logo
CanucksArmy has no direct affiliation to the Vancouver Canucks, Canucks Sports & Entertainment, NHL, or NHLPA
The Stanchies: Canucks punch the Avalanche in the mouth with an 8-6 road victory
alt
Photo credit: © Ron Chenoy-Imagn Images
The Stanchion
Apr 2, 2026, 02:25 EDT
Comments
The Colorado Avalanche simply had no answers for the high-powered offence of Vancouver, as the Canucks rolled to an 8-6 road victory over the top team in the NHL on Wednesday night.
Perhaps drunk off their own farts, the Avalanche forgot one important rule in the NHL: Always game plan for Teddy Blueger. Always.
While a loss on the night from Vancouver would have locked in their spot as the last team in the NHL, there is something to be said for teasing it out a little bit. Maybe make Quinn Hughes hand you the official award tomorrow with a loss, marking the first meaningful thing he’s done for the Canucks this season.
And hey, if you have to knock off the top team in the NHL before you ride off into the sunset, why not do it in style? You want goals? Oh, we have plenty of goals. You want saves? Well ok, maybe not so much.
The point is, we live in a world in which Marcus Pettersson got the game-winner in a high-powered affair between the best and the worst. It was like getting ready to watch Mike Tyson fight Buster Douglas, where you found yourself confused why this one wasn’t over after the first.
Instead of Colorado jumping out to a sizeable lead, it was the Canucks who staked themselves to a 6-2 advantage halfway through the game. And sure, those plucky Avalanche managed to scratch and claw their way back into the game and tie things up at six, thinking they could win the game, which was adorable.
Unfortunately, Brock Boeser and MP3 had different plans, as Marcus almost immediately restored the lead after the game was tied late in the third period. This allowed Brock to sit back and watch as Nate MacKinnon attempted to “1v1 me in Rust, bro” every single player on the ice, before The Flow lived up to his old nickname, icing the game with an empty net goal for his third of the night.
In a season short on highlights and happiness, this result will shine bright amongst the rubble. Even if for a night, it was refreshing to watch the Canucks attack with confidence, moving the puck with purpose, keeping up with the top team in the league. In many ways, you almost hoped the game would get to overtime, if only so you could experience this kind of hockey for a few minutes longer, before having to return to the slog of the remaining schedule.
We have an incredible amount of highlights to cover, and oh so much gif money to make, so let’s jump into a recap of what was easily the best game of the season from the Vancouver Canucks.
Best quick returns
With news coming out that Evander Kane was fighting through an injury to crawl past his 1000th game milestone earlier this week, it meant Max Sasson returned to the lineup. And in the apparently litigious world we live in, my lawyers have informed me to publicly state that Max “Ass” Sasson is meant to convey he is a killer on the ice, and not a man who is poopy at his job.
And the Ass Man let the Avalanche know quite quickly what they were in store for when he scored under a minute into the first period after Fil the Pill sent him in on a breakaway:
Max going full Alex Mogilny on this goal pleases me to no end, because five hole goals don’t get enough love. Sure, they  might not be as flashy as deking around a goalie, but let me tell you, there is no greater way to feel shame then being beat five hole.
Beat glove? Happens all the time.
Beat short side? Annoying, but those can be hard to stop.
Scramble in the crease? Comes with the territory.
But a goal between your legs, there is just something about it going right through you flat on the ice that makes you feel like a little kid on the playground who just got pantsed and now everyone is laughing at you.
Another fun thing about this goal is you got to watch another team in the league play such horrendous defense that you started to openly wonder if it was illegal and they should be thrown in jail due to their crimes against hockey. Josh Manson turned slower than the McBarge on this play, as Sasson just skated right around him for the goal.
Best following the script
Nate MacKinnon, apparently one of the better players in the NHL (I Googled it), would quickly answer for the Avalanche as he would beat three Canucks, including sending Hronek’s soul to Jesus, before tying the game up at ones:
Nate cuts back so hard that Hronek got laid off on that goal. Just an incredibly filthy thing to do. Nate then followed that up by dangling around Marco Rossi and Liam Öhgren before unleashing a shot that beats Kevin Lankinen clean.
And this is where everything still felt kind of normal. The Canucks usual script is spirited first period, followed by a second period where you just wish it would stop trauma dumping on you, and then a third period where a couple of point shots were all that stood between you and the post game scrum from Adam Foote, where I never quite know if he’s talking about hockey or an IT guy pretending he read the manual.
On this night, however? The Canucks kept pushing. And pushing.
And pushing.
Best let me talk to yah
I saw someone asking when do we start referring to it as the “Liam Öhgren trade” and honestly, that might not be too far off the mark with how this season has gone.
