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The Stanchies: Canucks’ season closes with a whimper in 6-1 loss to Oilers
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Photo credit: © Perry Nelson-Imagn Images
The Stanchion
Apr 17, 2026, 02:40 EDT
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Mercifully, the 2025-26 Vancouver Canucks season has finally come to an end. And what better way to do it than with a 6-1 loss at the hands of the Edmonton Oilers?
Ok, scratch that, there are a million better ways to close out a losing season than losing to Edmonton:
  • Canucks win on the back of a Curtis Douglas five-goal game, forever known as going “Full Dougy” moving forward.
  • Fil Hronek and Connor McDavid decide to arm wrestle at centre ice to decide the game. Debates ensued whether Connor should have been disqualified for using a ‘King’s Move’ to win the contest, resulting in days of heated online arguments, causing Edmonton to miss their first round series against Anaheim.
  • Liam Ohgren announces his retirement from hockey so he can take up his true passion in life, opening up a bakery called “Muffin Farts”. Although the name is slightly edgy, the daring mascot in the form of a muffin running around blasting sweet scents out of its rear end into people’s faces wins over public opinion.
Those are just three ideas off the top of my head, and I am sure there are plenty more, but you have to play the cards you’ve been dealt, so we shall suffer through one final horrifying loss to put this season to bed. In fact, the only thing not surprising about the end of this season was that Adam Foote didn’t pull the goalie halfway through the third period when down multiple goals, so at least we have that?
Now, we’ve seen Rick Bowness and Todd McLellan give fire-laden, anger-fueled tirades after being blown out in the last games of their season, seen as a call to the team that this isn’t good enough, and that the fan base deserves better.
Which probably makes you wonder what Adam Foote had up his sleeve after watching Edmonton essentially pat Vancouver on the head and tell them it was bed time:
Obviously Foote is in a different position in that his hopes and dreams of a post-season run didn’t blow up in his face down the stretch, but I’m not sure “He was never in the playoff race to begin with, so he never had a chance to fumble that badly” is the defence we all want it to be.
Despite the horrendous season, the Canucks did cut off a lot of the fat so to speak, kicking out the veterans who helped, or were unable to prevent, the culture around the team that led to the complete and utter implosion of the Quinn Hughes era. There is some glimmers of hope that even if the Canucks lose for a couple of seasons, at least it will be a team you can get behind instead of religiously watching their social media accounts trying to figure out who hates who in any given week.
Still, going off vibes alone, I continue to find myself thinking the organization needs a clean start from the bench upwards, replacing the leadership that also stood idly by while impatiently waiting for everything to sort itself out while the team dive bombed into the ground. It’s hard to have confidence in a President and an assistant-to-the-President GM who created the premise for the reboot of Sliding Doors based on their snap decision to go with JT Miller over Bo Horvat.
As with all things, however, the buck does tend to stop at the owner. We’ve talked about it endlessly this season so we won’t get too deep into it, but I am begging ownership to focus on the right objectives next season, just forget all the white noise. Don’t micromanage every single decision anyone in your organization makes. Stop worrying about controlling the message and just focus on doing your thing. Let your employees cook.
It feels like the hand gripping the wheel has never been tighter, and when that corresponds with the worst season ever, you just have to hope that’s a come to Jesus moment for them.
Because at the end of the day, I truly think the owners have taken the fan base for granted, and I think that sense of entitlement has played a large part in the last several years. The team has never felt more removed from the fan base before this year’s trade deadline, there was just this air of almost “you’re lucky we let you watch us play hockey” that seemed to have settled in all over the org. Everything from the ticket prices going up any chance they could, to their handling of the press row situation, to the players themselves just not being as involved with the community, to even the media scrums, which even if you think they aren’t that important, it was kind of weird when players acted like it was the world’s biggest favour to ask them to answer a handful of questions.
And that’s the rub, despite all of that, the fans still love this damn team. They truly do. They’re still here after one of the God awful worst seasons of all time, and there are still tons of them looking towards the future. I don’t know if the owners know just how good they have it, or maybe they do, and they use that to their advantage, but you have to lean into the fan base and bring them into your inner circle.
At the end of the day, I am just hopeful the team realizes so many of the easy things they can do to get the fan base on board to ride or die with them through the next few years. Start opening up the room, get involved with the community, let your social media team show off the personalities of the players. There is a reason Tyson Cole’s video clip of the “fight club” practice was met with so much excitement, because it’s showcasing the players doing their thing. Fans want to be part of the ride, plain and simple, and giving full access to that is an easy win.
You also need to create that emotional bond and show that you’re an organization that wants to win a Stanley Cup for this fan base, and not just someone who wants to brag about their trophy case to other owners. Are you one of us, or are you some rich guy who wants a new toy?
