{"id":547689,"date":"2026-04-08T16:38:16","date_gmt":"2026-04-08T16:38:16","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/547689\/"},"modified":"2026-04-08T16:38:16","modified_gmt":"2026-04-08T16:38:16","slug":"tolopilo-gives-unexpected-answer-about-vancouver-canucks-fans-chanting-his-name-daily-hive","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/547689\/","title":{"rendered":"Tolopilo gives unexpected answer about Vancouver Canucks fans chanting his name | Daily Hive"},"content":{"rendered":"

It would be a dream come true for most hockey players.<\/p>\n

Everyone playing hockey on the streets as a kid dreams of winning the Stanley Cup. You also daydream about having your name chanted by fans in the crowd.<\/p>\n

That\u2019s what happened to Vancouver Canucks goaltender Nikita Tolopilo on Tuesday night.<\/p>\n

He was the sole reason why the Canucks hung around in a game they had no business winning. By the time Vegas Golden Knights forward Cole Smith scored the game-winning goal in the 53rd minute, the Canucks had just seven shots on net.<\/p>\n

It was a pitiful performance in a season chock full of them, but\u00a0one beacon of light was a strong showing from Tolopilo.<\/p>\n

With the Belarusian goaltender stymying the Golden Knights in the third period, chants of \u201cTo-lo-pi-lo\u201d began to audibly spring up around Rogers Arena.<\/p>\n

And you have to give it to Canucks fans. With no more J.T. Miller, Kiefer Sherwood, or Conor Garland, they\u2019ve found another four-syllable name worth cheering on.<\/p>\n

But when Tolopilo was asked about how the chants made him feel, he didn\u2019t give the answer you\u2019d expect.<\/p>\n

\u201cNothing, actually,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

So much for a dream moment.<\/p>\n

But Canucks fans, don\u2019t hold it against him, as he did clarify his comments.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe didn\u2019t get a win,\u201d he said. \u201cSo, it\u2019s hard to be happy about something. But I\u2019m glad [the fans cheered]. It was good.\u201d<\/p>\n

In fairness, Tolopilo\u2019s honest, deadpan response was refreshingly different from your typical answer about being touched by fans<\/a>.<\/p>\n

But the bigger story in this one was that the 6-foot-6 goaltender seems to be finding his footing again after the Canucks inexplicably made him ride the bench.<\/p>\n

Coming out of the Olympic break, Tolopilo started five of nine games for the Canucks, posting a respectable 2-2-1 record.<\/p>\n

In a completely lost season, seeing what you have in Tolopilo as an NHL goaltender seems like a prudent thing to do, especially since relying on Thatcher Demko to be healthy has proven to be a fool\u2019s errand.<\/p>\n

But, from March 17 onward, the Canucks started Lankinen in seven of eight games. Tolopilo was pulled during his only start in that window, meaning Lankinen played in all eight of those contests.<\/p>\n

Now? Lankinen is out with an injury, meaning the Belarusian netminder is back as the team\u2019s de facto starter.<\/p>\n

And wouldn\u2019t you know, now that he\u2019s back in a rhythm, he seems to be playing as he did earlier in the year. Solid, promising, albeit unspectacular.<\/p>\n

But on Tuesday night, he was the only reason why the Canucks had a chance to win.<\/p>\n

\u201cWithout Tolo, I don\u2019t know how close it would be,\u201d Max Sasson said following a franchise-record 32nd loss on home ice, including overtime.<\/p>\n

\u201cI thought everyone, including myself, can probably give a better effort in front of our home fans.\u201d<\/p>\n

As you saw on Tuesday, Canucks fans are ready to cheer this team on, despite their place in the standings.<\/p>\n

At this point, any Canucks player who can punch above this team\u2019s pitiful average might hear their name chanted by the Rogers Arena faithful.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"It would be a dream come true for most hockey players. Everyone playing hockey on the streets as…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":547690,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5128],"tags":[894,5,4,893,27,5313],"class_list":{"0":"post-547689","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-vancouver-canucks","8":"tag-canucks","9":"tag-hockey","10":"tag-nhl","11":"tag-vancouver","12":"tag-vancouver-canucks","13":"tag-vancouvercanucks"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nhl\/116370073485532474","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/547689","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=547689"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/547689\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/547690"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=547689"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=547689"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=547689"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}