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Foote gushes about unlikely trio of players who saved Vancouver Canucks from two losses

Trevor Beggs
Trevor Beggs
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Oct 18 2025, 4:17 pm
Foote gushes about unlikely trio of players who saved Vancouver Canucks from two losses
Arshdeep Bains, Linus Karlsson, and Max Sasson celebrate a Calder Cup championship (Abbotsford Canucks)

It’s the Vancouver Canucks line that may soon need a nickname.

Because they’re fresh off carrying the Abbotsford Canucks to a recent championship, the Calder Cup line has a nice ring to it.

Much like they did in the AHL playoffs, the line of Arshdeep Bains, Linus Karlsson, and Max Sassons has played hero for the Canucks during their last two games.

The Canucks have developed a nasty habit of starting games dreadfully slow. They look like me trying to go to work after embarking on a Granville Street pub crawl in my 30s.

“I’d like to see us not give teams two goals to start games,” head coach Adam Foote said bluntly following the win in Chicago.

So far this season, the Canucks are the worst first-period team in the NHL. They’ve been outshot and outplayed in the first 20 minutes in each of their last four games. The Canucks have scored just one first period goal this season, the lowest total in the league.

Even though both the Dallas Stars and Chicago Blackhawks authored early two-goal leads against the Canucks, Vancouver has been able to fight back.

Goaltending and shaking off the first-period hangovers have been part of it, but these comebacks wouldn’t have happened without the Calder Cup Line.

In one of their first-ever NHL shifts together, that line single-handedly turned momentum in the Canucks’ favour with a spirited first-period shift.

In the second frame, Sasson bolted down the wing and scored his first of the season to give the Canucks a 3-2 lead.

Vancouver never relinquished the lead from there.

Despite limited ice time, the Calder Cup line dominated when they were on the ice.

“That Sasson line carried the pace for a bit and let us get our legs under us,” Conor Garland said following the win in Dallas.

Not only did they dominate possession, but they did so while primarily playing against a Stars line of Jason Robertson, Wyatt Johnston and Tyler Seguin.

The Canucks’ fourth line continued their heroics in Chicago on Friday night.

With Vancouver trailing 2-1 in the second period to the Blackhawks, it was another monster shift from that line that saved the Canucks from defeat.

Sasson in particular, the lone member of that line who didn’t start the season in Vancouver, was terrific. He tossed a Blackhawks player down to the ice, and then managed to score with Hawks centre Jason Dickinson draped all over him.

His goal would tie the game, and it was the last puck that would cross the line before Brock Boeser’s shootout winner.

In Chicago, the Calder Cup line was the only line to finish with a positive shot-attempt differential (57.8 per cent). They were also the only line to score at even strength.

It’s just two games, but Foote has already mentioned that the line deserves more ice time.

“When you’re young like that, their whole line, the energy they bring, we can deal with some of the things that they have to learn on the fly. You have to play games to get some of those things and address. So, I really like their game. I like that line.”

“With all the power plays, they probably didn’t play the minutes they deserved, but they’ll play some more minutes.”

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