Canucks takeaways: Hoglander busts slump in loss to Flames

If you’re going to lose by four goals to the fourth-worst team in the National Hockey League, you may as well have your fourth-liner bust a slump a few seconds after throwing the biggest hit of the game on the referee.

Please, just allow us a little mirth. 

We are 72 games into what has a chance to be the Vancouver Canucks’ worst season in 50 years, the final stretch of which has become as bleak as Minsk in winter, and we can all use a little laugh. So thank goodness for Nils Hoglander.

The struggling Canuck, in and out of his last-place team’s lineup and with just one goal in 3 ½ months since returning from ankle surgery, beautifully redirected Victor Mancini’s shot-pass at 12:40 of the third period in Calgary after running over referee Graham Skilliter when the official got in the way of a forecheck.

The goal didn’t help the Canucks much, cutting their deficit to three in a game they lost 7-3 to the Calgary Flames, but it could help Hoglander, whose confidence has been shredded by his ordeal this season.

That’s something, at least.

Overall, as four-goal losses go — for which the Canucks have provided a decent sample size this season — Saturday’s latest Hockey-Night-in-Canada humiliation was actually not nearly as bad as it appeared on the scoreboard.

The Canucks outshot the Flames 34-23, and the analytics site Natural Stat Trick said Vancouver earned a 63 per cent share of five-on-five goals. Hey, any port in a storm. And Vancouver had two goals disallowed, too, so it might have been 7-5.

Unfortunately, in the Year 2026, goaltending still seems to be kind of important in hockey, an X-factor that clobbers expected-goals-for in any actual game, and Dustin Wolf made a pile of big saves for the Flames while Nikita Tolopilo made almost none for the Canucks.

The minor-league callup, curiously backed by a boisterous cheering section in a segment of the Canuck fan base and some in the media, had trouble with rebounds and allowed four goals on 11 shots before being replaced by Kevin Lankinen at 4:36 of the second period.

Eleven seconds later, Lankinen was beaten on the first shot he faced. He was also beaten on the last one and finished with three goals against on 12 shots.

Liam Ohgren and Jake DeBrusk scored the other goals for the Canucks, who have lost five straight games by an aggregate score of 25-9 and are now 17 points behind the next-worst team in the NHL. And 20 points behind the Flames.

After losing the most winnable game, by far, to start their four-city road trip, the Canucks should clinch last-place overall before they return home next week. They are 21-43-8, need to play .500 hockey over their final 10 games to reach 60 points, and have 14 regulation wins in 72 games this season.

You know Liam Ohgren is exceeding all expectations when Canuck coach Adam Foote promotes the 22-year-old winger to the top line, and $92.8-million centre Elias Pettersson responds with one of his best games of the season. Flanked by Ohgren and Linus Karlsson, Pettersson had a pair of assists, three shots and eight attempts, posted expected-goals-for of 84 per cent and was dangerous with the puck most of the night.

Everyone, including Pettersson, would love to see more of that.

For all the focus this season on the Canucks’ rookie defencemen, the first-year players who have been the most impressive are wingers Ohgren and Karlsson. They beautifully connected on Vancouver’s first goal — Karlsson to Ohgren on a two-on-one set up by a deft between-the-legs pass by Pettersson — to briefly make it a game again at 18:53 of the first period.

Obliterated in the second period all season, the Canucks surrendered three goals in just over three minutes as the Flames made it 5-1 by 4:47 of the middle frame. Instead of being fired up by Ohgren’s goal late in the first, the Canucks sagged early in the second, and Ryan Strome bounced a soft deflection past Tolopilo at just 1:32 to key the Flames’ burn.

The Canucks have been outscored 103-58 in the second period this season.

Not often since the Jurassic period have creatures as large as Curtis (Buster) Douglas and Adam Klapka fought, but the six-foot-nine and six-foot-eight enforcers engaged just 4:17 into the game, lest teammates not be fully invested in a Saturday night rivalry game between two NHL bottom-feeders.

It was literally the biggest NHL fight since six-nine Zdeno Chara and six-eight Steve McKenna had the last of their three tussles more than 20 years ago. 

It was Douglas’s first fight since the Canucks claimed him on waivers from the Tampa Bay Lightning three weeks ago to provide some muscle alongside Vancouver’s many young players. It would have been nice if he got his first NHL goal, too, but referee Francois St. Laurent ruled upon review that he blew his whistle before Douglas poked it free from under Wolf’s glove early in the second period. 

Klapka sniped his sixth goal of the season on a breakaway with 7.6 seconds left.

The Canucks visit the Vegas Golden Knights on Monday before finishing their trip with back-to-back games against the mighty Colorado Avalanche and Minnesota Wild.