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The Stanchies: Canucks offer up pathetic effort in 3-1 loss to Rick Tocchet’s Flyers
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Photo credit: Bob Frid-Imagn Images
The Stanchion
Nov 10, 2026, 02:32 ESTUpdated: Nov 10, 2026, 02:33 EST
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I have watched a lot of bad Canucks hockey in my time covering this team. I have become a connoisseur of sorts. The complex floral and fruity notes of an early season loss. The bold, earthy nutty flavour of a game being played while already eliminated from the post-season. The woody, smoky yet sweet mixture of random matinee blowout loss on a Sunday game in December. It’s hard to find a loss I haven’t sampled over the years, so it takes a lot to surprise me.
Yet somehow, for whatever reason, the Canucks 3-1 loss to the Flyers left a bad taste in my mouth.
And I get it. It’s a rebuilding team. Losses are on the menu, boys, so slop ’em up! I know, I understand it, and I fully accept and embrace this concept.
But the effort level from the team through two periods was, honestly, downright pathetic. I can handle the losing, but the worst part is the hypocrisy.
Take the Rick Tocchet intrigue out of this, and you still had a Canucks team facing off against the last place team in the East who had only managed four victories on the season.
Even better, this was a Flyers team who had played in Calgary the night before, losing in overtime. Their dogs were barking. Their legs were full of lead. Running on flat tires. Use whatever metaphor you want for tired legs, I don’t care.
OK I kind of care. I’m partial to the barking dogs one, but I digress.
The point is, if ever there was a game in which you should come flying out of the gates, it would have been this one. If ever there was a time to showcase your fanbase that your team will bring the effort night in and night out, it would be this one. Which, to their credit, they did against the Edmonton Oilers the game before. It’s probably why this game was so frustrating to watch, because we have seen them hang with better teams. Against the Flyers, though, the Canucks seemingly said why bother try hard when few effort do trick.
Is this life now? Are the Canucks Kevin? Am I meant to find this attractive? What are we doing?
This is an organization that absolutely cannot have flat games like this, no ifs and or buts. You get blown out by a top team, you can at least lie to yourself and give a sensible chuckle about the talent gap issue before running a draft lottery simulator while your brain quietly disassociates from life.
Lose to the Flyers, though? All you can do is stare in the mirror and try to come to terms with the fact you didn’t pass Grade 12 English because your book report on Choose Your Own Adventures used the term “increasingly complex options led to a failure to finish the book, but such is life when you follow the unbeaten path in the Cave of Time.”
Consistent effort and over priced beer are the only thing this team has to sell to this fan base during the rebuild, and when the entire roster is out there farting around and waiting for the puck to magically come to them, it’s hard to picture an entire season of fans putting up with this. The social contract of a rebuild is clear, the team puts in effort, the fans grit their teeth and applaud through the losses, it’s how Abraham Lincoln became President.
Unfortunately, this Canucks team couldn’t even be bothered to show up after the first period. Inexplicably they somehow managed to give a worst effort in the middle frame, which would be downright impressive if it wasn’t so soul crushingly lugubrious. Yes, the second period, the infamous “long change” that announcers talk about in hushed tones, where tired teams go to die, where players on back to back games are calling for oxygen as they try to make line changes, the Canucks only managed two shots the entire damn period.
Two.
Whole.
Shots.
That’s it. That was all they could muster. Thanks for coming out, hope you enjoyed paying for Sportsnet Plus so you could fund a couple of dump ins.
And no offense to Vancouver’s third period effort, but if you think I am going to applaud a team getting shots on a Rick Tocchet team parking the bus in the third period, you have another thing coming.
It was a pathetic effort. It truly was.
It was also a pathetic game from Fin. Why? I don’t know, but I bet it was.
Leevi Meriläinen get’s a pass because he’s cool, but other than that, this was a piss poor excuse of a game from a team that claims to be in the NHL.
It is not a well formed roster, we know that, but if you can’t even be asked to try and beat one of the other garbage teams in the league, then why are fans paying for tickets? Why are people funding your pay cheque to watch you do cardio for a couple of periods?
And the worst part about all of this, if you think I am being too harsh and need to relax, the worst part about this is the player’s should be more pissed off than I am. They should be the ones ranting and raving after that game. They should be the ones who cannot believe they lost the Toiler Bowl in such a fashion, unable to flush this turd of an effort down the drain despite pumping away at the handle for most of the third period.
“We just came out flat.” was Drew O’Connor’s initial assessment of the game. He is correct, but man alive I want a player to say that effort level is unacceptable. The morose “woe is me” looks after losses will not go far in any hockey city, let alone this one.
