Canucks Army
CanucksArmy has no direct affiliation to the Vancouver Canucks, Canucks Sports & Entertainment, NHL, or NHLPA

The Stanchies: Canucks put up solid 20 minutes of hockey in 5-1 loss to Rangers

The Stanchies: Canucks put up solid 20 minutes of hockey in 5-1 loss to Rangers
Photo credit: Bob Frid-Imagn Images
The Stanchion
Nov 14, 2026, 01:34 ESTUpdated: Nov 14, 2026, 02:04 EST
Comments
After the loss against the Philadelphia Flyers, it felt like a bit of a boiling point on the season. Losing comes with the rebuild; everyone understands that, but losing in that fashion against Rick Tocchet just felt a little too bleak, even for this city. If you can’t get up for a revenge game, you do find yourself questioning the resolve of everyone involved.
So the chatter of the team needing to put in a better effort was pushed to the forefront, and I happily include myself in that group. Effort is free, as it is the one currency a rebuilding team can offer up to a fan base dying to have a reason to keep showing up. You might lose a lot of games, but if some dude is out there throwing body checks and grinding for pucks in the crease even when the team is getting rag-dolled on the scoreboard, generally you can get away with a lot in this town.
The Sedins also held a media session earlier this week to discuss their outlook on the rebuild, and it echoed sort of the same sentiment. The aura was akin to that “our expectations were low, but holy **** meme, just in terms of expecting the team to figure out how to show up for a full sixty minutes at some point here. Stern Dad mode was basically on full display, both in terms of holding the fort, but also wanting more out of this group.
The main quote that got all the buzz was Henrik Sedin’s discussion on draft picks. “You can’t just add picks, you have to build your team with players as well. There’s a constant dialogue between us and RJ and the staff, and we’re looking daily to improve our team, there’s no question. We’re looking at all players. But again, we’re not going to just trade away players to get more draft picks, because you still need a better product on the ice and guys to support our young guys coming in.”
Jim Benning left a healthy dose of PTSD on this town, so when some read that, they took it as the Sedins holding onto all veterans and not looking to add draft picks.
Now, nobody but the Twins know their plan, but I view it as Hank being Hank. This is a guy who once lost a game by six goals and without blinking, said if a couple of bounces go their way, that could have been a win. He looked me in the eye once and said that, and I just nodded along, not truly believing him, but it did ease the furor around the result of the game. It’s what good leaders do.
My point is, the guy doesn’t let you see him bleed. So I think he is going to be very cagey about what he does say about whatever future plans they have, which is a nice change of pace from Jim Rutherford lighting the dialogue around Quinn Hughes on fire, and Patrick Allvin laughing ruefully as he discussed the terrible offers Brock Boeser was bringing in at the trade deadline. Ultimately, actions speak louder than words, so all you can do at this point is ride this season out and see what Ryan Johnson and the Sedins end up doing moving forward, but I feel confident they will end up bringing in more draft lottery tickets.
There was also some talk of how this city can’t handle a rebuild because people are angry just 20 games in. If they can’t handle it now, what about when it’s game eighty??
I personally don’t agree with that outlook; this city can handle a rebuild just fine. It has recently endured Jim Benning, a generational locker room fallout, Colin Campbell supporting his son a little too hard in 2011, Tim Thomas’ illegal pads, the Jim Rutherford retirement tour, and DJ Barron S; it can survive anything at this point. I think it’s fair to want a consistent effort from your team and to have standards to strive for. If losing games becomes accepted, I truly think that sinks into your mentality, so pushback, even from the white noise surrounding the team, is a good thing. If anything, it shows the fans still care, which the team desperately needs right now.
All of which brings us to the game against the Rangers, in which the Canucks lost 5-1. The theme of the game was like all the others: one solid period of hockey followed by a confusing brand of puck and stick that had you wondering just what exactly you were watching.
At times I’m not sure if it’s a lack of effort, or if it’s a lack of talent, or if it’s a lack of mental strength, but it’s probably some combination of the three that leads to the Canucks absolutely spiralling out of control this season. I think it’s fair to say that when games start slipping away from the Canucks, they just have no way of stopping it. Whether it’s them feeling sorry for themselves or just a complete lack of ability to keep up with seemingly every other single team in the NHL, the end results are often ugly, like they were on Friday night.
