarty) walked around him and narrowly missed banking in a pass attempt behind Kevin Lankinen:
The Canucks defensive coverage continued to struggle, as this time they stacked three players down low, while Brock Boeser and Liam Öhgren stood in the middle of the ice, leading to Nicholas Robertson getting off an open one-timer in the slot:
That shot very easily could have made it 4-0 had it not been for a big save from Lankinen. Which, again, it’s created because the Canucks just constantly break down in their own zone, which gives up so much time and space for the other team.
And if that wasn’t bad enough, the Leafs were winning the physical war as Brandon Carlo would then lay out Jake DeBrusk with a crushing hit in the neutral zone, much to the dismay of the Romulans:
My takeaway remains the same as ever: sell, sell, sell at the trade deadline.
Best rolling over
With the Canucks on the power play, it was Scott Laughton with the best chance, as he got a breakaway and attempted his vintage piss missile shot:
Tom Willander pinches up along the boards and gets beaten, which results in Laughton getting the scoring chance. And while some people may doubt the usage of a slapshot on a breakaway, I absolutely love it.
One, it’s primal as sh!t, because if you wire a 99mph clapper behind a goalie, you’ve let them know you are the superior being in a way a regular wrist shot can’t.
Two, Lankinen is basically Hasek in shootouts, so you might as well get creative in trying to beat him.
The Leafs would get another high-quality scoring chance on the same penalty kill, as Auston Matthews got a couple of shots off after an ill-advised Evander Kane pinch from the point:
To the Canucks credit, all five skaters get back to try and limit the damage, but right after Matthews gets his initial shot off, they all peel off to one side of the ice, leaving two Leafs players all alone on the right of Kevin. It’s sort of how this season has gone, the road to scoring chances is paved with good intentions and all that.
As for the Canucks, they had a couple of good scoring chances on the power play that were either stopped by Woll, or in Boeser’s case, the hockey gods currently hate him:
The pushback was few and far between in this one, however.
Best not like this
Drew O’Connor got his leg stuck in the ice and left the game briefly before returning. I will show a clip of it for posterity, just in case he, too, is listed as “day-to-day” tomorrow due to this, and we don’t see him again for many months:
Best finishing up
John Tavares got the Leafs fourth goal, this time after the Canucks just couldn’t clear the zone to save their lives. Not to bring up Hughes again, but I do want to point out that there is such a stark difference in life when you have a zone entry/exit God, versus when you’re a regular human:
The Leafs put the pressure on Vancouver, and they just couldn’t find a way to get the puck out, and as a result, Toronto went up by four.
And much like the earlier Carlo hit, the Leafs towered over Vancouver physically once more, this time when Max Domi beat up Marcus Pettersson near the end of the second period:
You just watch these games, and everything is just so incredibly flat right now. I find myself looking up 1995 Ottawa Senators highlights to cheer myself at times, because at least they had the excitement of Lance Pitlick to watch.
Best more of the same
The third period was essentially a gentleman’s agreement between both teams to finish up the game in a timely manner, though Nylander almost got another goal when he pushed a puck wide of an open net:
Again, the Canucks defensive coverage is looser than that meat sandwich you used to eat in high school. Such is life.
Best line of the night
I suggest you stop fighting the fact that David Kämpf, Kiefer Sherwood and Drew O’Connor are the top line on the Canucks and simply embrace it. Worry about the implications of that another day.
For now, let us revel in Kämpf knowing that the best player to try and get the puck to right now is one Drew O’Connor, as he is your best even strength player on the team right now:
This was one of the best scoring chances of the third period, and once again, I urge you not to ponder the implications of that, but instead enjoy the beauty of it.
Best dying gasps
With a late-game power play, Vancouver tried their vaunted “maybe it will go in off of Jake DeBrusk?” maneuver, followed up by the “maybe if we throw it in the crease someone will whack it in?” strategy:
Both fair choices, but both ultimately failed on this night.
Best shout out to Aatu
Just wanted to highlight that Aatu Räty probably played the cleanest rush defence on the night, as he easily shut down and contained John Tavares on this attempt in the third period:
Evander Kane then almost set up Aatu Räty for a goal, as Räty utilized the deft tip technique, nearly getting one past Woll:
For all of Planet Ice’s defensive issues, I will say I enjoy watching him make leading passes. Evander Kane might be the best player on the team now in terms of sending in passes for other players to skate into.
As for Aatu Räty, with his faceoff prowess alone, I wouldn’t take him out of the lineup anytime soon. You might as well see what you have in the young kids, and it’s clear that putting the current group of veterans into every game isn’t exactly creating a winning, zoned-in environment.
Best signs of a pulse
The only real pushback on the night came from, who else, Kiefer Sherwood, who didn’t like the late hit attempt on David Kämpf:
Sherwood was penalized for it, and Toronto would get its final goal of the night on the power play:
I cannot think of a more depressing sight in the NHL right now than Brock Boeser killing off a penalty in a blowout game. It just feels so needlessly sad.
Still, kudos to Sherwood for being one of the few players who seemed to notice and/or dislike the fact that his team was losing. Probably bumps his trade value up to two first-rounders, I would think.
And that was the ball game. Toronto wins. Vancouver loses. And we continue to wait and see where this ride takes us.
See you Tuesday. Go Bills.

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