The Vancouver Canucks just tied a franchise record they’d rather forget - and they did it in brutal fashion.
With a 6-0 loss to the Edmonton Oilers, the Canucks dropped their 10th straight game, matching the longest losing streak in team history, a mark set back in the 1997-98 season. That was the year Mark Messier took over as captain - a season etched in Canucks lore for all the wrong reasons. Fast forward nearly three decades, and here we are again, with Vancouver spiraling and fans wondering how it got this bad.
This latest defeat wasn’t just another tally in the loss column - it was a collapse. All six of Edmonton’s goals came in the second period, turning what had been a manageable game into a full-blown meltdown. Rogers Arena, usually a fortress of support, echoed with “Let’s Go Oilers” chants as the home crowd watched in stunned silence - or perhaps resignation.
Head coach Adam Foote, who’s largely avoided throwing his players under the bus this season, stayed true to form postgame. Rather than lashing out, he leaned into empathy, drawing from his own playing days to explain the struggles.
“I’ve been there as a 10, 12, 15-year vet,” Foote said. “There’s times where I made three mistakes in a game, and then you just want to go home.”
Foote acknowledged the effort from his veterans, crediting their leadership during a night where everything seemed to go wrong.
“I’ve got to give our veterans credit,” he added. “In between periods and on the bench, they were good to the young guys.”
That leadership was needed - because the Canucks’ young guns had a rough night. The defensive pairing of Victor Mancini and Tom Willander (playing on his off side) struggled to contain Edmonton’s attack. Zeev Buium got caught puck-watching on one of the Oilers’ goals - a costly lapse in a game where mistakes were punished quickly and often.
But it wasn’t just the rookies. Elias Pettersson and Brock Boeser, two of the team’s offensive cornerstones, were on the ice for more five-on-five goals against than any other Canucks players.
Boeser was out there for three goals against. Pettersson?
Four. And when Foote looked to his top line of Pettersson, Boeser, and Conor Garland to stabilize things after Edmonton’s fourth goal, the Oilers responded by scoring their fifth - with all three forwards on the ice.
“I thought Petey’s line was playing [Connor] McDavid’s line really well over top of them,” Foote said. “There wasn’t a lot going on in the game, and then we saw what happened.”
Pettersson’s stat line told the story. Beyond being on the ice for four goals against, his shot attempt differential - just 31 percent - was the lowest among all Canucks skaters. On a night when Vancouver desperately needed its stars to step up, they simply didn’t have it.
Meanwhile, elsewhere in the league, we’ve seen a different tone from other coaches facing adversity. After Colorado lost its first home game of the season, Avalanche head coach Jared Bednar didn’t hold back his frustration. In Vancouver, Foote continues to play the long game - taking on the role of teacher and motivator, rather than disciplinarian.
“We’re going to keep building and keep working on it and keep teaching the details,” Foote said. “We’ve got to build their confidence and teach them how to survive these situations when it happens so that they’re going to grow. They’re going to grow from this, and we’ll keep helping them out through it.”
That’s the message for now. But with the Canucks teetering on the edge of setting a new franchise low - one more loss would make it 11 straight, the longest skid in the team’s 56-year history - the patience of fans and the resolve of the locker room are about to be tested like never before.
Monday night could be a turning point. Whether it’s the start of a bounce-back or the moment the bottom truly falls out - that’s up to the Canucks.