Canucks vs Jets, Feb 25, 2026

On Wednesday night, Tyler Myers took the ice for likely the last time as a member of the Vancouver Canucks.

Sort of.

Word came out ahead of Wednesday’s game against the Winnipeg Jets that Myers was going to be held out of the lineup — for “trade reasons,” according to ChekTV’s Rick Dhaliwal; for “roster management purposes,” according to the Canucks themselves.

This was somewhat surprising, as Myers seemed like a player the Canucks wanted to keep as a veteran leader in the room. Myers has taken younger players under his considerable wings in Vancouver and remained consistent, calm, and professional in some incredibly trying circumstances in recent years, something that did not go unnoticed by the Canucks’ brass.

In addition, Myers has a full no-movement clause and, unlike another defenceman we could name, wants to stay in Vancouver. He has the right to veto any trade that comes to the table.

Despite that, it certainly seems like a trade is imminent. My understanding is that the Canucks have received multiple trade offers, and have approached Myers with one of those offers. Now, the ball is in Myers’ court, and he has not yet waived his no-movement clause.

But even though Myers was held out of the lineup on Wednesday night, he still took to the ice, skating with his soon-to-be-former teammates one last time in warm-ups.

It was an odd sight, as the whole point of holding a player out of the lineup is ostensibly to avoid an injury prior to an imminent trade, and injuries can certainly occur during warm-ups. In fact, that was the entire reason Myers was on the ice — not to give him one last spin in a Canucks jersey, but because of the possibility of an injury.

“When I talked to Tyler after the skate this morning, we had a great conversation. He was awesome about it,” said head coach Adam Foote. “You obviously have to be very transparent: tell the truth, this is the way it is. I’m like, I need you for warm-up. I need you to prepare in case something happens with where we were with our roster. He was a true pro and said, ‘Yeah, I’ll be ready.’”

Foote suggested that you never know what might happen in warm-ups: a player could pull their groin or get a puck in the face, necessitating a last-second swap.

When it was suggested that Myers faced that same possibility of injury in warm-ups, Foote looked a little flummoxed.

“Yeah, I guess you can look at it that way. There’s always a percentage,” said Foote. “No, I mean, it had to happen.”

To compound the risk, Myers went “no bucket” in the warm-up skate, going without a helmet. That always seems like a silly thing to do at the best of times. It seems like the most Canuck result possible would have been Myers getting a puck to the head when he wasn’t wearing a helmet. Fortunately, that didn’t happen.

Assuming a trade does go through, Myers will be missed in Vancouver. He’s well-liked in the room by his teammates, and he’s always willing to speak to the media and provide fans his perspective, even after a terrible loss.

This may sound frivolous, but I don’t mean it frivolously: Tyler Myers is a good dude. Whatever the praise and criticism I’ve had for Myers as a player on the ice, I have a lot of respect for him as a person and as a father off the ice.

I wish I could have seen Myers play as a Canuck one last time when I watched this game.

With some irony, Myers was the featured player on the Canucks’ game day graphics. Picking the former Jet made plenty of sense, but it’s not hard to see the humour of the timing.

photo: Canucks

I miss the Olympics already.

To be honest, this was a perfectly fine game, and I didn’t hate it. As Canucks game go this season, it was arguably even good. But man, it suffered in comparison to Olympic hockey.

With Kevin Lankinen dealing with some tough travel (and possibly raucous celebrations) after winning a bronze medal with Finland, Nikita Tolopilo got the start. He didn’t miss a beat coming out of the Olympic break, probably because he didn’t take a break. He just kept playing in Abbotsford, which is definitely not a break for a goaltender given how bad the Abbotsford Canucks have been this season.

Partly thanks to Tolopilo’s early sharpness, the Canucks opened the scoring. Brock Boeser picked off a Logan Stanley clearing attempt and fed Drew O’Connor, who slipped the puck five-hole through Eric Comrie on the Canucks’ first shot of the game.

“Great job by Brock,” said O’Connor. “He kept it in, was really patient with it at the blue line, and found me, made a great play over to me.”

That was O’Connor’s team-leading 14th goal of the season, which is, no offence to O’Connor, an immensely depressing statistic.

The line of O’Connor and Boeser with Marco Rossi in the middle has some potential. Rossi and Boeser are both smart players and could develop some chemistry, while O’Connor brings speed to the equation, and is no dummy himself. There might be something there.

The line of Jaek DeBrusk, Elias Pettersson, and Evander Kane, on the other hand, were pretty terrible all night apart from about three seconds in the second period. I think Kane is a uniquely terrible fit on the wing with Pettersson, which is what makes it so baffling that they’ve essentially been joined at the hip. No skater has spent more 5-on-5 ice time with Pettersson this season than Kane.