And if you want to get a Canucks fan unreasonably excited, make them open up an incognito tab for this filthy display from one Liam Öhgren, in which he outmuscles Nate MacKinnon to win a puck battle, before finding Teddy Blueger for the goal on an odd man rush:
If I had to describe this goal, you would need either a sex metaphor or a nature metaphor.
You’re going to want to hear the sexual metaphor.
All hockey is sex. And sex is competition. And there are no rules to that game.
2-0 good guys.
Best pretty close guess
With a power play chance looming before them, the Avalanche almost tied the game up on an Artturi Lehkonen shot after MacKinnon dangled around doing MacKinnon things:
I have to assume the Nordiques jersey brought out the 1980s in this game, as not only did the final score reflect that era, but we also had Lankinen dropping his stick while diving across his crease trying to grab a shot with his blocker hand.
But unlike games past where the Canucks would slowly wilt under the pressure from their opponent, Vancouver kept pace with Colorado all night long. And it wasn’t like this was a game of volume in regards to high danger chances (both teams finished with just 10 each), but the work rate and the scoring efficiency was just at another level in this one.
And questionable goaltending. Please don’t forget the bad goaltending.
But for every Avalanche rush, you had Nils Höglander sending a laser beam cross ice pass that Defensive Enthusiast Elias Pettersson just missed out on converting:
Or you had Liam Öhgren winning yet another puck battle, this time finding Drew O’Connor who dangled in the slot before unleash what we will charitably call a good shot:
It was just a breath of fresh air to see the Canucks counter attacking with aplomb, and finding ways to generate offense that wasn’t purely “what’s the most efficient way to end this shift with a point shot before heading for a line change and wondering if it’s too late to start up a competitive food eating channel as a career.”
In fact, in a twist of irony, it was the Avalanche who had to resort to “thoughts and prayers” offense in this game, as it was point shots that led them back into things in the third period after their offensive wizardry couldn’t crack the Canucks Patronus charm.
What form does the Canucks Patronus take, you ask? You are correct, it’s the Olaf robot.
Best do one thing but do it well
As Jake DeBrusk lives out his Fresh Prince meme of wondering where all his friends went, there is still something he is very good at: Scoring goals on the powerplay and also pointing his glove to give credit for a good pass.
And to the Canucks credit, their powerplay has looked good in recent weeks, as they have had to learn to walk again without Quinn Hughes. No longer can they sit back and watch the agile Hughes circle the offensive zone five times in a row before shooting into traffic and demanding a trade at the bench, now the team has to pass the puck with precision and try and create their own shooting lanes.
Which is what they did for their third goal of the night, when eventually Elias Pettersson would secure a cross ice pass from Marco Rossi that just squeezed through, before sending the puck down low to Jake DeBrusk who managed to just barely get the puck behind Mackenzie Blackwood of House Trees:
And much like earlier, Nathan MacKinnon almost had an immediate answer when Nils Höglander fumbled the puck along the boards, leading to yet another post saving the day for ol’ Kevin:
Bit of luck, bit of skill, the Canucks still held a 3-1 lead.
Best old man strength
Gabe Landeskog would eventually solve Kevin Lankinen by simply not aiming at the post, and instead choosing to tip a puck behind the Canucks goaltender:
See what I mean, though? In what world are the Avalanche trying to stay in a game with point shots into traffic while the Canucks are out here scoring breakaways and tapping in odd man rushes. The dogs are cats and the cats are dogs, nothing made sense!
Best who did it better
That being said, the Avalanche may have adopted the thoughts and prayers offense, but the Canucks were born in it, molded by it.
So it wasn’t surprising to see Elias Pettersson attempting a point shot with Jake DeBrusk standing in the crease:
Fun fact: I wrote that as “point shit” and didn’t notice at first. I don’t think anyone should attempt a point shit.
Best Lionel Richie game plan
To be fair, the Avalanche probably deserve to walk around with some swagger. They are at the top of the league and they can even defeat an ethically losing team like Calgary by seven goals.
So I imagine they were surprised when they pushed all in for offense only to find the Canucks standing them up and counter attacking the absolute shit out of them all night long.
And in the second period, the Ass Man and Teddy KGB absolutely terrorized the Avalanche with counter attacks, one of which led to Teddy Blueger’s second goal of the night:
Another slick little five hole goal and before you knew it, Blackwood was dancing on the ceiling.
You want a sign that the Canucks were feeling it? On their next shift Teddy Blueger backchecked to force a turnover into the hands of Buium, who would then send in Max Sasson who decided “clap bomb piss missile? why not” before trying to go bar down like it was game 8:
Imagine you’re the Avalanche and Teddy Blueger is absolutely dog walking you, and now you have Max Sasson out here trying to go full Vanek on you on the next shift. That has to rattle your confidence a bit. If the Avalanche go out in the first round, I am telling you, it’s because of this game. The Canucks made them bleed their own blood and they had no idea what to do about it.