Which leads me to my last and most important point: admit your mistakes. Own up to your bad decisions. You’ll be amazed what can happen when you follow the Strombone game plan. Self deprecation is a badge of honour in Vancouver and nothing makes you feel like an outsider quicker to us than when you pretend you’re always right. Stop fighting the fans and start joining them, and I promise you, your PR will improve.
OK, enough screaming into the wind, let’s head back one more time into the season that couldn’t even give us the dignity of 50 losses, stalling out at 49.
Best reason
There were two reasons to watch this game, one was to see if Vancouver could win and force Edmonton into a first round match up against Colorado, and the second was, yes, the humiliation ritual we all partook in which we wondered just how bad would it need to get for us to stop watching.
Best at least it ended early
The Oilers started things off hot and heavy when Colton Dach walked around Defensive Enthusiast of the Year Elias Pettersson not once, but twice, leading to Joshua Samanski shooting a loose puck in off of the foot of Kirill Kudryavtsev:
Obviously some bad luck on the play with Kudryavtsev’s stick breaking and the puck going in off of his foot, but I do have to say I am really intrigued by the idea of this young Canucks defensive corps playing under a new coach/new system.
We’ve talked about it all year, only Hronek seems to understand what Foote wants from this team, but man alive it feels like there have been a lot of large steps backwards from the rearguards on this team. DP25 alone feels unrecognizable from what he was doing last season, where it just feels like he’s not only guessing most of the time, but guessing poorly. He’s the guy on “Deal or No Deal” going out on the first briefcase every game at this point.
Don’t get me wrong, I love the snarl DP25 brings to the team. He’s one of the first guys to take umbrage when the opposition crosses any lines, real or imagined, and I always have time for that kind of attitude on the team.
But in his own zone, I have just watched DP25 make some terrible reads and you have to wonder if a new system will help lock him in better.
Now, the Oilers would then get another scoring chance when Connor McDavid stole the puck in the Canucks’ zone, unleashing a backhander on net, but Kevin Lankinen denied him:
Which is kind of pathetic, when you think about it. Who is Connor McDavid to say he’s going to put up points against the Vancouver Canucks, a team that recently beat the Colorado Avalanche? And it’s not just me saying it, it’s Sports Illustrated saying it. Bleacher Report said it.
OK wait, I’ve read the box score and yep, McDavid got four assists.
So here’s the thing, treasure this video clip because the odds are high it’s one of the few highlights you see that doesn’t involve McDavid getting a point. For one brief moment in this game, it truly felt like McDavid might only get a single point.
Best something to play for
There are probably a couple of things more motivating that trying to avoid playing Colorado in the first round, but I can’t think of them at the moment. Bees? Maybe bees.
Either way, it was clear on this night that Edmonton wanted to win decisively so they didn’t have to fart around with possibly facing Nate Dogg right away, and it was equally clear that Vancouver was pretty ok with letting things play out how they may.
I don’t want to say Vancouver quit in this game because that would mean that they had started at some point?
Regadless, Matty Savoie, traitor to Buffalo, gave the Oilers a two goal cushion when Vancouver decided that watching McDavid skate with the puck for a few hours was the right approach to defence:
You can literally watch the entire team just sort of move in unison together, like a pack of migrating birds, as they tracked the puck. Which was beautiful in its own way, mind you.
Sadly, despite having three skaters down low to the Oilers’ two, somehow Savoie still found himself wide open for the tap-in due to the fact that yeah, watching McDavid skate literal circles around you tends to take up your time and attention.
Best dawg time
One of the few highlights for Vancouver from this game was the continued push back from Vancouver when it comes to dropping gloves and standing up for the boys and/or strongly worded insults.
DP25 was the first to chuck fists with Dach, and even though it wasn’t much of a fight, you can still appreciate the vibes of the situation:
At this point we’re getting Wrestlemania-style storyline build ups to with random people fighting for reasons I’m not quite sure add up or make sense, but I am just here for the ride.
Best smallest push back of all time
The Canucks offence on this night, a game in which they achieved 12 shots total, was comprised of three things: A Linus Karlsson shot, a Marco Rossi shot, and a randomly incredible highlight reel goal from Ty Mueller.
First up, we have Elias Pettersson working behind the net to find a wide open Karlsson in the slot, who was denied by Connor Ingram, aka the guy who once publicly roasted me last year for not believing in Jordan Binnington, to which I thought “Well, we’ll see who’s laughing when Canada loses the Four Nations Cup due to Jordan playing poorly!” which I then had to eat all of the shit as Binnington stood on his absolute head for Canada:
Goalie Union: 1 Stanchie: 0.