And while I truly believe it is on Manny Malholtra to figure out a way to get this team playing consistent hockey, he at least he spoke to the issue at hand after the game.
“We want to put forth an effort that is worthy of their cheering and their praise and their commitment to the team.” was one of his takeaways, showing he understands these are the types of games that lose the fan base. He also spoke of the third period push, but noted “the lesson being we wait so long…those are the types of efforts and mentality we need out of the gate. When we discuss it prior to going out on the ice and we don’t see it, it is extremely frustrating.”
Which brings us back to the roster itself. For all the flack Rick Tocchet and Adam Foote got with this team, Manny is echoing a lot of the same sentiments they did. How often did Tocchet talk about the players not following the game plan? I won’t dare suggest I ever understood what Adam Foote was talking about after games, but you got the sense he, too, was frustrated with the roster at times. Maybe that just comes with all the losing, but it’s hard not to get caught up over analyzing some of the trends.
We talked a lot about the culture reset on the team heading into this year, but if this team is still having some of the same issues, at what point do you just cut away all of the veterans on this team and just start right over? Is it a talent issue? Or an effort issue? One of those you can ride out during a rebuild, and one of those you can’t.
Fortunately, or unfortunately, we still have 3/4 of a season left to figure out what comes next.
Let’s dive into it.
Best coming together
During a rebuild, it’s hard to find games that have any emotional currency to them. If you don’t win hockey games, you can’t create rivalries. The other team just sort of looks at you with a mixture of pity and annoyance, and then they forget you exist.
Which is why the Quinn Hughes game was marked down on the calendar, because at least there was some emotional trauma that juiced the match up a little bit.
And with Rick Tocchet not exactly being beloved in Philadelphia, there was some pre-game hopes from their fan base of a “Fire Tocchet” chant breaking out during Monday night. A far fetched idea, but one amusing enough that you at least hoped it resulted in a fun game.
But instead of Rick Tocchet showing up to the party with his new partner and getting really nervous when his ex walked over and chatted up his new beau, it ended up being pretty flat. Hard to get any sort of chant going during a game like this, much less one on behalf of another team.
Still, for a couple of days, Flyers and Canucks fans came together, and it was beautiful.
Best mission statement
If you want to be optimistic, at least the Canucks were up front about their lack of effort on the night. They let you know pretty early on that they weren’t super interested in playing too hard, when Michael Bunting scored after Defensive Enthusiast Elias Pettersson pinched up and Brendan Gallagher struggled with coverage:
For reasons unbeknownst to me, Gallagher and DP25 both refuse to cover Bunting. Gallagher clearly has issues trying to figure out where the puck wants to go in life, so at one point he just peaces out and skates away from the middle of the ice. Dp25 then fails to close the gap to cover Bunting, and now it’s 1-0 Flyers.
The game happens at a fast pace, and there is some level of puck luck on this goal, but that excuse sort of falls flat when it’s been a season of poor coverage and bad decisions in the defensive zone. This is not an unusual occurrence is all I am saying. If someone walked right behind me and stole my wallet, I would have a sneaking suspicion a Canuck player blew coverage somewhere along the way.
Best HBK of hockey
Perhaps sensing his team needed a boost, Elias Pettersson did what he does best, and that’s sell a penalty:
OK, he actually had his stick slashed out of his hands pretty cleanly by Denver Barkley, so the sell job wasn’t needed on this one. But the point remains, he is currently the second best player in the league at drawing penalties to Connor McDavid, and that’s wild when you consider EP40 skates at like 2mph compared to the Oilers captain. Elias can’t draw penalties with insane speed, he has to use creativity and smarts on his sell jobs. He’s out here metaphorically slapping his thigh so the sticks make the sound of a heavy impact, the kid just has natural talent when it comes to earning power plays.
Unfortunately for Vancouver, and maybe you picked it up in the opening paragraph, but the effort level just wasn’t there on the night? There is a reason I cannot show you any exciting power play shots from the Canucks in the first period, and it is because they didn’t generate any.
Instead all I can show you is Luke Schenn and Defensively Thrilled Elias Pettersson getting mad at people going near their goalie:
Which don’t get me wrong, I love that stuff. There is a reason my eyes light up whenever DP25 and Luke Schenn play together, because I know at some point they might do their Legion of Doom gimmick and somebody will get clotheslined off the shoulders of Pettersson.
