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The Stanchies: Canucks mercifully reach Olympic break after 5-2 defeat to the Golden Knights
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Photo credit: © Stephen R. Sylvanie-Imagn Images
Lachlan Irvine
Feb 5, 2026, 11:30 ESTUpdated: Feb 5, 2026, 11:32 EST
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February 4th, 2026, will go down in history for a few reasons.
It’ll be remembered as the day the de facto first overall pick in the NHL was charged with assault for breaking a guy’s jaw outside a bar. It’ll be remembered as the day The Muppet Show returned with Sabrina Carpenter as the guest star (it’s excellent by the way, go watch it so Disney makes a full season).
It will not be remembered for the way the Canucks dragged themselves to the finish line of the first half of the season, getting smacked around by a Knights team that came into the contest having lost seven of their last eight. The Canucks weren’t completely out of the game, with good opportunities and a pair of goals from the blue line that took the Canucks to the locker room only down a goal. But in the third, the Knights bolted the door shut behind them and hammered a few wooden planks to it just be safe.
The Olympic break couldn’t come soon enough for everybody. The Canucks, me and you. Think about how nice it’ll be to wake up tomorrow, and focus on the Canadian women’s team’s journey for a gold medal? Curling, ski cross, snowboarding, speed skating, take your pick! They’re all bangers.
This team and the front office will have their work cut out for them by the time the NHL returns from Italy. Hopefully the next time we all see each other, we’ll be watching a team that’s a little more competitive and entertaining than the one that’s closed out this stretch of the season.
Let’s make some GIF money.
Best Time Skips
In fairness, it’s still spring of 2020 for some of us.
Best Pushback
The Canucks have heard your complaints about the team being too soft to play against. And folks, they RESPONDED.
When a Knights defender took a slap shot long after the whistle had sounded for an offside call early, the Canucks said, “Oh hellll no!” and mayhem ensued!
Watch how every single Canuck converges on the blue line to give the Knights a whooping for this heinous crime.
In all seriousness, this is what you expect from an NHL team with a backbone. But hopefully there won’t be another, more warranted time for such a response that goes unanswered.
Best Caution thrown to the wind
Kevin Lankinen has bigger fish to fry than the Canucks right now. He’s off to Italy to represent Team Finland at the Olympics after this game’s all said and done. Heck, I was surprised the Canucks played him at all, considering the injury risk so close to his flight to Milano and/or Cortina.
But none of that means Lankinen won’t unleash the full beast for a save opportunity, like here when he absolutely robbed Jeremy Lauzon fresh out of the box on a 2-on-1.
Save some of that magic for next week, Kevin! Unless you’re playing Canada of course.
Best Missed Call
Remember that scrum at the beginning of the game? Well, there should’ve been another one here when Keegan Kolesar took a flying run at DePetey.
Contrary what a lot of mouthbreathers on Twitter tried to say, this should’ve been a penalty, plain as day. Kolesar leaves his feet to try and hit Pettersson higher up, catching him in the face. It’s not the worst hit I’ve ever seen obviously, but it’s clearly worth two minutes in the box. The refs missed it, and so did DePetey’s teammates considering no one jumped to his defence. Come on guys, I thought we were fixing this!
Best Priorities
If Jack Eichel wants to get his scoring out of the way now against the Canucks instead of a team with actual expectations like Team Canada, then that’s a sacrifice we’ve all got to be willing to make.
It took a while for any offence to show up in this game, with Lankinen and the Canucks arguably going beat for beat with Vegas. But like all the rookie season tension between Shane Hollander and Ilya Rozanov, the dam eventually burst. Knights Knewcomer Rasmus Andersson finds Eichel a little too open in the middle of the ice, who whips a shot around that gets past Lankinen’s far side.
It’s easy to see why the Canucks’ man to man coverage gets clowned on when they’re not even doing a good job covering the slot.
Best Breaking Downing

A 3 week break from the #Canucks!? What a gift

— Brayden Fengler (@braydenfengler.bsky.social) 2026-02-05T03:13:30.155Z

Speaking of defensive issues, it only got worse a minute later.
I’ve seen this clip several times, and I’m still not sure how Cole Reinhardt got so open in the middle of the ice with four Canucks around him. Tom Willander and Marcus Pettersson get their wires crossed and both end up on the left side of the ice, but Braeden Bowden gets between them and finds Reinhardt streaking towards the net, who dekes Lankinen out to give Vegas a quick 2-0 lead.
Now, Max Sasson gets a bit of a pass for having just jumped on the ice and being the first man back to check Reinhardt, and Jonathan Lekkerimäki had his stick broken at centre ice. But still, five skaters against two and you give up a breakaway? Vacation started early, I guess.
Best Junior

