The Vancouver Canucks will try to shore up a leaky defense when they host the Calgary Flames on Saturday.
Vancouver finished with the lowest point total in the NHL last season (58) while permitting a league-leading 314 goals. The early returns on the new season show no improvement in the latter area.
The Canucks surrendered 14 goals in a home-and-home series against the Oilers. Vancouver won the season opener 6-5 in overtime at Edmonton. Two nights later in Vancouver, the Oilers jumped out to a 5-0 lead early in the second period and then held on for a 9-7 victory.
“That wasn’t anywhere near close to good enough,” said Canucks defenseman Luke Schenn, one of the veterans the team brought in during the offseason to bring leadership to the dressing room.
“(The Oilers) got a couple of guys that are elite players. You give them a ton of respect and they are going to burn you.”
Schenn warned his teammates against getting selfish with the puck.
“You get on your own program at times,” he said. “You become an individual and turn the puck over, get sloppy and hang your goalie out to dry on breakaways. The good news on both sides is we don’t have to see (Edmonton) for awhile.”
First-year coach Manny Malhotra wasn’t happy with the way Vancouver fell behind 8-2 halfway through the Thursday game after giving up short-handed goals to Connor McDavid and Kasperi Kapanen 34 seconds apart on the same penalty kill.
“We didn’t seem to be as prepared as we needed to be,” Malhotra said. “That is how the game got away from us. We lost the majority of puck battles and the majority of races. They were more hungrier.”
The Canucks are firmly in rebuild mode.
Last season was a dismal campaign for Vancouver, punctuated by a franchise-record 11-game losing streak (0-9-2) and the departure of captain Quinn Hughes, who soured on playing in Vancouver and was traded to the Minnesota Wild in December.
Vancouver is still without a captain. Instead of giving the “C” to someone else, the Canucks decided to appoint six alternate captains.
The Flames are also trying to get over a poor 2025-26 season, when they tied for the NHL’s third-lowest point total (77). The biggest problem was an offense that produced a league-low 208 goals.
Calgary was hammered 6-1 in its season opener by the visiting Seattle Kraken on Thursday, the Flames’ largest margin of defeat ever in a home opener.
Ryan Strome scored for the Flames. Goalie Dustin Wolf stopped 26 shots against Seattle in what is expected to be the final season opener at the Saddledome.
“You saw all our warts in one night,” coach Ryan Huska said.
Like the Canucks, the Flames fell behind early and gave up five consecutive goals to start the game. Calgary was outshot 32-25 and had just one power play while conceding five.
“That one stings,” Strome said. “It is disappointing. We are a team that can’t make any mistakes. We got to play hard and we got to play simple. Getting away from that was what you saw tonight.”
