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The Stanchies: Canucks show some fight in 6-4 loss to Hurricanes
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Photo credit: © Bob Frid-Imagn Images
The Stanchion
Mar 5, 2026, 03:09 ESTUpdated: Mar 5, 2026, 03:34 EST
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It’s been so long since we’ve seen an entertaining game from the Vancouver Canucks that I had almost forgotten what it looked like. And if we’re being honest, 10 minutes into the game, I had resigned myself to another dull and tepid loss from the home club. Some would go so far as to say a lugubrious night was in store for us.
Not me, of course, but some would say.
But maybe the thrill of possibly being traded at Friday’s trade deadline and being freed from whatever hell you call this hockey team was enough to give a bit of zip to Adam Foote’s squad on Wednesday night, as they managed to claw back into a game they had no right being in. Hell, at one point Elias Pettersson skated with vim AND vigour, something I had long given up on seeing ever again.
It wasn’t just seeing Elias Pettersson dashing down the ice that gave fans a moment of pause. You had Linus Karlsson outworking his opponents and generating a goal. You had Brock Boeser scoring a power play goal. You had Marco Rossi playing perhaps his best game as a Vancouver Canuck. You had Drew O’Connor being Drew O’Connor, and I mean that in a good way. And with the price for right-handed defenceman being at a premium at this deadline, you couldn’t help but ponder “what if…” when you saw Hronek lead the team with a three-point night.
And yes, the score sheet says Jake DeBrusk played as well, so I will take its word for it.
Now, it wasn’t all roses and oat milk on the night. Vittorio Mancini drew into the lineup, but he basically got caved in all game long. Kevin Lankinen also found himself getting pulled after letting in four goals. And Conor Garland looked like he might have banged up his hand at one point during the game, which always makes people nervous approaching the trade deadline.
But in a season in which the thirst for first is all that matters, it was a fantastic tank game. The team showed a bit of pride in front of the home crowd and even put on a bit of a show in the 6-4 loss. Rogers Arena sounded far louder than it had any right to be, which just speaks to the fan base that is awaiting the pendulum to swing the other way.
So while we wait to see what other trades, if any, shake out by the end of the week, let’s sit back and enjoy one of the rare nights when Canucks hockey actually felt fun again.
Best see you in Valhalla
Before we begin, I want everyone to raise a glass of milk in honour of our Chaos Giraffe, and then try to slide on your stomach to break up a two-on-one. It’s what he would have wanted.
He never quite lived up to his first contract with the team, but despite being in the harsh spotlight of Vancouver, he never once wavered in being a pro’s pro. A lot of players would have withered under the unrelenting nature of this market during the down times, but he never shied away from tough questions, stood tall during the bad times, and also gave us some fun highlights over the years.
Even if half of them were chaotic as hell.
Still, he kicked the sh!t out of Duncan Keith on that hit, and for that, we will be forever grateful. Also, that time he blocked a shot with his balls to clinch the playoff series against the Nashville Predators. Or that time he dangled through the Jets zone to score a highlight reel goal. Or the fact that he was the best player at giving an immediate receipt to his opponent if he didn’t like your hit.
Plus, he actually seemed like he loved the team and the city, which is a rarity nowadays. With so many players quitting on this team (and fair enough, it’s not fun here, we get it), there was something endearing about Myers seemingly wanting to go down with the ship. The team had to basically White Fang him for his own good to get him to go on a playoff run in Dallas.
God speed, good sir, God speed.
Best holy energy
It sure felt like we were going to be in for a long night when Carolina scored just minutes into the game on the power play, after Sebastian Aho popped in a shot just outside the crease on a nice feed from K’Andre Miller:
As frustrating as Rick Tocchet hockey could be at times, I will say the man loved protecting the guts of the ice, something that has fallen by the wayside under Adam Foote. I thought the main differences between the two would just be “zip” vs. “juice” when talking about players needing energy, but alas, it appears the defensive structure of both coaches is more akin to Kitsilano Secondary being far superior to Lord Byng. At first glance, it looks like two similar high schools, but when you peer closer, you see the crumbling facade of burning garbage that is Byng.