Fantastic read by Elias Pettersson (D) to jump up in the play and really nice placement to score five-hole. #Canucks

— Daniel Wagner (@passittobulis.bsky.social) 2026-02-05T04:19:28.024Z

EP25 was everywhere in this game. He was in the scrums, he was getting smashed in the face by Kolesar, he was making an impact whenever he stepped on the ice. And as soon as he saw the game starting to slip away from the Canucks, he put on his superhero cape and said ‘I got this, guys’.
The play starts with Liam Öhgren pinching at the perfect time for a breakout pass from Teddy Blueger and drawing in the only defender back, Kaeden Korczack. Even as Vegas starts to catch on, they’re too late to catch DePetey, who’s rocketed from one end to the other in record time. Öhgren feeds him the pass, and DePetey slaps it straight throught the wickets of Akira Schmid with authority.
That kind of confidence will serve him and the Canucks well in future years.
Best thunder stolen
The Golden Knights couldn’t just that cool Pettersson goal sink in. Vegas’ top line immediately went back to torching the Canucks’ backcheckers, with Mark Stone and Eichel making poor David Kämpf and PO Joseph’s lives miserable behind the net. Eichel steals the puck behind the net and sauces it to Stone, who slips a backhand pass to Ivan Barbashev. Blink and you’ll miss his shot sniped over Lankinen’s blocker. Two goal lead restored.
As a writer, I usually prefer when teams spread out the scoring so if they could just take it easy for a bit that’d be great.
Best Soul Snatcher
If you thought Lankinen’s save in the first period was gorgeous, you ain’t seen nothing yet.
P.O. Joseph just wanted his first goal as a Canuck, and when Conor Garland fed him a cross ice pass, he found himself with a wide open net and all the time in the world.
That’s when, out of nowhere, the diving glove of Akira Schmid showed up to commite grand larceny.
This save is even more impressive when you realize Schmid lost his net and collided with the post as he read the pass across. Add in the bit of traffic caused by Shea Theodore and you’ve got one of the best saves of the year.
P.O. Joseph will remember this though.
Best REVENGE!

As we all predicted, DPetey and POJ scoring the goals. #canucks

— Jeff Abraham (@jeffabraham.bsky.social) 2026-02-05T05:02:16.399Z

The next time Joseph had a shot opportunity on Schmid, he made it count.
Once again it was Conor Garland making the primary pass up to P.O., who faked the initial shot to freeze the Knights defenders and Schmid. Joseph expertly reset his shooting lane and fired a shot clean past Schmid’s glove side for his first goal as a Vancouver Canuck. See, fun things can still happen to this team!
Also worth noting: that’s another point for Teddy Blueger, who’s going into the Olympic break on a high scoring wise. Team Latvia’s gonna love that if they can reap the rewards.
Best fire drill
Making the Canucks’ mums witness this disaster of a trip means the players owe their resepctive parent double the Mother’s Day presents in May.
The Canucks inability to insulate their goalies is nothing new. But it just seems to be getting worse as we go. That’s how early in the third, Mitch Marner was able to walk from the boards to the front of the net with little to no disturbance. If anything, the bouncing puck was doing a better job of protecting the net front than any Canuck was.
Eventually, Marner corralled the biscuit and turned it into an easy backdoor tap-in for Pavel Dorofeyev.
https://media.giphy.com/media/n8Y4W8Xv2Ydju4dJJP/giphy.gif
Best Globetrotters vs. Generals

This is less than ideal defensive structure from the #Canucks

— Adam Kierszenblat (@adamkblat.bsky.social) 2026-02-05T05:16:44.249Z

The Golden Knights love nothing if not rubbing salt in the wound, so they saved their best goal for last.
Vegas entered the Vancouver zone with ease, Kolesar circled the net with the puck and made a perfect pass into the middle for Alexander Holtz. Game, set, match, season.
This game was a microcosm of everything the Canucks have been dealing with this season. The lack of production and genuine impact from the big names has been glaring. EP40 heads to Italy playing some of his least inspired hockey ever, and Jake DeBrusk barely registered as a threat in this game. Anyone who was scoring before has completely cooled off (with the exception of Teddy Blueger), the defence is a disaster, and the goaltending has been suspect. We already knew this season was circling the drain, but thankfully, the full flush is coming soon.
But hey, as long as the de facto first overall pick doesn’t do something really stupid, we’ll be fine. *Assistant whispers in ear* …Oh no.
Best YIAY
Yesterday, I Asked You, ‘In just four words, describe the first half of the Canucks season.’
Here are your best answers!
The fact that you found a GIF that works for this prompt is mega impressive.
Some good stuff is coming out of The ‘Couve Discord server. Join us, won’t you? It’ll make the rest of this miserable season much more fun, and that’s a Lachlan guarantee.

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