There was a strange rhythm to this one right from the start. Rick Tocchet was back in Vancouver, the crowd didn’t quite know how to feel about it, and the Vancouver Canucks came out flying. But then the night slowly slipped away. Carl Grundstrom’s goal early in the second period proved to be the turning point as the Philadelphia Flyers beat Vancouver 6–3, giving Tocchet a win against his former team in his return to Rogers Arena.
The Canucks owned the opening stretch, outshooting Philadelphia 10–0 in the first 10 minutes. But once the Flyers found their feet, the game changed shape. After Grundstrom made it 2–1 just 3:40 into the second period, Philadelphia never really gave the Canucks a clean look back. Dan Vladar stopped 32 shots and settled things once momentum swung.
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For Vancouver, David Kämpf and Drew O’Connor each had a goal and an assist, while Tom Willander added his second goal of the season. Thatcher Demko made 27 saves. This was one of those nights where the final score told a harsher story than the early effort suggested.
Item One: An Early Push, Then a Familiar Fade
The first 10 minutes looked exactly how the Canucks would have drawn it up. They came out with pace, pressure, and territorial control. Philadelphia barely touched the puck, let alone threatened. Everything pointed in the right direction. But good starts must be followed by something more permanent.
(Bob Frid-Imagn Images)
Once the Flyers settled in, Vancouver struggled to reassert control. Gradually, they fell back. They lost races and missed details until they began defending rather than dictating. When the drift started to show up on the scoreboard, the collapse was on.
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This has become a pattern. The Canucks can still start games well. They can still grab momentum early. But the question of sustainability is a big one. Can they hold the line once the other team adjusts? It’s not an effort issue but a durability one, and something keeps showing up against teams willing to weather the Canucks’ opening surge.
Item Two: Thatcher Demko Is Better Than the Record Shows
The result against Philadelphia won’t flatter Demko, but the larger picture deserves a second look. He allowed four goals on 31 shots in the 6–3 loss (the final two came with the net empty). On paper, it goes down as his third-straight defeat. In the crease, it looked more like a goaltender trying to hold a game together after the balance had already started to tilt.
Demko actually benefited from a strong start in front of him. The Canucks kept the puck away early and limited the Flyers’ opportunities. Once the Flyers began getting to the middle of the ice, they extended plays and forced Demko to manage sequences rather than isolated shots. That’s often where goals are born—not from glaring mistakes by the goalie, but from erosion elsewhere.
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Three-straight losses don’t look good, but the numbers underneath suggest steadier play. Demko has allowed 13 goals on 105 shots in that span, but his season line still sits at a 2.72 goals-against average with a .905 save percentage through 17 games. With a little more support in front of him—one more goal, one cleaner exit—those outcomes could look very different. As the Canucks head into a back-to-back against Seattle and Boston, Demko’s play isn’t the concern. The margin he’s being asked to live on is.
Item Three: Drew O’Connor Makes His Case
The scoreline won’t reflect it, but O’Connor was one of Vancouver’s brighter spots on the night. He scored on one of his two shots, added an assist, and finished plus-2 in a game that had slipped away. When the Canucks were looking for something to stabilize the game, O’Connor was part of what little traction they found.
Playing alongside David Kämpf, O’Connor showed quick chemistry. The two set each other up for goals and kept their shifts clean and direct. On a night when momentum was hard to come by, that kind of reliability stood out.
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This recent stretch shows that O’Connor now has three goals and four points in his last four games, bringing his totals to 10 goals and 16 points through 39 games. He’s already matched his goal total from last season, which took 84 games split between Vancouver and Pittsburgh, and his career high of 16 from 2023–24 is very much in reach. For a team searching for consistency up and down the lineup, O’Connor is giving them one less question to answer.
What’s Next for the Canucks?
The themes aren’t new, but they’re becoming clearer. Strong starts need sturdier follow-through. Demko needs a little more room to breathe. And the Canucks may have to keep leaning on players who are earning trust rather than reputation.
With the Seattle Kraken and Boston Bruins up next on a back-to-back, the answers won’t come from talk. They’ll come from whether Vancouver can hold its game once the initial surge fades.
