{"id":379154,"date":"2025-12-31T10:00:07","date_gmt":"2025-12-31T10:00:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/379154\/"},"modified":"2025-12-31T10:00:07","modified_gmt":"2025-12-31T10:00:07","slug":"canucks-start-well-but-fall-6-3-to-tocchets-flyers","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/379154\/","title":{"rendered":"Canucks start well but fall 6-3 to Tocchet\u2019s Flyers"},"content":{"rendered":"

Welcome back to Instant Reaction, the series here at\u00a0CanucksArmy<\/a>\u00a0where we give you our instant reaction to tonight\u2019s\u00a0Vancouver Canucks<\/a>\u00a0game and ask our readers to do the same in the comments section below!Starting LineupFirst Period<\/p>\n

Quick note: We are aware of the issue with Twitter\/X videos not playing within our website. This is because they want you to leave our site and go to theirs. If you\u2019d like to see a video in this article, click the tweet itself (instead of the media player) and you\u2019ll be redirected to Twitter\/X where you can watch the highlight. And of course, for full, uninterrupted videos, be sure to check out The Stanchies later tonight!<\/p>\n

Evander Kane fought!<\/p>\n<\/p>\n

To start things off, the Canucks were firing everything they could on net, and recorded eight shots on goal before the game was even four minutes old. And on that eighth shot, David Kampf buried the puck past Dan Vladar to make it 1-0\u00a0in a hurry.<\/p>\n

\ud83d\udea8CANUCKS GOAL\ud83d\udea8<\/p>\n

David Kampf opens the scoring tonight! That’s his 2nd goal of the season. <\/p>\n

\ud83c\udfa5: Sportsnet | #Canucks<\/a> <\/p>\n

Almost immediately after the goal, the Flyers took the game\u2019s first minor penalty, giving the Canucks\u2019 power play their first chance to work on the night. With Jake DeBrusk back in the lineup and back on PP1, the Canucks\u2019 man-advantage unit looked solid. Despite that, they didn\u2019t score.<\/p>\n

That being said, they did continue to continue to rack up the shot totals on Vladar and the Flyers. Philadelphia didn\u2019t come ready to play, and the Canucks, on the second leg of back-to-back games, certainly did. The Canucks put up 10 shots before the Flyers got their first registered shot on goal.<\/p>\n

The Flyers would answer, however, as Noah Cates let fly on a wrist shot that was deflected by Liam Ohgren on its way to the net, which changed the angle enough to fool Thatcher Demko.<\/p>\n

Noah Cates gets the Flyers on the board. We are tied.<\/p>\n

\ud83c\udfa5: Sportsnet | #Canucks<\/a> <\/p>\n

1-1.\u00a0<\/p>\n

After a tremendous start to the period, the Canucks were pretty quiet for the final ten minutes of the opening frame.<\/p>\n

Some takeaways from the first:
-Nice first period, and some good pace from both teams.
-Do NOT like Nils H\u00f6glander and Aatu R\u00e4ty both being out of the lineup. This is a rebuild, isn\u2019t it? Even if it\u2019s a \u201cultra-cool retool with an extreme hybrid form 3000\u201d or whatever they\u2019re calling it these days, shouldn\u2019t young guys be in the lineup? Nils H\u00f6glander has sat for four of the team\u2019s last five games. Nope. Don\u2019t like that.<\/p>\n

Second Period<\/p>\n

The Flyers kicked off the second period with some solid pressure, and Thatcher Demko made a great save off of Matvei Michkov, who found himself with an early breakaway chance.<\/p>\n

The Canucks\u2019 start to the second period was basically the polar opposite of their start to the first period. They were on their heels early, and eventually, that led to a goal against.<\/p>\n