That being said, it is a rebuilding season, so the losses are still marching them down the right path. Finding top elite talent is your best way out of this hole, so anything that adds to that is technically a good thing. Having a mere seven points into the season is incredible, but also exactly what is going to help potentially secure said talent in the draft.
Will the losing hurt the value of veterans you could ship out for draft picks? You’d have to think so, yes. But I also don’t think there is much they can do about that, barring trades they could have made in the offseason. At this point, the Canucks death spiral is firmly in the spotlight, so I don’t envy the job of Ryan Johnson come trade deadline. Maximizing the value of the worst team in the league feels like a quest to get a Drakefire Amulet, but that’s what lies ahead.
In the meantime, we will jump into this game that had a perfectly good first period before it turned into the cantaloupe of games it always tends to evolve into.
Zeev Buium had his best period (offensively) as a Canuck? Elias Pettersson scored his first 5-on-5 goal since the Carter administration? Those were the main talking points before it all fell apart.
Or we could just talk about World of Warcraft: Forever?
In this essay, I will discuss the heinous crime of Darnassus housing foundations being too high to jump onto from the side.
Best proving Dad wrong
The Canucks didn’t exactly hit the ice like a plains-running Tauren, making a mockery of earning enough money for a mount, as they looked a bit hesitant at first. The Rangers jumped on this as JT Miller sent a puck on Leevi Meriläinen that led to a bit of a scramble in the crease:
The Canucks inability to box out and/or control the stick of the opposition has led to moments like these often ending up in the back of their net, but not on this play. They fought back, grinded for the puck, and made sure to clear it away from their goaltender. I don’t know if it made Hank and Dank proud, but damn it, I was happy for them.
Not much longer after that, however, Zeev Buium’s defensive issues reared their head, as Alexis Lafrenière would cut hard to the middle of the ice, leaving Buium in the dust, giving the Rangers forward open ice into the slot:
Brock Boeser thwarted the plan with a nice shot block, but even in what was Buium’s best period of hockey in a Canucks uniform, the big mistakes on defence are still showing up. Obviously when a team is in a death spiral, everything is going to be magnified. Maybe on a team with more depth you could shelter Buium so he’s not out here playing 24 minutes of hockey a night against the other team’s best players, but it is what it is at the moment. Sometimes you just have to put your young child on the Skytrain station and hope they find their way home (that’s how it works, right?).
The good news is that, as you will see, at least Buium looked dynamic in the offensive zone, which helps offset the mental lapses on the back end. This was the first game where you saw some of that draft profile that got him taken in the first round by Minnesota, and it’s something the Canucks need to keep seeing more of as the season progresses. I believe they call it “hope.”
The other good news is Lafrenière could never deke and dangle around the Canucks, and in fact, it’s a bit embarrassing that he even thought that was possible.
Best standing up for yourself
You tend to watch games that Filip Chytil plays in with the bar being “please don’t get hurt” as a sign of victory, as he has become the poster child for bad luck. If someone throws a piece of popcorn on the ice, you just know some sort of Final Destination stuff is going to gear up and start staring down the former New York Ranger.
And I won’t lie, when Paul Cotter skated towards Filip, I was worried for his safety, only to find out Chytil has a bit of that dawg in him:
Fantastic technique, shoulder to chest, takes Paul down cleanly — 10/10, no notes.
Best I hope you had the time of your life
As mentioned, Elias Pettersson and Zeev Buium looked very good in the opening frame.
I can’t remember the last time Elias Pettersson just straight up bull-dogged the puck towards the net off of a zone entry, but I am here for it:
Ironically, that is probably the very play Rick Tocchet was begging for from EP40; that play is so North/South it hurts, AND it involves the guts of the ice. That is straight up NSFW content for the former Canucks coach.
Over to Buium, he had a puck retrieval in his own zone in which he made a quick cut and skated down the ice with possession, which felt nice:
Fends off the stick, uses a nice burst of speed to avoid the back check, and gets a zone entry with possession. That’s the sort of play I thought I would be seeing a lot of from Zeev, but we just haven’t come across it much during his time here in Vancouver, so it was good to see it on display, even if it was for only a period.
