This could have been an important four-point game between the Vancouver Canucks and Calgary Flames.
If the Canucks were a little bit better and the Flames a little bit worse, this might have been a crucial game for deciding which of the two teams would finish in last place in the NHL, thereby granting them the best odds at picking first overall in the 2026 NHL Entry Draft.
But the two teams entered the game separated by a whopping 18 points.
It’s fairly safe to say that the Canucks have last place all sewn up, rendering what was already a mostly inconsequential game between two inconsequential teams even less consequential.
And, on Saturday night, the Canucks once again proved that they’re the team to (very easily) beat in the race for last place.
You wouldn’t know it from this game, but the Flames are the most offensively inept team in the NHL, averaging just 2.47 goals per game this season. So, of course, the Canucks allowed the Flames to score seven goals.
For one game, the Canucks made the Flames look like an unstoppable offensive powerhouse. It might be the most impressive thing the Canucks have done all season.
I saw the Canucks accomplish something nearly impossible when I watched this game.
The seven goals the Canucks gave up included four goals against in the second period alone, where the execrable Canucks have been extra execrable. The Canucks have now given up 103 goals in the second period. The next-worst team, the Toronto Maple Leafs, has given up 89 second-period goals.
The Canucks’ penalty kill wasn’t feeling particularly murdery in this game. The Flames went 2-for-3 on the power play, and they were five seconds away from going a perfect 3-for-3.
That not-quite-a-power-play goal opened the scoring just after Evander Kane got out of the penalty box but before he could rejoin the play. Liam Öhgren followed Matt Coronato as he moved out of the slot, which left him way too deep in the defensive zone. That gave Morgan Frost spacious acreage to walk into the high slot and send a hard shot on net that Nikita Tolopilo couldn’t direct into the corner, and Coronato, unchecked by Öhgren, sent it into the net.
That’s just a rookie mistake by Öhgren, and one that he can hopefully learn from, especially if killing penalties is going to become part of his oeuvre. Putting someone like him on the penalty kill down the stretch is important for just that reason, and it’s not like he can make the Canucks’ penalty kill, which is dead last in the NHL, much worse.
The goal was followed shortly by a fight between Curtis Douglas and Adam Klapka, which was honestly rather lacklustre and only noteworthy because of the height of the combatants. As pointed out on the Sportsnet broadcast, the bout between the 6’9” Douglas and the 6’8” Klapka is tied with the 6’9” Zdeno Chara and the 6’8” Steve McKenna for the tallest fight in NHL history.
But hold the phone: in a clip of a Chara/McKenna fight from April 2, 2001, the colour commentator notes McKenna’s height as 6’7”. I’m going to need a fact check on McKenna’s actual height (and Klapka’s, for that matter) to determine whether this fight was actually the tallest ever. This is vitally important.
After a rookie mistake from Öhgren, we got a veteran mistake from Filip Hronek, as he whiffed on a pass at his own blue line. The Flames took control of the puck and, moments later, Joel Farabee tipped in a Zach Whitecloud point shot.
Hronek was the goat on that goal, but Zeev Buium badly needed to make a firmer play on Farabee in front of the net. He has to tie up Farabee’s stick, at the very least.
Brock Boeser thought he had gotten the Canucks on the board later in the first when he roofed the puck over a prone Dustin Wolf. Only, the reason Wolf was prone is that Victor Mancini, after a nifty move in the slot, was a little overzealous in pursuit of his own rebound, crashing into Zayne Parekh and sending him tumbling into Wolf. A similar situation is why Mancini is not allowed back at the Greater Vancouver Zoo.
Mancini might have gotten away with crashing into Parekh if he had stayed out of the crease, but he did enough for the goal to be overturned for goaltender’s interference after a coach’s challenge.
The Canucks did get a goal before the end of the period. Elias Pettersson made a fantastic play to pick off a Kevin Bahl pass in the neutral zone, then sent Linus Karlsson and Liam Öhgren in on a 2-on-1 with a nifty pass between his own legs. Karlsson got around Whitecloud to set up Öhgren, who made no mistake. That was some vintage Pettersson playmaking.
Despite the lopsided loss, Pettersson had a legitimately great game. He had two assists, a team-high eight shot attempts, and an 83.8% expected goals percentage. His new-look line with Öhgren and Karlsson immediately clicked, which hopefully means we see less of Pettersson with Evander Kane to close out the season.
Pettersson’s great game is meaningless, of course, but so is hockey in general. It only has whatever meaning we bring to it. Why is a puck going over a line in one specific area a goal? Because someone once gave it that meaning and we have collectively decided that it will continue to have that meaning. So, I’m bringing the meaning that Pettersson’s secondary assist on Öhgren’s goal was neat.
The Flames scored three goals in the first five minutes of the second period to essentially end the game. First, Ryan Strome tipped in an Olli Maatta point shot to make it 3-1. Then Maatta activated from the point, and got a lucky bounce when Hronek tried to clear a rebound and sent it ricocheting off Maatta’s knee into the net to make it 4-1.
That goal chased Nikita Tolopilo from the net, but Kevin Lankinen fared no better. Off the ensuing faceoff, Frost got a step on Teddy Blueger and drove to the net before sending a backhand past Lankinen to make it 5-1. It was the first shot Lankinen faced.
The Canucks had another apparent goal waved off moments later. Wolf stopped a Mancini point shot, then robbed Aatu Räty on the rebound. Then Curtis Douglas jammed at the puck, forcing it into the net, but not until after the whistle had gone. After video review, it was determined that Wolf had his glove on the puck before Douglas could get his stick to it, erasing what could have been his first career goal.
Personally, I think that should be a goal. So, I’m declaring that it was, in fact, a goal. That’s the rule. That’s the goal now.
After Pettersson drew a tripping penalty, the Canucks capitalized on the power play. Whitehouse snapped his stick checking Jake DeBrusk and got a loaner from Yegor Sharangovich. That left Sharangovich stickless (“Yes, it’s true: this man has no stick”), and powerless to prevent Boeser from hammering a Pettersson pass over Wolf’s glove.
I am physically incapable of preventing my brain from saying, “Yes, it’s true: this man has no stick” whenever I utter or type the word “stickless.”
The Flames responded on their own power play. Drew O’Connor gambled on an aerial pass, trying to knock it out of the air so he could burst the other way for a breakaway instead of backing into his penalty-killing position. The gamble did not pay off, as the puck still reached Parekh, who had all kinds of space to walk in and pick a corner over Lankinen’s blocker.
Given the speed of the game, it’s amazing that the on-ice officials don’t get hit by pucks and players more often. Midway through the third period, Nils Höglander steamrolled referee Graham Skilliter like he was Judge Doom with a clean shoulder check to the chest.
What elevated the moment from a mild bit of slapstick is that Höglander immediately scored. Höglander set up Buium at the point, then got open in the slot to tip in Mancini’s hard pass just after a Canucks power play ended. The goal, like Joe Jackson with skateboards, almost made the score respectable.
Down by three goals with just over four minutes remaining, Adam Foote pulled Lankinen for the extra attacker, which is a level of delusion that makes Discord Addams seem grounded. Shockingly, the Canucks didn’t concede an empty-net goal to make it 7-3. Instead, Marco Rossi took a penalty preventing a goal, and Klapka got a breakaway to score the 7-3 goal on the power play with eight seconds left in the game.
This was rough to watch. I don’t really have anything else to say beyond that.
Thanks for reading Pass it to Bulis! This post is public so feel free to share it.