Carl Grundstr\u00f6m puts the Flyers up 2-1 <\/p>\n

\ud83c\udfa5: Sportsnet | #Canucks<\/a> <\/p>\n

2-1.<\/p>\n

Jake DeBrusk and Linus Karlsson nearly executed a perfect give-and-go play that would have given DeBrusk his second 5v5 goal of the season, a goal he desperately needs.<\/p>\n

Jake DeBrusk and Linus Karlsson connect for a nice passing play but DeBrusk can’t beat Vladar <\/p>\n

\ud83c\udfa5: Sportsnet | #Canucks<\/a> <\/p>\n

On the next shift, Liam Ohgren drew a tripping penalty, giving the Canucks their second power play chance of the night. This time, the power play didn\u2019t look as dangerous, and once again didn\u2019t score.<\/p>\n

With under five minutes to go, the Canucks\u2019 defensive zone struggles were put on full display, as Travis Konecny was left alone in front of the net and was able to get his own rebound and put the Flyers ahead by two.<\/p>\n

The Flyers take a 3-1 lead. <\/p>\n

\ud83c\udfa5: Sportsnet | #Canucks<\/a> <\/p>\n

3-1 Flyers.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Some more takeaways from the second:
-Tom Willander\u2019s abilities on puck retrievals have improved so much since the start of the season. Great to see. He\u2019s starting to do more and more of the little things right.
-This game quickly lost its flow from the first period.
-I so badly wanted to see Jake DeBrusk score a goal on that give-and-go.<\/p>\n

Third Period<\/p>\n

The third got off to as good a start as anyone could have hoped for for the Canucks, as Drew O\u2019Connor pulled them within one almost right away.<\/p>\n

\ud83d\udea8CANUCKS GOAL\ud83d\udea8<\/p>\n

Drew O’Connor cuts the Philly lead to one with his 10th goal of the season! <\/p>\n

\ud83c\udfa5: Sportsnet | #Canucks<\/a> <\/p>\n

3-2!<\/p>\n

Annnnddddd it\u2019s gone. Just 20 seconds later, the Flyers jumped out in front by two again.<\/p>\n

Aaaaannnnnndddddd just like that the Flyers are back up by two. <\/p>\n

\ud83c\udfa5: Sportsnet | #Canucks<\/a> <\/p>\n

Trailing by two, the Canucks got a power play with just under five minutes remaining. They pulled Thatcher Demko to go to 6-on-4, and Owen Tippett added an empty netter to put the icing on the cake. Or so you thought! Tom Willander was Johnny on the spot and wristed home his second goal of the season to pull the Canucks back within two:<\/p>\n

Tom Willander scores his 2nd goal of the season. <\/p>\n

\ud83c\udfa5: Sportsnet | #Canucks<\/a> <\/p>\n

Once again, the Canucks pulled Demko, but it was too little, too late, as the Flyers added another empty-netter.<\/p>\n

6-3 final.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Just four wins for the Canucks on home ice heading into 2026.<\/p>\n

Some takeaways from the third:
-Stick taps for John Shorthouse. It\u2019s been a miserable season, and yet Shorty somehow manages to keep us all entertained.
-The Flyers let the Canucks in, but the way they put the hammer down and left little doubt in the end is the mark of a good team.
-Good night for David Kampf. Maybe\u00a0he\u00a0was the player who needed the reset just as much as DeBrusk! That\u2019s sarcasm, for those who are new here.<\/p>\n

What\u2019s your instant reaction to tonight\u2019s game? Let us know in the comments section below!<\/p>\n

Sponsored by bet365<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Welcome back to Instant Reaction, the series here at\u00a0CanucksArmy\u00a0where we give you our instant reaction to tonight\u2019s\u00a0Vancouver Canucks\u00a0game…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":379155,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[433],"tags":[49,48,448,82],"class_list":{"0":"post-379154","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-nhl","8":"tag-ca","9":"tag-canada","10":"tag-nhl","11":"tag-sports"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/379154","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=379154"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/379154\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/379155"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=379154"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=379154"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=379154"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}