The Jets tied the game in the first period after a Kane turnover, as he sent a cross-ice pass to David Kämpf, who was in the midst of leaving the ice on a line change. Mark Scheifele picked off the pass and quickly counter-attacked, skating right past Kane on the zone entry. Kane proceeded to float aimlessly in the defensive zone instead of picking up Gabriel Vilardi going to the net. He’s fortunate that Vilardi wasn’t the only one open, as Kyle Connor beat Marcus Pettersson out of the corner and finished off a gorgeous blind backhand pass from Scheifele.

To my eye, the Canucks played a more aggressive game in every zone and every situation compared to before the Olympic break, likely aided by the mini training camp held by the coaching staff to reinforce their system. The defence was activating more down the wings in the offensive zone, everyone was stepping up more in the neutral zone to break up plays, and the defensive zone coverage was more quick to smother than a helicopter parent.

The more aggressive approach was particularly noticeable on the penalty kill, as the Canucks closed gaps with confidence, forcing the Jets to make quick decisions and passes. It worked, at least in this game, as the Jets went 0-for-3 on the power play, but I worry that a power play that is ranked higher than 22nd in the league might pick apart that kind of penalty kill with precision passing.

The Canucks took the lead less than a minute into the second period. It was a simple set play off an offensive zone faceoff: Pettersson won the draw cleanly back to Kane at the top of the circle, and Kane rifled a shot past Comrie’s glove in three seconds flat.

“Petey, we tried it twice earlier in the first period,” said Kane. “Petey said the third time might be the charm, and he did a great job of winning the battle in the faceoff circle, Jake made a nice play to halt the guys coming out at me, and I was able to put it away.”

Pettersson had the one assist, but didn’t manage a single shot on goal, as he and his line frequently got pinned in the defensive zone. At least Pettersson was putting in the work when that happened, finishing with a game-high seven shot blocks, adding to his league-leading total among forwards. Pettersson has blocked 88 shots this season, 12 ahead of the next-best forward, Ryan Hartman.

Pettersson wasn’t the only one putting in work in the defensive zone. Conor Garland took some inspiration from the skeleton events at the Olympic sliding track and went diving headfirst down the ice to take away what looked like a sure goal for Kyle Connor.

The Canucks couldn’t hold their lead into the second intermission. Vilardi got his stick under that of Elias Pettersson (D) and deflected in a Scheifele feed in the crease. After the goal, Pettersson stood in place for several seconds, seeming to analyze exactly how Vilardi had gotten his stick on the puck when Pettersson had established such good body position on him in front of the net.

Neither team could score in the third period, so the game went to 3-on-3 overtime like a gold-medal game, because the two games are of equal importance and should be decided the same way.

Brock Boeser and Marco Rossi took a gamble in overtime. After they were already on the ice for a full minute, they made as if they were going to go for a line change before bursting up ice for a 2-on-1. The risk nearly paid off, as Rossi set up Boeser for a golden opportunity, but Comrie stared Boeser down and made the save.

The gamble then backfired, as Rossi got stuck on the ice. When the Jets exited the Canucks’ zone, Rossi rushed to the bench to get Elias Pettersson on the ice, but the Jets regrouped quickly for a 3-on-2. Tom Willander didn’t stay central enough to check both Jets in the middle, and Adam Lowry’s centring pass deflected off Tolopilo’s stick to Cole Perfetti, who would have been Rossi’s man. Perfetti was perfect-i, going top shelf where Grandma hides the edibles.

Thanks for reading Pass it to Bulis! This post is public so feel free to share it.

Share

While he had his moments, Willander struggled quite a bit in a larger role with Myers out. Shot attempts were 21-to-6 for the Jets when Willander was on the ice at even-strength, shots on goal were 9-to-2, and goals were 2-to-0. Call it a trial by fire: hopefully, he’ll be purified rather than burnt up.

“The route that was discussed in the middle of January, where this organization wants to go, it will get a guy like Willander, for example, more reps — get him prepared in those situations faster,” said Foote. “He has to play in a place that he might not be ready to play in right now. But you look at our league: guys are asked to be men before their time. It starts at 18, 19, 20.”

A tap of the stick to Jim Robson, whose voice defined the Canucks for multiple generations of fans. His calls were the soundtrack to some of the most important moments in Canucks history, and he started a proud tradition of the Canucks having some of the best play-by-play commentators in the business. He will be missed, and he will be remembered.