You want another two on one? Watch as the Avalanche try and set up in the Canucks zone, only to get absolutely stuffed on the takedown attempt, leading to yet another odd man rush for Sasson and Blueger:
Blueger hit the outside post on that shot, but you have to again go into the minds of the Colorado Avalanche. You’re down 4-2 to the Vancouver Canucks, and for three straight shifts Max Sasson and Teddy Blueger have become a living nightmare to deal with. At the very least they had to be confused, and at the very greatest they are incredibly frightened of MacKinnon screaming at them during intermission about it.
It wasn’t just that duo for Vancouver making things happen, as Aatu Räty Ser Douglas the Tall would jump all over a turnover and jam away at the puck in the crease after a Räty shot from high in the slot:
It was just a night where Vancouver never really took a shift off, and it was kind of awesome to see. The team played incredibly hard and very much earned the victory on the night.
Best Ruff Ryders
My favorite goal of the night was the Canucks fifth on the night, as it really just showcased the effort level the Canucks brought in this game.
First let’s showcase Brock Boeser scoring a goal on an incredible set up from Tom Willander, and then break it down:
Things to note on this goal:
  • Rossi moves the puck up the boards and it lands near the feet of Brett Kulak. Normally this has been where the play dies for the Canucks as they tend to back off or play too passively. The other team collects the puck and they start their zone entry. This time, DOC runs into the fray and engages in a board battle, stalling the puck and allowing Rossi to continue skating and pick it up for a zone entry.
  • That being said, Parker Kelly is all over Rossi as he tries to skate in with the puck, and that’s where you see Marco battle his way through the check. You saw it earlier with Ohgren, you’ve seen with JT Miller back in the day before he got into his feelings, you saw it Conor Garland, there is just an extra element you bring to the game when you can fight through a check. The more guys who can do this on your team, the harder you are to play against. You become that annoying beer league team everyone thinks “takes things too seriously”.
  • Rossi buys enough time and space to pull up and find Tom Willander jumping up into rush. We talked about it last game about how the evolution of Willander needs to involve him making these rushes count, making them matter. Skating really fast is cool and all, but if you can’t turn it into scoring chances, it’s just a nice party trick. Well on this play, Willander fools Blackwood into committing to his shot, and Kenny Blankenship Nick Blankenberg is fooled so bad he collapses so far back in his crease he is practically hugging his goaltender. The end result? A perfect passing lane to Brock Boeser opens up.
  • Brock then snipes home one of his easier goals of the season, and it’s a result of the Canucks hard work in winning the puck battles, and using that momentum to open up cracks in the Avalanche’s defensive coverage.
Just straight up “good shit” hockey as the kids say. I think they say that. Someone says it.
Best what crash?
The Canucks and second periods have not been the best of friends this year, but that was not the case in this contest.
After killing off another penalty, Max Sasson got like his 239th odd man rush of the game, this time just missing wide on a pass from Linus Karlsson:
It was just a nice reminder that hockey can, in fact, be enjoyable to watch.
It’s like when someone from out of town asks you if Vancouver ever gets sunny and you vaguely remember a time when that happened, but you’re not quite sure.
Best gonna be a Brock Star
Nazem Kadri was minus 82 on the night I believe, but he did almost score near the end of the second period. The problem? The Canucks immediately took the puck down the ice and scored themselves:
Counter attack after counter attack after counter attack, I cannot remember the last time the Canucks had this much swagger to their game.
That being said, at this point in the night Blackwood was fully in his “Tom Hanks at the end of Saving Private Ryan” era, as he just kind of watched Boeser go post to post on him with very little reaction.
Blackwood would then get the mercy pull, and the other wood based goaltender entered the game on his behalf.
Best questionable strategies
With the Avalanche still in their “we surely can’t be down four goals to the Canucks” era, they would get a goal on the board seconds after the Boeser goal when a Sam Malinksi point shot would elude Lankinen:
Adam Foote challenged for goaltender interference and I have to say, with it being a 50/50 coin toss on the best of situations, this felt like a risky move. Not just because it didn’t look like there was enough to overturn the goal, but also because it just feels like it sends the wrong message to your team. You’re out here thumping the top team, surely you can believe in them enough to handle a 6-2 game without potentially going down a man to try and erase that goal.
The Canucks would kill off the ensuing penalty, but I just don’t love that challenge from the coaching staff on that one.
And since it’s been a hot minute since Nate had a breakaway, here is almost scoring with under ten seconds left in the period after the Canucks clearly forgot he was hanging around behind them:
Nate never stood a chance, however, as Lankinen is the greatest shootout goalie of all time. You want to beat him on a breakaway? Good luck with that.
Instead just use point shots. That seems to work.