But it was not a great game from Luke Schenn. And it was very much not a great game from Defensively Loaded Elias Pettersson, who had one of his worst games of the season. So while I enjoy them punching people for daring to sniff the air around Leevi, you can’t have DP25 getting walked this easily:
If Luke Schenn doesn’t barely catch up to Trevor Zegras on that rebound, this game is pretty quickly 2-0. It just always feels like the Canucks are just slightly on the edge of a panic attack when they have to defend their zone, which is why we just see them puck watching and chasing plays so often.
The good news is Paul Cotter got a bit of revenge on Michael Bunting, as he laid him out with the biggest hit of the night near the end of the first period:
Amazingly nobody had to fight over this clean hit, which feels slightly unsettling, but I’ll take it. A good hit is a good hit, especially if it’s not on your captain.
You only really need to defend someone after a big hit if it was your goalie, your captain, Salma Hayek, or your best player.
Best bird watching
Noah Cates almost made it 2-0 were it not for the last minute stick of Drew O’Connor saving the day:
DOC just barely hits the puck to deflect it back into his goalies pads, but this is another case of the Canucks opposition being unchecked and unguarded around the blue paint. Should Noah Cates be beating two of your guys to the net? Probably not. Things Noah Cates should be able to do:
  • Laugh inside a Starbucks for getting his name wrong on his cup, but still tells them good effort when they write “Cats”.
  • Work on his YouTube channel called “Noah Hates” and it’s just videos of him listing things he dislikes.
  • Be able to list off fun facts about his hometown of Stillwater, Minnesota at the drop of a hat. Fun fact, Stillwater had the first electric lights west of Chicago.
Things Noah Cates shouldn’t be allowed to do:
  • Beat two Canuck players to his own rebound.
Now, as Allan Walsh proudly told the world after the game, Fil Hronek played a career high in this game, hitting 31:11 on the night. Which means he is out there a lot, so while I commend him for playing Quinn Hughes numbers during an era in which it absolutely does not matter, it will lead to more moments of him turning the puck over because the guy is out there for more than half the night:
Are they asking too much of Fil? Probably. Unless you’re Allan Walsh, then they aren’t asking enough of him? I don’t know how it works, to be honest.
All I know is a team that wants to push for a deep playoff run should inquire with the Canucks about Hronek as soon as possible.
And look, I know the talk before the season was that he doesn’t want to leave, and that’s commendable and all that. But do you really want to rebuild through this in the prime of your career? Fly away, Fil. Nobody will be mad. Go snag the Canucks a first rounder or two and a roster player and live your best life.
To quote the famous philosopher En Vogue, free your mind, and the rest will follow. Be color blind, don’t be so shallow.
Best what do I do with my hands?
Chasing the play is how you end up looking like an ASHL team that lost their ringer due to “work getting pretty intense lately”, which is where Defensively Endowed Elias Pettersson found himself after chasing down Matvei Michkov and taking a penalty after he got slightly deked out of his shorts:
I was told Matvei Michkov was a fat man who could only do fat things, but here he is doing dingles and dangles, and you know what, I was lied to, that’s all I’ll say.
The result was a power play goal for the Flyers, as Travis Konecny finished off the pass from the aforementioned Matvei Michkov despite Luke Schenn skating around the rink like his life depended upon it:
For those counting at home, those are indeed three straight chases for the puck that Luke Schenn lost, which would be amusing if this game wasn’t so depressing. It’s something I assume Malholtra took note of, as Luke Schenn only played just over eight minutes of hockey on the night, being dwarfed by Guillaume Brisebois’ seventeen minutes of hockey. When Brisebois is doubling your ice time, I think it’s safe to say Malholtra doesn’t trust Schenn all that much.
And yeah, this isn’t a great look from the veteran defenseman. He chases the puck and stretches that diamond out until it collapses. I do have an issue with the Canucks in general when it comes to blown coverage, though. Drew O’Connor had a chance to cover Konecny on this play but for some reason he just up and wheels out of there, and that’s where you just wonder why this team cannot figure out how to play emergency hockey when they need to. Defensive structure is fine and all that, but if a guy has an open lane to the net and nobody else is around, it’s pretty safe to say you can try and make a play on him.
Instead we get endless clips of multiple Canucks just puck watching on a shift, resulting in open ice everywhere for the opponent.
Best make it stop
With the Canucks once again floundering, Elias Pettersson knew he needed to step up and deliver another powerplay:
He’s a savant, what can I say. I’ve called him the HBK of selling, but in truth he’s probably more of a Bret Hart. If you oversell your moves, officials catch on to you, and they get mad that you embarrassed them by suckering them into making a call. With EP40, he will do his dive but fight to get right back up and keep playing through it, which I think is what really sells his penalties. He makes it look real, just like Bret.
