‘It sucks losing’: Vancouver Canucks struggling through 8-game winless skid

Vancouver Canucks goaltender Leevi Merilainen (31) stops Carolina Hurricanes' Andrei Svechnikov (37) as Vancouver's Elias Pettersson (25) watches during the second period of an NHL hockey game in Vancouver on Tuesday, Oct. 20, 2026. THE CANADIAN PRESS/Ethan Cairns

VANCOUVER — Finding silver linings is getting increasingly difficult for the struggling Vancouver Canucks.

Outsiders tempered expectations for the rebuilding NHL team heading into the 2026-27 season, but an extended skid early in the campaign is already wearing on players.

“It sucks losing. I don’t have any good words for it,” said star centre Elias Pettersson after his Canucks fell 6-3 to the Carolina Hurricanes on Tuesday.

The result marked Vancouver’s eighth straight defeat.

The Canucks have collected a single point across the stretch, coming in a 3-2 overtime road loss to the Florida Panthers on Oct. 15.

“We’re all professionals. We all want to win. It’s getting really old,” said forward Max Sasson. “I think for our group and our mental space, we need to start getting some wins.

“But that starts with playing the right way. You get yourself into tight games, and we’ve got to figure out a way to come out on the right side.”

There have been moments of hope for the Canucks (2-8-1) in recent outings.

Vancouver came into Tuesday with the league’s worst penalty kill (58.1 per cent) and held the reigning Stanley Cup champions without a power-play goal.

Goalie Leevi Merilainen even turned away a penalty shot from Sebastian Aho on one of Carolina’s man advantages in the second period.

The score was knotted at 3-3 heading into the final frame before the Hurricanes (8-2-1) chalked up three unanswered strikes.

Carolina sniper Nikolaj Ehlers admitted his team wasn’t at its best across the entire game.

“Third period, playing more the way that we need to play, getting pucks deep, creating some turnovers, and getting o-zone time, shooting a little more,” said the winger. ”I thought we didn’t play a great first 40 (minutes), but we got the win. We got to take those two points, but we got to be a lot better than that.”

In their last four games, the Canucks have been tied or leading on the scoreboard heading into the third period. Each contest has ended in another Vancouver loss.

“It’s a really good lesson for our group that when your game lacks details in the third, or when you open up the door against teams that we’ve been playing, they make you pay,” said head coach Manny Malhotra.

“Obviously (there’s) a lot of good things, to be able to claw and scratch our way to stay in these games. But it’s a valuable lesson to us that 40 is not good enough, 45 is not good enough, 50 is not good enough in this league. We have to stay with the process.”

A former NHL centre himself, Malhotra knows how losses can weigh on a professional athlete.

Yet he’s not using his own experience to help buoy the team.

“It’s new generation of athletes in the game, and we deal with it with this group,” the coach said.

“There has to be an understanding within the room that there’s no cavalry coming. There’s no special potion that’s going to get us out of it. It’s incumbent on us in the room to find a solution to this problem.”

LOADING UP

Hurricanes coach Rod Brind’Amour put centre Logan Stankoven on a line with wingers Nikolaj Ehlers and Jackson Blake for the first time this season.

It paid off immediately.

The trio combined for nine points, with Stankoven and Ehlers each scoring twice and contributing an assist, while Blake had three helpers.

“You got three really talented players. You saw it there in a really full display tonight,” Brind’Amour said. “Put those three together, there’s a lot of skill. Sometimes that doesn’t work, but they worked tonight.”

DYNAMIC DESLAURIERS

Journeyman forward Nicolas Deslauriers scored twice for the Hurricanes, including his first goal since April 2025.

He now has five multi-goal games in his career — three of which came in Vancouver.

Asked why the West Coast locale has been such a sweet spot, Deslauriers didn’t have an answer.

“I don’t know. We should play them more often. I should play here more often,” he said. ”No, I don’t know. Just guess it happens. But don’t get used to it. That’s for sure.”

This report by Gemma Karstens-Smith, The Canadian Press, was first published Oct. 21, 2026.