Best where did that come from
Ser Douglas the Tall has earned himself a contract for next season in my humble opinion, if not for the team’s reaction to his first career goal earlier this week, but because now he’s out here saucing passes across the neutral zone like he’s the Federation trying to avoid detection from the Romulans:
Now, let’s talk about that finish from Ty Mueller, because my goodness you could not come up with a sexier first career goal if you tried. The dude basically combined Pavel Bure and Alex Mogilny by kicking the puck with his skate before finishing off Ingram with a vicious five hole goal that left Connor staring down at the ice having to come to terms with what just happened.
Make no mistake about it, this was an absolutely brutal game of hockey from Vancouver, with very little in the way of entertainment.
Except for this goal. This goal was filthy.
Best over before it began
Lest you think the Canucks had a comeback of sorts in them, Matty Savoie got back to work when he scored his second of the game, this time after a failed shorthanded Drew O’Connor rush resulted in an Edmonton counter attack:
Tom Willander once again just sort of forgets half the ice exists as he gets caught up in McDavid watching, allowing Savoie to score what is basically a mirror image of his first goal. Has there been an easier hat trick in the NHL? I’m not sure.
Best onwards and upwards
If you thought scoring two goals that looked exactly the same was bad, don’t worry because it gets worse! Savoie would complete his hat trick after, you guessed it, Tom Willander and friends decided “sure, watching McDavid skate with the puck didn’t work the first two times, but surely it will work this time!”, allowing Connor to skate around until he could find a wide open Matty at the side of the net:
Nils Höglander went full Hulk Hogan on this goal, as I assume defense didn’t work for him, brother, as he sort of watches this entire sequence play out, allowing Savoie all the time in the world to finish his hatty.
Best at least we have fight club
I didn’t have Drew O’Connor standing up for Marcus Pettersson on my Bingo card, but I am here for it:
Again, not much of a fight, but you can appreciate the intentions behind it. At the very least this build up gets you on night one of Wrestlemania.
Drew has to win because he’s angry people think the other guy is better, or something like that.
Best second period summary
You want the good news? We’re almost done. I’ll be damned if I am going to clip highlights of nothing but Oilers for the last game of the season, which would pretty much be the case considering Vancouver’s offense was missing in action.
For posterity, however, he is Ryan Nugent-Hopkins batting a puck out of the air on the power play like he’s Jake DeBrusk or something, to give the Oilers a 5-1 lead:
The Canucks lone response in this period, the single high danger chance registered? Marco Rossi getting a dangerous shot off just outside the crease off of a great play from Drew O’Connor:
lone chance was Rossi from DOC
For my money, Drew O’Connor was absolutely robbed of the most exciting player award this season. It feels like people voted Zeev Buium because his potential was the most exciting thing to come out of the Quinn Hughes trade, but for actual on ice excitement, it was DOC all day every day.
Which hey, the bar is low, I get that, but you have to give the man his dues. I have seen countless games like this one where the Canucks have been absolute dog shit, yet Drew O’Connor is out there generating breakaways or winning a forecheck and setting a guy up for a scoring chance.
In a season in which nothing much went right for this team, Drew O’Connor was remarkably consistent in the effort level he brought each and every night.
The Canucks could be down 31-0 and I would bet all of my money that Drew O’Connor would generate a high danger scoring chance in the third period, that’s all I’m saying.
Best pray for Mojo
Dach finished the night of scoring for Edmonton in the third period when somehow the Canucks once again had three guys down low yet still lost the battle to two players:
Meanwhile the only highlight in the third period from Vancouver was Liam Öhgren going full Olympics Mario Lemieux by letting a pass go through his own legs on purpose:
And that, my friends, is the last highlight of the night from this game.
Be free.
Best one last thought
To all the readers and fans who interacted with me over the season, I truly thank you. This was a draining season for all of us, and I appreciate the ones who stuck around to gut this one out. Without the readers there is no point to any of this, so thank you for giving me a reason to write, even on the nights when the team refused to give me any.
We move forward to the draft now, and although I think we’ve already accepted the Canucks getting the third overall pick (get your ironic Trevor Linden shocked Pikachu faces ready), part of me really hopes this team lands the top pick. Not because it guarantees anything in terms of future success, but just because it would be nice for the fans to get a win, no matter how trivial it might end up being.
This fan base deserves some hope, and what better way than to start by making this 49 loss season mean something. To all those who are fans of this team, to all of those loved ones who are no longer here to watch the games with us, let’s hope that the draft is the start of what my friend Botch once talked about, of the pendulum swinging back the other way.
Peace out, see you next season.
Best look ma, we made it

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