Best off to a hot start
The third period began with a bang when Parker Kelly, looking like a young Teddy Blueger, picked his spot and beat Kevin Lankinen:
Clearly a goal that Kevin would want back, but it seems only fair that Vancouver give up a couple of those after what Blackwood offered up on the night.
Best back to the future hockey
The majority of the third period was a lot of the Canucks pushing the pace, to be honest. Which feels weird reading it, but imagine how I feel writing it.
But it’s true. The Canucks didn’t sit back, and instead had Willander shooting the puck from the boards, leading to Karlsson almost popping in the rebound:
The BRO line continued to cook as well, as Drew O’Connor’s hustle paid off when he generated a zone entry that led to Rossi jumping on the puck and feeding Brock Boeser all alone in the slot:
You want a Curtis Douglas goal? You and everyone else my friend. It feels like it’s just a matter of time, and there was none closer than Jake DeBrusk rolling around the ice like he was on fire before sending a pass out front to Ser Douglas the Tall:
As for the Avs, they were doing the Vancouver thing. Dumping the puck in and praying they could jam the puck into the crease and get lucky:
And then there was Vancouver doing the Colorado thing, counter attacking at will, generating odd man rushes whenever they pleased:
That forecheck from DOC is just a thing of beauty. He pokes it up and creates a scoring chance that almost ends with EP40 scoring.
There have been some games where I’d be lucky to have one single odd man rush highlight in a game from Vancouver. It would just be endless clips of the other team generating offense and then I’d be all “and here’s David Kampf shooting the puck into the corner and going for a tidy line change” and that would be the high point of the article.
I don’t want to go back to that.
Please.
Best thoughts and prayers can work
This was one of those games where Vancouver played so far above their weight class that I wasn’t even fazed by the thought of them losing the game. If they blew the lead, so be it. At least they played a good hockey game.
So when Brent Burns fired one from the point and beat Lankinen on a partial screen, sure, have at it, why not:
In a normal world Thatcher Demko is in net and he makes a save and/or injuries a new body part we’ve never heard of, but for now we live in a place where point shots can be very scary.
I do think it shows how effective Vancouver was at shutting down the rush chances from Colorado and not letting them cycle endlessly in the offensive that they had to resort to greasy hockey, so kudos to Adam Foote’s team in this one.
Best one little pizza
The Avalanche would then tie the game when Defensive Enthusiast Elias Pettersson panicked and back handed a rebound into the slot, right onto the stick of Sam Malinkski:
The Canuck collapsed too low on this goal, which further exacerbated the turnover from Elias Pettersson, giving us a glimpse of what we normally see from Vancouver in their own end.
In the end, though, the Canucks didn’t break. They simply buckled down and went to the one guy Colorado would never expect to score the game winner: Marcus Pettersson.
Best never gonna give you up
This goal is essentially fueled by BRO energy, as the frat house trio worked a board battle into Brock Boeser finding enough space behind the net to feed Marcus Pettersson for the shot on net:
Again, I cannot remember the last time we have seen the Canucks outwork the other team this efficiently. It’s one thing to try hard, but it’s another thing completely to try hard and also make high level plays with the puck.
It’s akin to when you hide the garbage on the deck instead of throwing it out. You worked hard to hide it, but the high level thing to do would be to drop it on the balcony below you and then blame raccoons.
You also have to realize the energy in the stadium at this point. The fans got so incredibly loud after they tied the game up, and why wouldn’t they. They are the chosen ones, they are the best team in the league. Losing to Vancouver doesn’t make any sense, so when the Avalanche tied the game up, there was a certain arrogance to the crowd, as if this was the result they expected all along. It wasn’t “we’re so happy for our team” energy it was “good, put the clowns back in the basement where they belong” energy.
So imagine that energy is pulsating all around you and then the BRO line (not to be confused with the BRÖ line) goes out there and just hems you in your own end before setting up MP3 for the go ahead goal on the next shift.
To say the crowd looked like they didn’t understand how life works anymore is an understatement.
It also reminded me of Boeser’s big goal against Nashville in the playoffs. The dude is just ice cold when it comes to a red hot crowd living its best life. He’s the ultimate heel on the Canucks, no one knows how to silence a crowd like he does.
I once again remain blown away there apparently wasn’t a market for him last year. The dude is a gamer.
Best speaking of ice cold
At this point in the game the panic was clearly written across MacKinnon’s face that they might actually lose this game, so he sat up in his chair and tried to do everything himself, leading to Boeser calmly getting the puck and air mailing in the empty netter for his third of the night:
Truly a thing of beauty.
And that was the game. The Canucks played their asses off and won. Put the champagne back in the fridge for one more night because last place isn’t locked up yet.
Next game up? Minnesota.
Curtis Douglas, you know the assignment.
Best facts
Sponsored by bet365

Editorials

Breaking News