The Vancouver Canucks’ skid kept rolling Monday night, and the latest loss had the same familiar shape: a slow start, too little offense, and another result that left the room sounding worn down. Vancouver dropped a 3-1 decision to the Philadelphia Flyers, stretching its losing streak to six games.
Jonathan Lekkerimäki provided the lone bright spot for the Canucks, scoring in the third period on the power play. Leevi Meriläinen made 14 saves on 16 shots in the defeat.
What made this one sting even more was how little Vancouver did with the opening 40 minutes. The Flyers were on the second half of a back-to-back after blowing a lead Sunday and losing in overtime, but the Canucks never took advantage. By the second intermission, Vancouver had managed only six shots, matching Philadelphia’s second-period total by itself.
Drew O’Connor didn’t hide the mood afterward.
"I think the level of frustration is high," said Drew O'Connor post-game. "No one’s happy with losing.
No one’s happy with how we’re playing. I think over the last little stretch, there’s probably been some games that we’ve played pretty well.
And then, you know, look at Winnipeg. We were really bad in Winnipeg.
We have a decent response. Played pretty good in Edmonton, and then kind of more the same tonight.
Just not good enough."
The frustration has become a theme for Vancouver, which has now lost 16 of its last 17 games. The Canucks have repeatedly fallen short of a full 60-minute effort, and head coach Manny Malhotra sounded just as exasperated after this one.
"The most frustrating part was our start," said Malhotra. "When you know the topic of discussion for the game is you want to stress a team early that’s coming in on a back to back, and the message is we have to have that same level of intensity that we played with the other night.
And to come out as flat as we did, and make the same mistakes, and take dumb penalties, it’s concerning. It’s frustrating.
It’s becoming a problem."
There was at least a late push from Vancouver. After an early third-period goal was wiped out for offside, the Canucks took control of the period and outshot the Flyers 13-2 the rest of the way. But they still couldn’t cash in on a late power play, and Philadelphia sealed it with an empty-net goal.
"There's a number of things that go into that," said Malhotra when asked about the third-period push. "Obviously, they did do a good job of pushing back.
Yes, they were a tired team on the other side. Give our group some credit for applying that pressure, but again, the lesson being we wait so long.
Those are the types of efforts and mentality we need out of the gate. And when we discuss it prior to going out on the ice, and we don’t see it, it’s extremely frustrating."
The numbers around the loss tell their own story. Brock Boeser picked up point No. 499 of his NHL career.
Filip Hronek logged a career-high 31:11 of ice time. Vancouver has now allowed a power-play goal in 16 of its 20 games this season.
Jamie Oleksiak, Luke Schenn, Filip Hronek and Guillaume Brisebois all finished with three blocked shots.
The scoring opened early for Philadelphia when Michael Bunting struck at 2:03 of the first period, with Christian Dvorak and Nick Seeler drawing the assists. Travis Konecny made it 2-0 at 3:05 of the second on the power play, set up by Matvei Michkov and Christian Dvorak.
Lekkerimäki got Vancouver on the board at 12:44 of the third, finishing a power-play chance off feeds from Boeser and Elias Pettersson. Travis Sanheim then closed the door at 19:01 with the empty-net, shorthanded goal.
Vancouver’s next chance comes November 13, 2026, when it hosts the New York Rangers at 7:00 pm PCT.
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