By Andrew Phillip Chernoff | CanucksBanter

October 12, 2024

Games of the Week

• October 9th vs Calgary (5-1 Win):
  • The Vancouver Canucks defeated Calgary:
    • The Canucks’ offense exploded in the third period, scoring four of their five goals to pull away in what was a tight game for the first two frames.
    • Canucks standouts:
      • Filip Chytil led the scoring with two goals.
      • Kiefer Sherwood, Jonathan Lekkerimäki, and Brock Boeser also scored.
      • Goalie Thatcher Demko was stellar, stopping 17 of 18 shots.
    • The game marked Adam Foote’s winning debut as the Canucks’ head coach. The Canucks’ penalty kill was also strong, successfully shutting down all four of Calgary’s power-play opportunities.
    • They showed resilience, toughness and offensive firepower, overcoming a slow start to the game, with Demko magnificent keeping the Canucks in the game until his teammates found their groove.
    • Morgan Frost scored the lone goal for Calgary.
• October 11th at Edmonton Oilers (1-3 Loss):
  • The Oilers scored twice in the second period, and the Canucks couldn’t complete the comeback, suffering their first loss of the season.
  • The Oilers’ second goal came just before the end of the second period following a costly turnover by Filip Chytil. The Canucks also struggled with penalties, giving the Oilers five power-play chances.
  • Noah Philp and Andrew Mangiapane scored the first two goals for Edmonton. Leon Draisaitl sealed the win with a short-handed empty-net goal. Goalie Calvin Pickard made 14 saves for the win.
  • Brock Boeser scored the Canucks’ only goal in the third period. Quinn Hughes recorded an assist on the goal, passing Alex Edler to become the Canucks’ all-time leading defenseman in points.
  • Thatcher Demko had a busy night, making 34 saves in the loss.

Key Takeaways

• Resilience: Keeping Calgary off their game, giving themselves time to establish their offensive game with 4 goals in the final period to put the gameaway, demonstrated the Canucks have some fight in them to respond in front of home town fans and take back home ice advantage.
• Goaltending Depth: Against Calgary, Thatcher Demko provided the Canucks with unbelievable goaltending in regulation, and eventually was rewarded with an offensive explosion, giving back to their goalie a sizeable lead and his first win of the season. Likewise against Edmonton, Demko frustrated and thwarted Edmonton’s key players, but his teammates were not as fortunate against Edmonton, like with Calgary, and use his netminding to pull out a second straight win.
• Kiefer Sherwood, Jonathan Lekkerimäki, and Brock Boeser: The players seem to be either in a groove, finding their game with a week of clutch plays and great goals to begin the season.
• Filip Chytil Scoring: Chytil shone in his first game of the season, scoring a couple of key goals to lead the Canucks to their first home win of the season but needs to use the boards to move the puck out of his own end, instead of giving the puck away blindly which led to a goal against and took the wind out of the Canucks sails for a comeback attempt late in the game.

Overall

The start of the season, with an impressive win over a Pacific Division opponent, brought excitement and optimism to Canucks fans. Their first road game of the season against another Pacific Division opponent was a strong effort as well, and with a very fortunate bounce, may have shifted the momentum of the game the Canucks way but was not be.

The team is showing a strong offensive game and continued solid goaltending, with strong efforts from all players pulling together to fulfill the game plan. Still work to be done and things tweaked. Most important is to keep moving forward, not backward.

What’s Up?

A 3-game road trip will be a test of the team’s conditioning, resiliency, and roster depth.

It’s the beginning of a road-heavy schedule, playing more road games than home games in both October and November.

The 2025-26 schedule began with a “massive disadvantage” for the Canucks, with 6 of the first 8 games on the road, including the gruelling five-game road trip that starts on Thursday, which forces the team to traverse multiple time zones and cross-country distances, finishing up against the Pittsburgh Penguins on October 21st and Nashville Predators on October 23rd.

Games This Week

• Vs St. Louis Blues: October 13/25 @ 07:00 pm PDT
• At Dallas Stars : October 16/25 @ 05:00 pm PDT
• At Chicago Blackhawks: October 17/25 @ 05:30 pm PDT
• At Washington Capitals: October 19/25 @ 9:30 am

Until next week, hockey fans