Hail gold and blue forever.
Back to the goal, Marcus Pettersson slides away from the front of the net to chase down Miller, leaving room in front of the net, and Boeser doesn’t collapse quickly enough to get a stick on Aho.
End result: another power play goal given up by Vancouver. This is life without Derek.
And the first period just sort of continued with Carolina generating chance after chance while Vancouver responded with an energetic “Oh yeah, watch us dump the puck into the corner!!” pluckiness normally reserved for t-ball.
Even when Vancouver would succeed in said dumping, Carolina was able to transition and counterattack at high speeds, causing Vancouver issues in coverage, as is tradition. Kevin Lankinen had to be sharp to stop an Aho one-timer after Carolina exited their zone and set up in Vancouver’s zone rather quickly:
Vancouver didn’t help themselves early on, either, as a Brock Boeser fumble in his own zone led to Jackson Blake almost making it 2-0:
It’s not even a bad pass from D Elias Pettersson to Brock; it’s just when you’re losing this much every single night, I imagine even picking up a simple pass feels like the world’s greatest effort. It’s like when you’re depressed, and you know you’ve spiralled; sometimes, having a shower feels like a task better suited for being at the center of a mythological tale. Surely Hercules can do this, but not I. Not me, a mere mortal.
Carolina even started leaning on Vancouver physically during the opening frame, when Andrei Svechnikov ran over Conor Garland, which led to another high danger chance for the Hurricanes’ star forward:
You know you’re losing the battle when Jordan Staal is out here trying to dangle around your goalie:
On the night, the Hurricanes had 12 high-danger scoring chances to Vancouver’s three. They were, and are, clearly the better team.
But they also didn’t score enough early on, and you could kind of sense the Hockey Gods sitting up in their chairs a little bit as the first period wound down. Nobody enjoys grinding their high heel shoe in your stab wound more than a Hockey God who sees you flounder away too many scoring chances.
It started kind of slow, but you could see a bit of  life in the team when Liam Öhgren skated his bag off down the ice to try and generate a scoring chance:
And sure, their lone shot of the first period, 10 minutes in, was Marcus Pettersson from downtown:
But look, Dan Cloutier taught me to fear any shot, so I don’t want to discredit this as a scoring chance. Going full Nick Lidstrom can work. Sometimes goalies will for no reason whatsoever lazily reach out with their glove in a playoff game to stop the easiest shot in the world only to let it in, this is what I’ve been taught.
Soon enough, though, the Canucks were starting to look, I don’t want to say dangerous, that would be insulting to Darkwing Duck, but they were looking like they were knocking on the front door with purpose.
And who else but Öhgren to showcase some hope when he almost feathered a pass perfectly over to Brock Boeser on a two-on-one chance with around five minutes left in the period:
A couple of things to note about this play:
  • Marco Rossi makes a very smart play to step up and snake the puck away from Carolina. He sets this play in motion.
  • That pass from Öhgren is absolutely divine. Waits out Jaccob Slavin until he’s sliding on the ice, then curls his wrists just enough to send the puck back under the skates of the Canes d-man. I don’t know who was more surprised the pass got through, Slavin or Boeser.
All of which led to…
Best bang for your buck
After holding onto dear life, the NHL tends to give you a power play if it’s early in the game. I don’t make the rules; I just follow what Colin Campbell screams about in emails to his subordinates.
And with the man advantage, the Canucks looked downright competent. After moving the puck all around the offensive zone, Marco Rossi flung the puck across the crease only to see the puck deflect in off of Slavin’s stick behind Bussi:
Bit of luck in that goal? Sure. But you take that any day of the week over what we’ve seen in the last month.
Best play of the game
The Canucks second score of the night was the goal of the game for me. It ends with Drew O’Connor finding Fil Hronek for the one timer, but Linus Karlsson played a central role in this goal:
Karlsson played so well early on in the season that he earned himself a new contract, and it felt justified. He works hard around the net and has a good enough skill set to do a bit of damage on the score sheet.
