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The Stanchies: Canucks reach crossroads after 3-2 loss to Lyon-hearted Sabres
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Photo credit: © Bob Frid-Imagn Images
Lachlan Irvine
Dec 12, 2025, 12:56 ESTUpdated: Dec 12, 2025, 13:16 EST
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“This is NOT happenstance. This is NOT a simple pattern of failure. This is NOT inspirational. This is active, malicious torment.”
“This is hell.“ – Jon Bois, The Browns live in Hell (2017)
Losing to the modern-day Buffalo Sabres is a statement, no matter how you slice it.
Losing to the Sabres – in regulation, no less – is a fate worse than purgatory. The Sabres haven’t made the playoffs in a generation, and as it currently stands, they’re on par with a Canucks team that’s spent years avoiding a true rebuild, only for those shortsighted decisions to truly come to roost in 2025-26.
Last month, when the Canucks lost to the Blackhawks, it spelled out how they had officially lost ground on a team that had been completely in their rearview less than a couple of years ago. Chicago hasn’t even done a particularly good job rebuilding their roster, the Sabres even less so. But here we are, with both teams (and a few notable others like San Jose and Anaheim) firmly ahead of the Canucks in the standings and beating them on nights where Vancouver played objectively well.
The Canucks’ efforts over the last week against the likes of the Sabres, Red Wings and Mammoth have been among their best of the season. But that good play only amounted to three goals across all those games, with the rest of their offence only showing up against the Minnesota Wild. Today, when it was all said and done, the Canucks had outshot their opponents by a ratio of 2-to-1, were on the wrong end of the score again.
Everyone sees the writing on the wall. The fans at Rogers Arena tonight could barely even muster an angry response, having been in this exact situation so many times before. And if recent history is any indicator, they know there’s no real hope coming.
There’s no way out of this cycle other than steering into the skid, a direction Canucks ownership has routinely been unwilling to go. But maybe – just maybe – a game like this will be the straw that breaks the camel’s back.
Or maybe it”ll be business as usual, taking shortcuts and aiming for the middle from now until the sun burns out. As a positive guy, I’m choosing to believe in the former.
After a loss like this, something’s gotta give.
Best Win-Win-Win
Best Fit Check
Thatcher Demko made his long-anticipated return to the Canucks’ lineup, and he did so with some new pads.
For those of you who are big pad design nerds like me, you were probably disappointed to see Demko take the net in plain white pads, as opposed to the more colourful black pads he paired with the Skate jersey at the start of the year.
Odds are that this was a choice that would make Ian Clark crack a smile: the old optical illusion that white pads create for shooters as they blend into the net behind them. How much it actually works is up for interpretation, but if the advantage is possible, why not take it? But it’s definitely the less fun choice.
Demko’s night wasn’t the smoothest ride. He definitely looked a bit rusty in his mechanics, was slow to get up after a few saves, and ended up allowing three goals on just 15 shots. I think getting rid of those cool Skate pads is to blame.
RIP, fun black, yellow and red pads. You shall be missed.
Best Foreshadowing
Best *Pitbull voice* Dah-lin
Rasmus Dahlin loves playing in Vancouver. It’s gotten to a point where he’s one of the longest point streaks an opposing player has had in this city, and it continued tonight thanks to some help from the Canucks’ defence.
It’s no secret that under Adam Foote this season, the Canucks have become overly reliant on the swarm defence approach, with players often surrounding the puck carrier from all angles as opposed to playing man-to-man coverage. And it just keeps burning them.
Tonight, on a Sabres zone entry that worked its way around Demko’s net, four Canucks all glided in towards the hashmarks. That choice left a wide open lane for Ryan McLeod to get a soft pass to Dahlin, who stepped into the top of the circles and fired a low knuckler that snuck under Demko.
If the Sabres are having that easy a time finding open ice against your defensive coverage, it’s time to toss those plans in the trash and try something new.
Best Fire with Fire?
Tom Willander’s night was mostly quiet, save for one ridiculous moment late in the first.
In the final minute in the Canucks’ zone, Jack Quinn tried to juke Willander out in the corner, and somehow managed to smack him right in the schnoz, cutting Willander open. The high stick threw him for such a loop that he fell over and his own stick caught Quinn in the face.
The referees got together, and decided that even though Quinn would be getting a double minor, Willander deserved a penalty too. For being high-sticked!
What’s he supposed to do? Aside from say, “I’m sorry my hands went up, I was literally smacked in the nose with a hockey stick?”
Was it the right call by the precise letter of the law? Sure. But it’s still a dumb call, and you may quote me on that.
Best Puck Don’t Lie
You know who else thought that penalty call was stupid? Kiefer Sherwood, because he wasted no time in erasing the deficit.
With the Canucks on a power play two minutes shorter than it should’ve been, Sherwood took the puck from Quinn Hughes and put a puck on goal that Alex Lyon got in front of. The rebound bounced out to Conor Garland, who couldn’t get it through the sticks in front, but by that time, the initial shooter had followed his own shot to the netfront.
“Coincidental minors, my ass,” he practically said with that goal.
That other sound you hear is Jim Rutherford calling the league’s GMs to let them know the price for Sherwood just went up by a second first round pick. And that’s such a deal for this franchise face, you’re practically robbing them!
Best Max Homeroom
As more and more centres have left the Canucks’ lineup, Max Sasson has been carrying more and more of the workload. Today, he took his turn in the Elias Pettersson, “bring the fans out of their seats” role.
This goal starts with Junior Pettersson smashing a zone exit from behind the net all the way to Jake DeBrusk waiting near the Canucks’ bench. As Josh Dunne closed in on Jake n Bake, he slipped the puck through the Sabres’ checker to the A-Sasson, who split the defence and slid the puck incredibly neatly through Lyon’s legs.
There haven’t been a whole lot of genuine success stories for the Canucks this year, but man, is Sasson really becoming one. He’ll certainly be part of any solution in the short term.
Best Oops, I did it again
Some people never make the same mistake twice. The Canucks, on the other hand, make the same mistake over and over again.
The Canucks swarming tactic once again led to a few too many checkers below the hashmarks, and this time it left Tage Thompson with far too much time and space at the top of the circles. And once he got the puck, nobody even made a real effort to rush him. They simply sat back and watched as Thompson fired the puck over Demko’s blocker.
If I ever see this defence again, it’ll be too soon.
Best Easy Bet-son