But the most dangerous shot they got out of that power play was one sent at the referee after the penalty had expired, as a Defensively Intuitive Elias Pettersson head shot almost lead to Tyson Foerster getting a goal in the slot:
Chasing the game once again, Luke Schenn at least made it look kind of bad ass when he stacked his pads to cover the side of his net and thwart a wraparound attempt:
But ultimately this was the Canucks best scoring chance of the period; A Brendan Gallagher muffin of a shot on a glorified two on one:
I say glorified because the Flyers played pass the entire way. They will give Gallagher that shot all day long, as his shot velocity has dwindled over the years, and dialing it up from long distance isn’t much of a threat from the former Habs fan favorite.
The Canucks total shots after two periods of play? Six. Six shots.
Part of me wonders if I wasn’t angry enough in the opener.
Best bazinga
Look, it was objectively funny to watch everyone talk about the Canucks needing to come out strong in the third period only to watch Travis Sanheim score right away to make it 3-0:
Psyche, the goal was offside, the Flyers are a bunch of dirty cheaters.
With that goal called back, I wouldn’t say it woke the Canucks up as the fans had hoped it would, as the Flyers did get an odd-man rush minutes later.
This time it was Sean Couturier and Denver Barkey (no relation to Wichita Barkey), but they were thwarted by the best defensive play on the night from Vancouver in the form of Brisebois taking away the pass and then ultimately blocking Sean Couturier’s shot:
On a night that was pretty ugly, I will say that I am heavily considering adding Guillaume Brisebois to the Leevi Meriläinen list of “you’re still cool” from this game.
Best sign of life
With Rick Tocchet content to sit back and watch his team refuse to get shots on net for the final period, Vancouver finally started to step up when the Flyers backed down.
At first it was small, it was a shift where Zeev Buium, Arshdeep Bains, and Brendan Gallagher basically worked hard to stay on top of the puck, leading to a no look back pass from Bains over to Max Sasson for the mini-breakaway:
Which on a night when the team struggled to get to six shots after forty minutes of play, it stood out. It was an actual, tangible play in which the Canucks looked like they knew Jospeh Woll existed.
And it kept kind of growing, this time when Brock Boeser took a shot that missed wide, only to find it’s way into the slot on Hronek’s stick:
He didn’t score, but the message was clear: We know you have a goalie.
Then after Linus Karlsson drew his first of two penalties, Elias Pettersson started to wake up, making a glorious zone entry that led to a Jake DeBrusk shot attempt from what many are calling a decent angle on net:
All of which finally led to the Canucks lone goal of the night on said power play.
Best Prime Time in action
For whatever reason I really want Jonathan Lekkerimäki’s goal song to be Roundball Rock and I have no logic or reason to support it.
Nonetheless, Prime Time showed off his elite shot on his 7th goal of the season after playing give and go with Brock Boeser:
Elias Pettersson makes the initial slick cross ice pass, and the Canucks do what they seemingly wanted to do all night long, which is score a goal without having to move their feet much.
It’s a tremendous shot from Jonathan Lekkerimäki who continues to be one of the bright spots on this otherwise dreary season, so at the very least the Canucks gave us that.
It also gave us Brock Boeser coming in to steal camera time away from Prime Time on the goal celebration:
Perhaps inspired by his own performance, Jonathan Lekkerimäki would follow that goal up with a crossbar, after Linus Karlsson drew his second penalty of the night:
Much like that lone sad bench on the Granville Bridge, you can see the vision here, even if it falls just short.
And that was about it for entertaining hockey from the Canucks. They managed to outshoot the Flyers 19-17 on the night after their spirited third period and if that isn’t a victory, I don’t know what is.
Best hot mic
The best part of the third period? Michael Bunting losing his mind over Linus Karlsson drawing some penalties. He had some thoughts that got caught on a hot mic:
Best finish it, it’s over
With the goalie pulled and the Canucks on yet another powerplay, the Flyers ended it on a Travis Sanheim empty netter:
I have to assume Elias Pettersson is tired at this point, but oh boy, that visual of him slowly coming back for the puck isn’t great. If he’s tired, he needs to switch off. If he has some energy left, use it to get the puck back.
In the end he doesn’t lose the puck, but he ends up trying to play hero ball by driving the puck into the offensive zone and then just throwing the puck into traffic, leading to the turnover that ended the game.
Not a huge thing in the grand scheme of things, but it’s just another moment of bad decisions being made, even if it was with good intentions.
And that was it. Game over. Tocchet wins the revenge game.
Up next? JT Miller comes back home. Yay.
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