But I also kind of forgot he existed because, honestly, the team has been such a bag of sadness for so long now that it’s hard to watch a month of losing and be like, “Oh man, when is Karlsson gonna get going again?” You watch this team, and you mostly want to have a nap.
On this goal, though, you see him make the nice pass to Drew to set up the initial rush, and more importantly, you see Karlsson follow the play and fight for body position so he can get the puck back when it bounces towards the corner. He then finds DOC once more, who circles the net to find Fil Hronek, and baby, now you’ve got a trade deadline stew going.
Just a great play overall from Linus, and a solid effort from DOC as always.
Also, yes, that was an official piss missile from Fil the Pill.
Best summary for visual learners
Best stop playing with your food
The second period is where you kind of felt like Earth was healing, as Carolina asserted their dominance on the game by way of goals, many goals.
First things first, they made sure to erase Vancouver’s lead after a bad bounce off of Elias Pettersson’s stick led to Sean Walker scoring from the slot:
I don’t think Vancouver did anything egregious on this play, but I do think Kevin Lankinen probably wants that shot back. Sometimes bad luck is bad luck, however, so you can sort of write this one off.
Best stonks crashing
Former friend turned foe Jalen Chatfield would then dial up Stall with a long-distance pass, who would enter the Canucks zone and softly slide a pass for Nikolaj Ehlers to skate into:
Teddy Blueger and Zeev Buium don’t provide the tightest coverage on the play, but they do switch off properly, so the fundamentals were there. But you get worried any time a guy like Ehlers gets a shooting lane to open up like that for him.
That being said, that’s another shot Lankinen probably wants back, as he makes himself both small in the net and too far over in his crease, opening up daylight for the Hurricanes forward.
That being said, that’s a fantastic shot from Ehlers, so sometimes you do, in fact, have to give credit to the bad guys.
That being said, that’s a lot being said.
Carolina would then almost score again off a similar play, when Slavin dialled up a long clearing pass that Seth Jarvis was able to skate onto before hitting the post with a shot:
That’s the kind of play where you get nervous watching a goalie in net as you wonder if they’re engaged in a deep battle of self-loathing with themselves.
Unless that’s just me, I just assume all goalies are like me, where everything is my fault, and I wonder why I chose this life.
Best good
I was watching a highlight package of Andrei Kuzmenko and Elias Pettersson goals, and I honestly had forgotten that EP40 used to dance down the ice and score on mid-range shots all the time. He would just walk in and boop; that’s a goal.
And while we won’t overcelebrate a shot, I will say it was nice to see some signs of that old EP40 on this night. He actually skated end to end and beat three players before unleashing a solid shot on net at one point:
The bar is low, and I know the weight of the 11.6 world he chose to live in, but this is the path he needs to keep going down. Hopefully, the Canucks can find a way to keep this going, whether that is under a new coaching staff or not.
Best bad
Conor Garland would leave the game briefly after getting smacked into the boards by Walker, but he would later return:
I just naturally assume he’s always beat up and kind of broken, so this wasn’t too worrying.
Best ugly
Vittorio Mancini did not have a good night. He also played this Canes fourth goal very poorly, as he gave up the GOTI to Aho for reasons (bees?):
He initially has the middle of the ice, but the high pass gets knocked down out of the air by Aho, which is what throws Mancini off. That being said, this is why the cautious play would be to just maintain the middle of the ice, so it doesn’t matter which direction Aho takes the puck.
That being said, I would like to refer to the “Kevin wants that back, but also hey, good shot” argument from the third goal, except this time it led to Kevin getting pulled for Nikita Tolopilo.
Not many goalies can survive the third “I bet he wishes he had that one back” goal, and Lankinen was no different on this night.
Best like really ugly
Carolina looked like it had put the game away with their fifth of the night, after Max Sasson failed to get the puck in deep, leading to Ehlers scoring on the counterattack:
Straight up, I can’t get mad about a double-tap goal. I just can’t. I will giggle and clap anytime someone fakes a slapshot only to unleash a shot mere seconds later. I love the counterattack, loved it when Garland did it in the playoffs, and I love it here. It just has so much flair to it. I score that in beer league, I am walking into work the next day, and I am slapping my boss, that’s how out of control it would be.
