Breadcrumb Trail Links
Riffing on Brian Burke’s famous comment that most Canucks know that if they won the Cup, the media would criticize the parade route.
Published Jan 22, 2026 • Last updated 31 minutes ago • 9 minute read
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Evander Kane is congratulated by Tyler Myers after scoring a goal against the Washington Capitals during the first period at Rogers Arena on Wednesday night. The Canucks won 4-3. Photo by Derek Cain /Getty ImagesArticle content
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Go out and buy a lottery ticket. Pick all your favourite Canucks and use their numbers. You can’t lose. The Canucks beat the Washington Capitals 4-3 at Rogers Arena. A win. The first in 12 games. The first in 2026 (you can no longer wish fellow Canucks fans a Happy New Year). The first in regulation since Dec. 19 and the first in regulation at home since Dec. 6.
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While there’s so much talk of a ‘tank’ on sports radio or in social media comments or on Canucks Reddit, the fact remains the people who buy tickets and support the team by going to the games still like to see the team win, at least on the odd occasion.
It was nice to see and hear the crowd rise to their feet and cheer on the team as the horn sounded. While these are professional athletes making a lot of money and you expect effort at a bare minimum, if the plan is to build from the ground up the resilience of this team has always been there. They’ve been bad. Been miles away from some of the teams they play but for the most part the effort has been there.
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Ben Kuzma dished out the grades following last night’s game, first comments from coach Adam Foote and then some of Kuzma’s marks.
“I think the best part was how our bench was after being down,” said Foote. “It was really calm and you have to give a lot of credit to the guys for not getting rattled. They (refs) missed a call and maybe it was meant to be to give a test to our guys. The guys stuck to it and when we had to defend down low, they did a good job clogging it up.
“It’s one of the best games I’ve seen (Brock) Boeser and (Conor) Garland play. Not just points, but Boeser was matched against (Tom) Wilson and he defended well. We can really grow from this. With this young group, we’re going have some tough nights, but to not fall off a game plan. I’m happy for them. I’m proud of them.”
Elias Pettersson (C+)
Good pace in neutral zone, hit crossbar on PK chance, 25 per cent on draws.
Jake DeBrusk (C+)
Great pace in feed on Hronek goal. Two assists. No shots. Three hits.
Brock Boeser (B)
Energized. Effective. Goal lit a fuse. Best game in long time. Four shots.
Liam Ohgren (C+)
Complemented the line with Garland and Blueger. Two shots, six attempts.
Filip Hronek (B)
Always strong in own zone, scored an impressive goal off the rush.
Zeev Buium (C+)
Sped to net for good chance. Learning on the fly. Two shot blocks.
Kevin Lankinen (B)
Two PP goals on first six shots, but settled down to backstop win.
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If it’s always darkest before the dawn, brighter days are coming. Slowly, but a few more minutes each day. Patrick Johnston looked back at the team that previously held that record losing streak and spoke to some of the alumni on that squad about how it built up the great teams of the early 2000s. Some especially telling comments from former captain Markus Naslund.
Naslund’s future at the beginning of 1998-99 wasn’t even that clear. He was a healthy scratch for the third and fourth games of the season. When he did play, he was on the fourth line. Given how meandering his career had been to that point, perhaps this wasn’t a surprise. He would scored 21 goals in 1996-97, but then just 14 in 1997-98.
But then in November, something clicked. The Canucks weren’t great, but Naslund was. By the end of the season, he had scored 36 goals and was finally the scoring talent he’d always hoped to be.
Injuries to Alex Mogilny and Todd Bertuzzi opened up ice time, too.
“They had no one else but me to throw in there on one of the top lines,” Naslund recalled. “And I knew that it was probably one of my last chances. So it was at the point where I just figured, ‘OK, I’m just gonna go out there and not worry and just play.’ That was a big, big change in my mindset that season and it ended up working. I got more and more confidence and I got more and more ice time.”
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Is there a Naslund already in the Canucks’ hands here? They sure hope there is.
Over top of all this is one final thing that all three of these teammates noted: the players themselves need to see stability, a clear vision. Brian Burke’s hiring in the summer of 1998 ended what had been a chaotic management scene for much of 1997-98 — Pat Quinn was fired early in the season, then there was something of a GM by committee, then the reins were handed to coach Mike Keenan.
Burke took over as GM from Keenan, then fired the fiery coach not long after the (Pavel) Bure trade, bringing in Marc Crawford as head coach. Crawford immediately gave the players new focus.
“He won the Stanley Cup recently too (with Colorado in 1996) and he had coached in the Olympics, so he was considered one of the best coaches out there. And he was still young and energetic. He was a big part of the turnaround. There’s no doubt about that,” Naslund said.
“With Burke coming in (the summer before), we finally had stability and a leader. We knew that he wanted to build his own team. I think that was a big motivating factor. We knew that we had struggled as a team, had been struggling for a few seasons. That was the carrot for us, that we could see that they had a plan. It’s always tough in the midst of it to realize that there is potential, but you just had to kind of trust management.”