That one’s on Shorty. How many times did he have to mention that Benson stat?#Canucks

— Ian St. (@ian-st.bsky.social) 2025-12-12T04:32:16.839Z

Sometimes even the greats make mistakes. Today the oft infailable John Shorthouse made two.
One was thinking an earthquake had happened during the broadcast (though one did happen in Japan, so he might just be reaching god tier powers). The other was reminding everyone that Zach Benson hasn’t scored all year.
I made the same error in today’s Stanchies Pregame video, literally naming Zach Benson as a player to watch knowing he hadn’t yet found the back of the net. A rookie mistake.
Anyways, Benson waited for the slot to open up on the penalty kill as Doan fed him a quick pass from the goal line. Benson’s shot wasn’t the firmest, but it came off his stick fast enough that an “below game speed” Demko couldn’t cut the angle down in time.
In a completely unrelated story, Tom Willander played just 12 minutes of ice time and was a -1 in that time. And got totally jobbed on a high stick.
I don’t know whether or not this loss will officially close a chapter, but it would be a bit poetic to end on a Zach Benson game winner, no?
Best Lowering Trade Value
Quinn Hughes is secretly playing the long game. He doesn’t want to leave Vancouver, and he doesn’t want Sherwood to leave either.
That’s why he obviously purposefully ripped a bullet of a shot directly into the back of Sherwood’s leg at the end of the second period. After all, you can’t trade for an injured guy!
Look, I’m just reaching for any semblence of a life raft in the ocean at this point. Never let go, Jack.
Best Almost Nightmare
Thatcher Demko narrowly avoided the ultimate disaster early in the third.
With Buffalo’s Tyson Kozak pressing on the penalty kill, Demko made the decision to leave the net and play the puck. But he somehow shot it right into Kozak instead, sending the puck sailing backwards into the air. Luckily for Thatcher, Kozak had zero clue where the puck had gone until it was too late, and he ran out of real estate to tuck a shot into the empty net.
If that puck had gone in, this game might’ve ended with a few more boos than it did in a one goal game.
Best Lyon in the Snow
For what it’s worth, Alex Lyon did everything the Sabres asked of him in this game. The Canucks threw a lot of good shots his way, and while he didn’t goalie them, he did outplay the guy at the other end.
He even got to the puck he couldn’t find, like this Fil Hronek shot that he lied down to cover up.
Sometimes the smartest path to a save requires some mediation and self reflection.
Best Horseshoes and Hand Grenades
To borrow their coach’s favourite saying, The Canucks “were right there” in the last stages.
The closest the Canucks came to tying the game were both off the stick of Drew O’Connor. The first was thanks to a steal by Linus Karlsson off the stick of Connor Timmins. Karlsson threw a between the legs pass to Run-DOC to avoid a pokecheck from Lyon, but O’Connor couldn’t get a clean shot.
Then a few moments later, O’Connor got a small break off a pass from Arshdeep Bains and deked Lyon out, but once again rolled a nat one on finishing.
The Canucks worked for a few final chances, knowing the Oilers had managed to find a late tying goal during the Sabres’ last game. But these are not the two-time defending Western Champions. Far from it.
Sherwood took a few one-time opportunites, but the Sabres threw their entire bodies into the shooting lanes like King Harold protecting Shrek from the Fairy Godmother.
No one turned into a frog, but you might’ve heard a clock strike midnight on something else.
Best Star Promotion

They switched up the players on the ene of first intermission video. It used to be Boeser and that other guy. Now it's Hoggy and…. ? Can anyone help with my terrible face blindness?Not sure why the pic of the screen is so ass. Sorry.#Canucks

— Ryan avgtraveller (@viewfromtherog.bsky.social) 2025-12-12T04:03:40.482Z

Linus Karlsson is becoming such an integral part of the Canucks, that they went out of their way to film a new video segment with him and Nils Höglander in the style of the opening video.
If that doesn’t mean you’ve made it to the NHL for good, nothing will. Good for Linus.
Best It’s a Sign of the Times
Welcome to the final show, I hope you’re wearing your best clothes.

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