And perhaps inspired by old friend Nils Höglander’s between-the-legs goal from two nights ago, Linus Karlsson attempted his own version but was ultimately denied by Victoria traitor native Dylan Garand:
I don’t mean to oversell the first period; it wasn’t as if Vancouver was lighting the world on fire, but for a team that hasn’t won since the McBarge was the talk of the town, these are the moments you have to treasure. Otherwise, you’re wondering why you have that signed Kyle Wellwood jersey in your closet, and you don’t want to pull at that thread. Not now.
Best even strength moral victories
At least Elias Pettersson found a way to score at five-on-five, and it came off of a (deft) tip on a Zeev Buium point shot:
EP40 battles hard in the corner, and the puck eventually finds its way to the point as a result of said work, allowing Buium to skate in and throw the puck into traffic. And that, folks, is how you make a baby. Or score a goal; one or the other.
It’s positive to see Buium get that puck, skate confidently into the slot area, and just shoot relatively quickly on net. Again, we haven’t seen much of Buium’s offensive upside this season, which often just leaves us with the bad things.
Speaking of the bad things Jeremy couldn’t remember, even on a night in which Zeev’s swagger was very much locked and loaded, the young defenceman still had some pretty visible gaffs in his own zone. One of which forced Leevi Meriläinen to commit the crime of larceny, to the point that I am actually worried he might go to jail:
The victim in this case was Noah Laba, who has the fun fact of being someone not from BC who didn’t score in his hometown, which just feels nice, you know?
To Buium’s credit, though, he didn’t let it faze him, as he was out there on the next shift showing a little dingle dangle in his step, pulling upon the power of the Air up There to Kevin Bacon his way along the blueline:
Again, not massive moments, but just small things where you find yourself nodding your head going “yes, yes, this is a thing that I like.”
Best well that was fun
With the period winding down, Gabe Not Gilbert Perrault ended up tying the game after a JT Miller board battle led to the puck finding young Gabe in front of the net under the stern watch of Fil Hronek:
Bit of a bang-bang play; the Canucks probably gave a little too much time and space to ol’ Gabe, but also a pretty slick shot as well from the Rangers forward.
Though I will say it was weird that JT was chirping Elias Pettersson after the Rangers goal? Instead of celebrating with his teammates, he was just looking over at EP40, barking away, and it’s just like, what the hell happened? Why do you two dislike each other so much? This can’t be healthy to be carrying that around.
Did Pettersson beat you in a Rust 1v1? I’m so confused about wanting to tea bag a dude who is clearly being punished enough by the Hockey Gods this season.
Best stat padding
Tom Willander returned to the Canucks and had the ultimate “I didn’t even notice him, so that’s a good thing” defenceman game.
Best breaking hearts and ankles
A major highlight of the game? Leevi Meriläinen breaking Alexis Lafrenière’s ankles with the kind of smooth puck control normally reserved for the Breville Bambino:
Once again, I find it disgusting that Lafrenière thought he could take the puck and potentially deke right around Leevi. The arrogance of the man to think that was possible; it’s just off the charts. That is not a good look.
Regardless, the Canucks did show a bit of pushback in the second period before it all fell apart, as Jake DeBrusk and Linus Karlsson went hard to the blue paint, which is always appreciated by the Ajax Steel Mill:
But the cracks were starting to show a little bit. The Rangers were starting to tilt the ice, and once again Zeev Buium found himself in trouble, this time as Eeli Tolvanen nutmegged him on a zone entry:
This one didn’t end in a goal against, but don’t worry, many of them are coming.
So many.
Best he’s not wrong
JT Miller has that heel DNA in him where you can tell he truly gets off on people booing him. You want to scream and yell at him; that stuff just makes him get laser-focused. The dude is a Sith; he is fueled by anger.
So it was no surprise when, on the power play, the boos bounced off of the Rangers captain, as he almost went into a Zen-like state, allowing him to find a wide-open Oliver Bjorkstrand for his seventh goal of the season:
The Canucks penalty kill continues to be not great, as Max Sasson collapses the diamond to defend Ty Kartye at the net, which ends up leaving Oliver wide open.
There’s not much Leevi can do on that shot either, as it’s the equivalent of a guy in the NBA getting a wide-open three for five seconds; you can see them lock in the shot and you just know it’s nothing but net.
Best gone baby gone
Glenn Gawdin, aka Richmond Glenn, played his first NHL game back in 2020 for the Calgary Flames.