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How did the rest of the NHL react to the Canucks snapping the league’s longest losing streak? With a yawn. No real coverage on any of the national sites other than Sportsnet’s local beat reporter Iain MacIntyre. Then again, you know the Toronto media has to have several coffees and three hours dissection of the Leafs assistant coaches before they move on to a couple of hours of talking about the Blue Jays being screwed by MLB, then some Raptors talk, then they might look online to see what happened west of the Manitoba-Ontario border last night. Here’s a bright nugget from MacIntyre.
What was most impressive about the Canucks’ win, other than the rarity of the occurrence, is that the team stuck to its game plan and rallied back from an early 2-0 deficit built by a Washington Capitals’ five-on-three power play that was largely fabricated on a missed call.
This came one game after Vancouver coach Adam Foote blasted his veterans as “the ones that feel defeated first” when a call or play doesn’t go their way.
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Canuck Max Sasson was penalized for holding Hendrix Lapierre, although it was Lapierre who dropped his stick and stole Sasson’s as a substitute. Naturally, Sasson felt entitled to cling to the stick with his name stamped on the shaft. Lapierre thought Sasson’s blue twig was his, and apparently so did referee T.J. Luxmore.
How did the loss go down in Washington? Not well.
It’s hard to quantify how bad a loss is or rank one L against another. But tonight, the Washington Capitals’ loss to the Vancouver Canucks certainly feels like it ranks up there with the worst in team history.
The Canucks have mostly been in shambles since trading their captain, defenceman Quinn Hughes, to the Minnesota Wild on Dec. 12. During the streak, which began on Dec. 30, the Canucks were outscored 49-20 overall and 32-13 at five-on-five. They owned just 48.1 per cent of shot attempts, 47 per cent of expected goals, and 47.5 per cent of scoring chances at five-on-five during that span.
The Canucks have won only 11 games out of 50 in regulation. Two of them have come against the Capitals.
The Canucks swept the Capitals in their season series, winning both games 4-3.
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The 4-3 victory over the Capitals marked just Vancouver’s fifth win out of 22 tries at Rogers Arena.
The Canucks are the worst team in the league at home, yet the Capitals seemed uncomfortable from the start.
The Canucks outscored the Capitals 3-0 at five-on-five.
The Capitals are clearly the better team, but in this game, the Canucks generated more. Vancouver posted more expected goals at five-on-five, winning that category 1.85 to 1.59. The two teams were about even in shot attempts (44-42 WSH), scoring chances (20-19 WSH), and high-danger chances (9-8 WSH).
Yikes. The Canucks are bad but a 4-3 loss on the road to them is considered one of the ‘worst in team history?’
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A win isn’t going to drive away the trade rumours, and TSN tabbed former Canucks coach Bruce Boudreau thinks it only makes sense to move Elias Pettersson.
“I thought he was a really great player when I had him. A change of scenery would do him great. It’s not even pressure, it’s the way Vancouver is, they make a lot of changes you always think something new is coming in. But this kid’s an elite player. His passing skills and shooting skills are as good as anybody. Vancouver would have to eat some money but the team that gets him would be getting a middle-20s age superstar.”
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Boudreau didn’t stop there though. The former bench boss said he thinks the constant roster churn in Vancouver has been a huge reason why the team finds themselves at the bottom of the NHL.
“I think the biggest problem of all of them. My first year that team was 15 games over .500 and there were 12 changes the next year. From that team, Rick Tocchet took over there were another 12 new guys the next year and that team won 50 games and then were still 10-plus changes again the following year. It’s hard to get the continuity when the roster is changing all the time. If you had kept one of those groups together you would have a pretty good team but they think the grass is always greener and that’s why they’re sitting where they are now.”
EP40 to the Carolina Hurricanes? It’s speculating by Seravalli!
This one flew under the radar earlier this week but is worth noting as Frank Seravalli is now saying Elias Pettersson is tradable and there are suitors. Seravalli was on Sportsnet 590 The FAN and said: There’s a growing suspicion from teams that [an Elias Pettersson trade] happens this year, with some thinking maybe even before the Olympics.
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And Dylan Nazareth of Canucks Army followed up with:Seravalli added later on Sportsnet 650’s Canucks Central that he believes the return in a Pettersson trade would be better than what the Canucks got for JT Miller, which is making the team consider a move. On Sportsnet, he expanded on the market situation that is making Pettersson such a valuable asset.
Look at the deals signed for Dvorak and Wennberg, $5.15 million for Dvorak and $6 million for Wennberg,” Seravalli said. “All of a sudden you turn around and you look at Elias Pettersson and you say, if we believe this is a guy we can rejuvenate, get his career going with a change of scenery, all of a sudden $11.6 million a year doesn’t sound like a crazy risk profile.”
Seravalli noted the Carolina Hurricanes as “one of a handful of teams” calling the Canucks right now, with the overwhelming interest being another reason to look into moving Pettersson. Of course, the Swedish forward holds a full no-movement clause, so he would have to approve of any deal Vancouver makes.
Later in the day, Seravalli went on Oilers Now and said that teams are “beating down the Canucks’ door” for Pettersson, and added that there has been “real and significant” interest in Pettersson over the last 10 days.
Check back for more Canucks news throughout the day …
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