Best reaction shot
Max Sasson shaking his head after failing a task at work, then taking a moment to stare into the abyss, never has this team felt more relatable.
Best trending upwards
With the game seemingly out of reach, the Canucks managed to find themselves with an extended five-on-three power play situation. I didn’t expect much because the Canucks power play is not something I enjoy spending time with on an elevator, but Marco Rossi fed Boeser with a perfect pass to make it a two-goal game:
I like how they just forgo the whole idea of passing the puck all over the ice and instead, Hronek and Rossi just play back and forth until a seam opens up. This was the first game I have watched Rossi in a Canucks uniform where I was like “ohhhh there’s the player who got 60 points in a season.” He might not be a line driver, and the Canucks clearly need a ton more talent everywhere in the lineup, but you can see the vision with Rossi.
Boeser would then almost score again before the period was up when a random shot on net almost found its way behind Bussi:
You could see the team had jump at this point, they weren’t just going to take their pity goal and grind down the clock. The third period started, and almost immediately Drew O’Connor, perhaps inspired by Öhgren’s earlier pass attempt, feathered a pass around a diving defenceman over to Conor Garland for the tap-in attempt:
It was weird, it was like the Caseams didn’t want to lose? That on some level, they wanted to win? It was a foreign feeling.
Best things got a bit weird
Jordan Staal must be so mad about this play. Dude smacks a puck out of the air for a baseball goal, only to see David Kämpf baseball bat the puck right back at him:
Someone’s been playing Pickleball…
Max Sasson then almost scored, purely using “eff all of this” energy after his earlier mistake cost his team a goal:
Look at us having fun! Who would have thought?
Best feel good moment of the night
Luck finally went Nils Höglander’s way when EP40’s shot broke Slavin’s stick, which led to Pettersson passing around the fallen d-man to find Nils for the goal:
That would be the third point for Fil the Pill and the second of the night for Elias. More importantly, that’s just a really nice play from Elias. He draws in multiple players, which opens up the shooting lane for Nils, and I don’t have to say how relieved Höglander must feel right now. Nils was really starting to mount some real punch energy on the season, so it’s nice that the other monkeys finally accepted him into the group.
Best going out on your shield
With under six minutes left, Carolina actually looked like they were holding on for dear life, which was a nice change of pace around here?
Teddy Blueger made a really nice zone entry only to cut back and find Brock Boeser in a perfect spot for a shot:
Defensive-minded Elias Pettersson ramped up the physical play by absolutely laying out Jalen Chatfield along the boards:
Conor Garland then found Elias Pettersson for a shot in the slot:
And you’re god damn right Drew O’Connor rushed the puck down the ice and crashed the net because that is what he God damn does:
And the best chance of the game, with the goalie pulled, was when Elias Pettersson rushed down the ice like a young Elias Pettersson, and lobbed a pass to Drew O’Connor in the slot that he Gabe Landeskog’d:
We just haven’t seen much of that EP40 this season. Him taking the puck and skating confidently down the ice, and more importantly, not falling at the first touch. That pass is the kind of setup that an elite finisher probably does more with (no offence to DOC), but at least the process is there. If Elias Pettersson is on the ice with the goalie pulled, and he is going end to end and setting up a linemate for a one-timer bomb in the slot, you can’t get mad at it.
Best that’s all she wrote
Ultimately, the Canucks did the right thing and lost the game for the tank. They were such good hosts, they even let Ehlers get the empty net goal for the hat trick:
I will admit, I laughed watching Elias Pettersson, goalie at heart, try to do a barrel rolling pad stack to stop the shot, only to take out Hronek. I can only hope to find love one day the way Elias Pettersson loves trying to make saves.
Best good but also bad said in a Troy Barnes voice
Best sobering thought
Not quite the race I imagined EP40 and JT Miller thought they’d find themselves in this season, but here we are.
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