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I Watched This Game: What Malhotra said about Canucks' effort after lopsided loss to Jets

Daniel Wagner
Daniel Wagner
|
Nov 6 2026, 6:45 am
I Watched This Game: What Malhotra said about Canucks' effort after lopsided loss to Jets
Terrence Lee/Imagn Images

When your favourite hockey team is rebuilding, it’s very easy to get bogged down in the negative.

The Vancouver Canucks have just one win in their last 15 games, with their latest lopsided loss coming against the Winnipeg Jets on Thursday night.

The key for fans is to make like the subject of a Sloan song and see the good in every [game].

Against the Jets, the good was Liam Öhgren and not a lot else.

The 22-year-old winger scored his fourth goal in his last five games. That brings him to six on the season, in a tie with Brock Boeser and Jonathan Lekkerimäki for the team lead.

Beyond the goal, Öhgren was dominant in possession, with shot attempts 17-to-6 and shots on goal 8-to-3 for the Canucks when he was on the ice at 5-on-5.

In other words, Öhgren had a phenomenal game; the same cannot be said for the rest of the Canucks.

Even as he spoke in his usual calm, measured tone, head coach Manny Malhotra did not pull punches after the game.

“Ultimately, it was a lack of effort and compete in certain departments,” said Malhotra. “We knew coming in that they play a very simple and direct style, and it suits them well. We have to be prepared and ready to compete at that level.

“We were on the short end of a lot of puck battles and races tonight.”

On a pure talent level, the Canucks are going to come up short against most teams in the NHL this season. Where they ought to be able to match any team in the league is in effort level, and that’s where they came up short.

“These are the types of games where you find out a lot about your group in terms of what they’re capable of doing in terms of pushing back,” said Malhotra. “[The Jets] played a big, heavy game tonight and we didn’t have the pushback necessary to compete with that.”

Malhotra found out a lot about his group on Thursday night, as did I when I watched this game.

offside i watched this game

“That’s not physicality to me”

  • Canucks head coach Manny Malhotra spoke about the importance of avoiding stick penalties ahead of the game, which must have made it extra galling when Drew O’Connor reached in and took a hooking penalty on Dawson Mercer in the neutral zone just a couple of minutes into the game.
  • “We want to be a physical team, we want to get into people,” said Malhotra in the morning. “But when you’re talking about taking hooking and tripping and those types of penalties, that’s not physicality to me. So, we can be much smarter in that department in terms of the types of penalties we’re taking.”
  • The penalty quickly led to the Jets’ opening goal against the hapless Canucks’ penalty kill. The Jets’ second power play unit worked the puck around to the point for a shot from Haydn Fleury, and Guillaume Brisebois couldn’t tie up Alex Iafallo’s stick to prevent him from tipping it past Leevi Meriläinen.

  • “Not great. Again getting into penalty trouble early,” said Malhotra after the game. “A lazy hooking penalty for no reason in the neutral zone. We seem to put ourselves at a disadvantage early for no reason, and those are the types of things that we have to clean up.”
  • Just 14 seconds later, it was 2-0. A dreadful turnover by Victor Mancini extended the Jets’ offensive zone possession, and Meriläinen let in a soft one through the five-hole, which is not a euphemism, do not put in the newspaper that it was a euphemism.
  • This has been a rough season for Mancini, who has an absolutely dreadful 36.7% corsi this season, which is dead last among Canucks defencemen. This feels like a make-or-break season for Mancini, and so far, unlike Josh Homme, he’s not making it.

Öhgren gets crafty

  • It took about seven minutes for the Canucks to get their first shot of the game, but at least Öhgren made it count.
  • Marco Rossi sent Öhgren in over the blue line, and the young Swede used Jonathan Lekkerimäki as a decoy. Öhgren opened up his body and looked at Lekkerimäki, acting like the only thought in his mind was to pass the puck. Then he suddenly swiveled on the spot and ripped a heavy shot just inside the far post, catching the Jets’ goaltender, Stuart Skinner, completely off-guard. It was a nasty, clever shot.

  • Along with the assist, Rossi had a game-high seven shots on goal, as he had a much bigger impact than any of his previous games this season. He added four hits and went 7-for-11 on faceoffs. Hopefully, this is a turning point to the season for him.
  • “Obviously, Marco’s not a big guy himself, but his ability to come up with pucks and be physical to his own capabilities — getting through hands and just being harder on pucks,” said Malhotra when I asked him earlier this week what he needed to see from Rossi. “Those are the things that we’ve been preaching to him, and just the consistency in those things.”
  • The Canucks were a mess in the defensive zone all game. The Jets extended the lead to 3-1 in the first period when defenceman Elias Pettersson saw Max Sasson covering for him at the side of the net, and decided that meant he didn’t need to hustle back to the slot to fill in for Sasson. That left Dawson Mercer wide open to finish off a Cole Perfetti pass from behind the net.
  • Pettersson has been a bright spot for the Canucks this season, but that’s not the first time he’s been caught puck-watching and been too slow to get back to the front of the net. That’s part awareness and part effort.
  • “Just play more predictable, faster, and more physical,” said Öhgren. “I think they out-competed us tonight, and that’s just not okay.”

Pettersson excels in the faceoff circle

  • While Öhgren was the main silver lining to this cloudy game, there were others. Elias Pettersson, for example, had an outstanding night in the faceoff circle, going 16-for-23. So, that’s nice.
  • Paul Cotter massively struggled in this game. Shots on goal were 11-to-1 for the Jets when Cotter was on the ice at 5-on-5, and he was outscored 3-to-0. Cotter was great to start the season, back when he was keeping receipts; he has struggled mightily since then.
  • One of those goals against made it 4-1 in the second period. The Jets activated the defence and outmanned the Canucks down low, and the Canucks didn’t make the adjustment. When Kyle Connor drove into the slot, defenceman Neal Pionk was unmarked at the side of the net to pop in the rebound.
  • The 5-1 goal was like an uncreative bake sale: turnover after turnover after turnover. The last of the turnovers came off the stick of Jake DeBrusk, who tried to force a pass behind his own net that was picked off by Viggo Björck. Worse, after turning over the puck, DeBrusk ended up standing still and making no effort to win it back before Mark Scheifele poked in a rebound.
  • Perhaps that’s why DeBrusk was bumped off the top line in the third period. Unfortunately for Pettersson and Brock Boeser, he was replaced by Cotter.

New look lines in the third period

  • The shakeup on the top line was reflected throughout the rest of the lineup. DeBrusk was moved to a line with Jacob Quillan and Lekkerimäki. Drew O’Connor skated with Rossi and Brendan Gallagher. And Öhgren joined Max Sasson and Linus Karlsson, which was the most effective of these new combinations.
  • The Jets added one more goal early in the third period midway through the third period. As Mark Scheifele danced around the Canucks’ zone, Cotter looked utterly lost and was just wandering aimlessly. That left the elder Pettersson trying to mark two players, one of whom, Mario Ferraro, had the space to walk in and beat Meriläinen past the blocker.

  • Meriläinen might’ve had a case for goaltender interference from Kyle Connor, but he was helped into the crease by Jamie Oleksiak, so it’s hard to get too pressed about the lack of a challenge from the Canucks.
  • One more silver lining: Jacob “Star-Lord” Quillan got his first point as a Canuck. He earned it too, outbattling two Jets on the boards to free up the puck to Boeser, who cut to the net and roofed the puck shortside on the backhand.

  • I’m done thinking and writing about this game. It was a bad game.
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