Canucks Lose 9-7 In Chaotic 2026-27 Home-Opener Against The Edmonton Oilers

Say what you want about them, but the Vancouver Canucks sure do know how to entertain. 

In a chaos-filled home-opener for the books, the Canucks took a 9–7 loss to the Edmonton Oilers. Six different Canucks found the back of the net in tonight’s win including Paul Cotter, Brock Boeser, Arshdeep Bains, Marco Rossi (2), Elias Pettersson, and Jamie Oleksiak. Kevin Lankinen started tonight’s game but was pulled after allowing eight goals on 20 shots faced, with Leevi Meriläinen coming in at the half-way mark of the game and stopping 10 of 11 shots. 

It shouldn’t be a surprise that the Oilers came out a much hungrier team in tonight’s game, especially given the manner in which Tuesday’s game went. For the first 40 minutes of the game, it was obvious Edmonton came to play. It was in the final 20 where the tide seemed like it could have been turning. 

Vancouver iced the same lineup that helped them win their season-opening game against the Oilers on Tuesday, while Edmonton switched things up big-time by moving Leon Draisaitl back onto a line with Connor McDavid and former Canuck Vasily Podkolzin. The Oilers also opted to start goaltender Devon Levi tonight instead of Tristan Jarry, who played in Tuesday night’s game. 

The Canucks’ struggles started early on in the game, with the first period ultimately ending 4–0 in Edmonton’s favour. Vancouver took a total of three penalties throughout the first period, one of which resulted in a power play goal for Edmonton. The Oilers’ third goal of the period came off an unfortunate series of bounces, with the puck going off Tom Willander and in. Goals surrendered aside, it was a chaotic, messy period for the Canucks — that was obvious.  

After their disastrous first period, the Canucks cranked up the line blender and went back to work. Pettersson and Jake DeBrusk were reunited with Linus Karlsson on the top-line, while Cotter was promoted to a spot in-between Boeser and Liam Öhgren. Cotter and Boeser were both able to capitalize alongside their new teammates, with Cotter opening the scoring for Vancouver after receiving the puck off a dogged forecheck from Öhgren. 

Other changes to Vancouver’s lines included Jonathan Lekkerimäki skating with Bains and Rossi, and Max Sasson centring Drew O’Connor and Brendan Gallagher. 

While the Canucks did score in the second period, things only got more chaotic from there. On their first power play of the night, Vancouver surrendered not one, but two short-handed goals. A bungled drop-pass from Boeser sent Connor McDavid in on Lankinen with only Pettersson available to defend. On the second short-handed goal, Kasperi Kapanen stole the puck from Zeev Buium along the wall and scored Edmonton’s eighth goal of the night. 

Where things changed for the Canucks was in the third period. With a little more momentum in the O-zone than the previous two periods, Vancouver stunned the remaining fans in Rogers Arena by scoring four consecutive goals to cut their deficit from 8–2 to 8–6. For a shocking second, it seemed as though every puck the Canucks threw on net was bound to go in — even one that, despite initially being called-off as a hand-pass, bounced off Rossi and past Levi. 

There are a lot of takeaways from this game. Whether they’re positive or not depends on the person watching. 

On the positive side, Vancouver managed a four-goal comeback in the third period to cut their deficit to only two goals. Rather than roll over and let Edmonton take it, the Canucks put in an effort to be proud of in the final 20 minutes to try and make something out of the game. Even if they didn’t end up winning, they still managed to re-engage fans that may have lost interest after the first two periods. 

Individually speaking, there were a couple of players that had a really solid game. Pettersson’s slap shot on the power-play gave shades of the old player that fans have been looking for, never mind the fact that he finished the night with three points and eight hits. The line-swap did well for Cotter and Rossi, both of whom scored in tonight’s effort (Rossi twice). Bains made a strong impact with his rapid engine and no-quit energy with the goal he scored right before the buzzer sounded to end the second period. 

That said, there’s still the fact that Vancouver found themselves down 8–2 in the first place — an embarrassing spot to be in. 

“There’s a lot to be learned from that game. Right from the start, we didn’t seem to be as prepared as we needed to be,” Canucks Head Coach Manny Malhotra said post-game. “We knew they were going to have a response, not happy with the result on their home opener night, and I think that was kind of the story of the game. That’s how it got away from us. We lost the majority of puck battles, lost the majority of races. They were just far more hungry than us in a lot of areas.”  

“They’re a team that’s been to the Cup Finals the past couple times in the past couple years. Obviously, an overtime win against them last game, they’re going to make a push, which they did. And [on] the other side of things, I am proud of how we didn’t give up. Obviously, [we] went till the buzzer there and gave a good effort. But it’s on us players to make sure that those nine goals don’t happen,” Cotter added after the game. 

All in all, tonight’s game was a wild one. While Vancouver’s efforts in the first 40 minutes was mystifying — not in a good way — somehow, they still managed to entertain with their near-comeback in the third period.  

1st Period: 

9:26 - EDM: Vasily Podkolzin (3) from Kasperi Kapanen and Connor McDavid (PPG) 

14:26 - EDM: Owen Michaels (1) from Mathieu Joseph and Evan Bouchard 

14:42 - EDM: Evan Bouchard (4) from Connor McDavid and Vasily Podkolzin 

19:32 - EDM: Ryan Shea (1) from Connor McDavid and Leon Draisaitl 

2nd Period: 

0:27 - EDM: Leon Draisaitl (1) from Evan Bouchard and Connor McDavid 

4:31 - VAN: Paul Cotter (3) from Liam Öhgren 

5:04 - EDM: Trent Frederic (1) from Isaac Howard 

5:47 - VAN: Brock Boeser (1) from Paul Cotter and Jamie Oleksiak 

7:49 - EDM: Connor McDavid (1) (SHG) 

8:23 - EDM: Kasperi Kapanen (1) (SHG) 

19:59 - VAN: Arshdeep Bains (1) from Elias Pettersson and Filip Hronek 

3rd Period: 

1:53 - VAN: Marco Rossi (2) from Jonathan Lekkerimäki and Tom Willander 

4:43 - VAN: Marco Rossi (3) from Arshdeep Bains and Luke Schenn 

7:37 - VAN: Elias Pettersson (2) from Marco Rossi and Brock Boeser (PPG) 

9:26 - EDM: Leon Draisaitl (2) from Connor McDavid and Vasily Podkolzin (PPG) 

18:31 - VAN: Jamie Oleksiak (1) from Filip Hronek and Elias Pettersson 

Up Next: 

The Canucks remain on home-ice throughout the weekend before heading on the road, starting with a game against the Calgary Flames at 7:00 pm PT on Saturday. 

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