He has since played a total of 15 NHL games, but the fact remains: he is from BC. Which means you just knew he wasn’t leaving this game without scoring his first career goal.
And what better way to score than to have Leevi pass the puck to Chytil, and not be sure whether Filip was doing a no-look pass or simply couldn’t handle the raw power of the Canucks goaltender?
Either way, it led directly to a turnover that Richmond Glenn happily scored upon:
That is ugly. Just a truly horrible goal. If the Canucks were spiralling after the second goal, they were absolutely toast after this one. You could almost see their brains shut off and the “woe is me” aura take control at that point.
The New York Rangers bench, by comparison, looked a bit happier?
One day there will be a world in which this isn’t the norm. One day.
Best it’s Joever
The good news is that at least Lafrenière didn’t score a highlight reel dangle, because the idea of that is ludicrous:
Oh. I see.
Ok.
Yeah, at this point I don’t know if the Canucks mood could sink any lower, but it probably did just a tiny bit after that goal.
Went from Brendan Gallagher on the world’s slowest rush to a counterattack resulting in the Rangers executing a beautiful 3-on-2 rush normally reserved for laid-back practices.
I don’t know if Brendan Gallagher is an everyday NHL player at this point, which feels bad writing that, but it’s been a quarter of a season and it’s hard to argue that Jacob Quillan shouldn’t be getting reps over him. Gallagher just has no power in his game anymore. No speed, no shot; you can see him giving it his all, but it looks like Father Time has just caught up with him.
I’d love to be wrong; I would love a comeback and for him personally to call me out for being an idiot with a dumb opinion, and for his game to take off. But that rush just felt like one of those moments where it’s really hard to justify him being on the roster for every game.
Best why not make it two
Richmond Glenn wasn’t finished with one goal, no, no, no, he wanted two. If the Richmond Night Market taught him anything, when you see someone waffling during a haggling session, you absolutely put the pressure on them:
It’s hard to see, but yeah, Richmond Glenn got a piece of the puck with his skate on the Vlad Gavrikov point shot.
It’s actually an amusing butterfly effect in action, as this all starts when newest waiver claim Cameron Crotty gets checked along the boards and loses his stick. As the play heads back into Vancouver’s zone, Lekkerimäki sees Crotty without a wand, so he passes him his dragon heart-infused twig, which leaves Prime Time empty-handed. So guess who gets the puck with a shooting lane clear of Lekkerimäki’s stick? Mr. Gavrikov.
Oh, did I say amusing? I meant depressing. Just a depressing chain of events.
Best we’ve been here before
Best finishing touches
The third period was a quick affair, as the Rangers were content to ride out the win, and the Canucks were…well, I don’t know what they were, but they were on the ice.
The highlights were few and far between, but I did like Prime Time and Jake DeBrusk using the patented give-and-go on the power play that they used on a goal earlier in the season:
I don’t know if they practice that move, but it’s become a part of their history together, so I often do a bit of a Leo DiCaprio finger point whenever I see them bust it out.
Elias Pettersson also continues his Bret Hart ability to sell a realistic penalty, this time by dropping his stick after Adam Fox swung at it:
Did EP40 drop his stick? Was it knocked out? Was it a worked punch? Nobody knows, and that’s why Elias is so good at it!
Linus Karlsson got an almost goal, which I hear is just as good as a real goal, minus the calories, when he tried a little spin action in the crease off of a Marco Rossi pass:
Linus Karlsson was audibly upset after not scoring, because you have to assume that Richmond Glenn dropping two on you is going to mess with your mental a bit.
And then Max Sasson finished things up by hitting the post, showing New York he COULD have scored if he had wanted to:
And that was the ball game. A great first period, undone by every single thing that happened after it. The third goal really felt like the nail in the coffin for this game; you could almost see the Canucks shoulders sag at that point.
The good news is that the Canucks play the Golden Knights next, and oh wait, that isn’t good at all, is it.
See you Sunday.
Best jersey Botch
I’ll never forgive Marc Crawford for chasing Aucoin out of town and ushering in Dan Cloutier, which effectively ending any chance the West Coast Express had at being successful in the playoffs.
Sponsored by bet365
Daily FaceoffPuckPedia
Editorials
MORE NEWS. IN YOUR INBOX.
CLICK TO SUBSCRIBE TO OUR WEEKLY NEWSLETTER

Breaking News

vancouver-canucks
Vancouver CanucksTeam Cap Summary
PuckPedia

Cap Summary

2026-27
2027-28
Projected Cap Hit
$87,846,504
$70,329,167
Projected Cap Space
$16,153,496
$43,170,833
Current Cap Space
$21,032,069
$43,170,833
Active Players
23/23
12/23

Draft Picks

Round
'27
'28
1
1
1
2
2
2
3
1
1