Canucks Enter 2026 Olympic Break After 5–2 Loss To The Vegas Golden Knights

The Vancouver Canucks will officially enter the 2026 Winter Olympic break after a 5–2 loss to the Vegas Golden Knights. Two defencemen found the scoresheet for Vancouver, with Elias Pettersson and Pierre-Olivier Joseph scoring the Canucks’ lone two goals of the game. Kevin Lankinen made his second consecutive start, stopping 26 of 31 shots faced and will now head to Italy to represent Finland at the Olympics.

Despite not being the most eventful, the start of this game didn’t go poorly for the Canucks. They managed to limit Vegas to seven shots on goal while also killing a penalty. While Lankinen did end up having to make a couple of big stops, for the most part, Vancouver did their due diligence to keep high-danger chances away from their goaltender.

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Vancouver’s power play has been a talking point as of late as well, as prior to tonight, they’d only scored once in their last nine games. As a change-up, the Canucks switched their first-unit up by subbing Garland in for Jonathan Lekkerimäki. They were unable to convert on their lone power play awarded in the first period, generating only two scoring chances.

Tonight was a big game for defenceman Elias Pettersson, who faced his fair share of challenges in the first period after being crunched into the boards by Vegas forward Keegan Kolesar. In the second period, it was the young Pettersson who gave the Canucks a bit of life by joining the rush and scoring after Vancouver quickly allowed two goals.

Last game, the line of Liam Öhgren, Teddy Blueger, and Conor Garland played well for the Canucks. This trio repeated their efforts tonight, generating some jump early on in a scoreless first period while also generating a fair amount of chances for the Canucks. Vancouver’s first goal of the game came as a direct result of this line’s drive into the O-zone, with Blueger’s retrieval along the boards factoring into Öhgren’s rush feed to Pettersson. This line’s efforts didn’t stop there, however, as more O-zone pressure from the trio gave Joseph the space to shoot the puck on Akira Schmid, giving the defenceman his first goal as a Canuck after being denied earlier in the game.

Despite being able to cut their deficit to one, Vancouver suffered a brief collapse at the start of the third period that allowed Vegas to widen the gap to three within the span of a minute. Pavel Dorofeyev was left all alone at Lankinen’s back-door on the Golden Knights’ first goal of the third period, while Alexander Holtz capitalized on an open opportunity in the slot to make it 5–2 for Vegas. From there, the Canucks were unable to generate enough quality chances to cut the lead, putting only four shots on goal during the final period.

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“You’ve gotta experience it,” Canucks Head Coach Adam Foote said post-game of what can be worked on regarding not letting quick goals-against impact the team. “We’re a young team […] we’re going to see blips of it here and there. We need everyone on board and when we’re playing our best hockey, everyone is, we had blips of it today, but we just have a tiny breakdown there, a couple mistakes on a couple of goals, leave the slot open just on bad reads, and that’ll continue to be worked on, and it is what it is. It’s a young group. This level of a team, that experience, they’re going to take advantage of that in these situations.”

The Canucks will officially enter the 2026 Olympic break with a record of 18–33–6, cementing themselves safely in 32nd in the NHL throughout the bulk of February. When they return, they could end up regaining quite a few bodies in the lineup, as Marco Rossi, Brock Boeser, Filip Chytil, Nils Höglander, and Zeev Buium are all currently out.

Stats and Facts:

• Canucks enter the 2026 Olympic break with a record of 18–33–6

• Vancouver has scored only power play goal in their last 10 games

• Teddy Blueger is now up to four goals and three assists in eight games since returning from injury

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Scoring Summary:

1st Period: 

No Scoring.

2nd Period: 

5:09 – VGK: Jack Eichel (20) from Rasmus Andersson and Mark Stone

6:34 – VGK: Cole Reinhardt (3) from Braeden Bowman and Shea Theodore

7:11 – VAN: Elias Pettersson (D) (2) from Liam Öhgren and Teddy Blueger

7:39 – VGK: Ivan Barbashev (16) from Mark Stone and Jack Eichel

19:51 – VAN: Pierre-Olivier Joseph (1) from Conor Garland and Teddy Blueger

3rd Period: 

2:33 – VGK: Pavel Dorofeyev (25) from Mitch Marner and Reilly Smith

3:31 – VGK: Alexander Holtz (3) from Keegan Kolesar and Jeremy Lauzon

Up Next: 

With tonight’s loss, the Canucks are now on break as the 2026 Winter Olympics begin. Elias Pettersson (Sweden), Kevin Lankinen (Finland), Teddy Blueger (Latvia), Anri Ravinskis (Latvia), Filip Hronek (Czechia), David Kämpf (Czechia), and Lukas Reichel (Germany) will now head to Italy to represent their respective countries. Vancouver’s next game isn’t until February 25, when they take on the Winnipeg Jets at Rogers Arena at 7:00 pm PT.

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