Canucks Remain Winless During The 2026 Pre-Season After 2-1 Loss To The Oilers

The Vancouver Canucks are still looking for that first win of the 2026 pre-season. In their first home game since mid-April, Vancouver suffered a 2–1 loss to a young Edmonton Oilers team. Linus Karlsson scored the lone goal for the Canucks, while Nikita Tolopilo stopped 12 of 14 shots faced through 40 minutes. Chris Drieder, who played in the final period of tonight’s game, stopped all seven shots sent his way. 

Tonight was the closest the Canucks have gotten to icing what’s expected to be their full-time NHL lineup during the 2026 pre-season. 14 of the team’s 18 skaters played in their first game of the 2026 pre-season tonight, with Braeden Cootes, Victor Mancini, and Guillaume Brisebois being the lone three who have skated in all three games thus far. 

With the more-experienced lineup came a look at how Vancouver’s special teams could shake out for opening-night. Elias Pettersson, Brock Boeser, Marco Rossi, Jake DeBrusk, and Filip Hronek started out on the first unit; on the second were Karlsson, Filip Chytil (replaced by Cootes later on), Liam Öhgren, Jonathan Lekkerimäki, and Zeev Buium. In their first power-play opportunity, awarded after Paul Cotter drew a slashing call on Spencer Stastney while breaking into the O-zone, the second unit put together a couple of solid chances in part due to some movement from Buium on the blueline. 

Chytil’s luck has been up there with some of the worst in the NHL as of late, and tonight only hammered that point home more. The forward got tangled up with one of the referees mid-game and skated away from the interaction clutching his shoulder. Later on in the period, he went down the Canucks’ tunnel and did not return for the remainder of the game. 

“It’s never good to see a guy leave the game. We’re having his shoulder looked at, and we’ll know more tomorrow after the imagery.” 

Bad bounces epitomized the first two goals for the Oilers. On Edmonton’s first goal, a botched clear by Hronek bounced off an Oiler and onto the stick of Isaac Howard, who took advantage of the opening by firing it past Tolopilo before Vancouver’s two defencers could reach him. The second goal saw Edmonton cut into Vancouver’s zone, with a pass from Viljami Marjala bouncing off of Jamie Oleksiak and into the Canucks’ crease for Quinn Hutson to tap-in. 

After their first opportunity in the first period, the Canucks’ second power-play unit cashed in six minutes into the second period. Karlsson, who has slotted in the net-front spot on Vancouver’s second unit, tapped in a shot from Buium. 

One player who made a big difference in Vancouver’s offence tonight was Buium. The defenceman was solid on both sides of the puck, making moves to cut into Edmonton’s zone while also helping negate chances against such as tying up Aku Räty on a breakaway. When the Canucks went on their fourth power-play of the game during the third period, Buium joined the team’s first-unit in Hronek’s place. 

“I’m really looking forward to seeing how he’s going to do this year. He has a lot of talent, and I think he can grow a lot from last year,” Karlsson said post-game of the defenceman. “He has a bright future for sure.” 

As a whole, however, Vancouver’s defencemen looked a lot more active than they have in the past. With this being the Canucks’ first game featuring a group close to their full NHL lineup, there were a couple of noticeable moments where their defenders jumped up to continue plays off the rush. Aside from Buium, there were a couple of instances where players like Guillaume Brisebois and Victor Mancini tried to keep the puck active in the O-zone. Even Luke Schenn got in on the fun at one point. 

For Vancouver, tonight’s game served as a fair opportunity to shake off the rust of the off-season and settle back into the ebbs and flows of in-game action. 

“It looked like a lot of guys’ first game, so as expected, it wasn’t as sharp as we wanted it to be. Obviously, outcome aside, it was the lack of execution early out of the gate. Lack of intensity in our game. We started to find it towards the second period. Started turning on a little bit more, which was good to have that response. But again, don’t want to read too far into this one, as it was a lot of the guys’ first games,” Malhotra noted. 

While they did face a very young Oilers roster featuring only five skaters born before 2000, this was the first full look at what could be close to the Canucks’ opening-night roster in a game scenario. The next step for the team will be to take what they’ve experienced and apply it to their next game on Saturday. 

1st Period: 

3:58 - EDM: Isaac Howard (1) from Tomas Cibulka 

2nd Period: 

4:28 - EDM: Quinn Hutson (1) from Viljami Marjala and Isaac Howard

6:01 - VAN: Linus Karlsson (1) from Zeev Buium and Jonathan Lekkerimaki (PPG) 

3rd Period: 

No Scoring. 

Up Next: 

The Canucks will wrap-up their 2026 pre-season on Saturday when they welcome the Seattle Kraken to Vancouver. This will be fans’ last chance to see the team at Rogers Arena before their regular-season home-opener on October 1. Saturday’s puck drop is scheduled for 4:00 pm PT. 

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