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I Watched This Game: Malhotra sounds alarm after 'concerning' Canucks performance

Daniel Wagner
Daniel Wagner
|
Nov 10 2026, 10:26 am
I Watched This Game: Malhotra sounds alarm after 'concerning' Canucks performance
Bob Frid/Imagn Images

Manny Malhotra isn’t the type of coach to bellow and bluster. He’s not going to blow up in a press conference or cause a scene on the bench.

Instead, the Vancouver Canucks’ head coach is more the type to let you know that he’s not mad, just disappointed — and that will be 10 times more devastating.

After Monday night’s game against the Philadelphia Flyers, Malhotra was very disappointed.

As calm and even-keeled as always, Malhotra still made it clear that the Canucks let him down.

“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,” he said.

Malhotra said the team’s start was the most frustrating part of the game, because the message heading into the game was that the Canucks needed a high-intensity start in order to “stress” a Flyers team that was playing their second game in as many nights.

“When we discuss it prior to going out on the ice, and we don’t see it, it’s extremely frustrating,” said Malhotra.

Instead of intense, the Canucks were lackadaisical, lethargic, and lazy. They sat back and tried to let the game come to them instead of playing on the front foot and imposing themselves on a tired Flyers team.

The Canucks had just four shots on goal in the first period. They added just two more shots in the second period. It was, to be blunt, pathetic.

“Our first two periods were not very good,” said Drew O’Connor. “We just weren’t playing our game.”

Let’s keep in mind, the Flyers came into the game in last place in the Eastern Conference. They’ve been outright dreadful this season. Heck, this was only their second win on the road.

And yet, somehow, the Canucks were that much worse.

“We knew what we were getting into throughout the course of the season,” said Malhotra. “[Mistakes] are going to happen, we understand that, but when we keep seeing the same mistakes, it’s problematic.

“They’re addressed daily, they’re addressed postgame, and when you don’t see the proper response to those corrections, the end result is what you saw tonight.”

Just like the coaching staff knew what they were getting into, so do Canucks fans. The team is starting nearly from scratch with their rebuild, and the vast majority of the players on the current roster are unlikely to still be with the team the next time they make the playoffs.

But just because a loss is the most likely result each night doesn’t excuse a lack of effort.

“They’re intelligent hockey fans, they understand what’s going on here,” said Malhotra. “At the same time, we want to put forth an effort that’s worthy of their cheering, and their praise, and their commitment to the team. When we don’t see it from our group, it’s frustrating for us as a staff, but we fully understand the frustration of the fans when they don’t get the effort that they deserve to see on a nightly basis.

“My message to the fans is we greatly appreciate your support and ask you to stay with us, and we’re doing our best to get out of this.”

I did my best to get out of this, but I was contractually obligated to watch this game.

offside i watched this game

Turnovers and easily avoidable mistakes

  • This is one Canucks game where fans might have been glad that Sportsnet made it harder to watch. The issue is, when you make it easy to skip a game, and fans find they don’t miss it, there’s a risk that fans don’t come back.
  • The first period was so bad that it seemed hard to believe it could possibly get worse; somehow, in the second period, it did. The Canucks had more giveaways than a nineties talk show host during sweeps, as they seemingly couldn’t connect on a single pass.
  • The Flyers opened the scoring two minutes into the game on a nigh-Shakespearean comedy of errors. It started with a bad pinch by defenceman Elias Pettersson that led to a Flyers rush, then Brendan Gallagher made things worse by chasing the puck on the backcheck instead of picking up the open man.

  • Still, Gallagher got his stick on Michael Bunting’s pass to prevent what could have been a breakaway for Christian Dvorak — a breakaway that could have more easily been prevented by Gallagher marking Dvorak in the first place — but then Gallagher couldn’t recover the puck, and Bunting got the puck through to Dvorak anyway, with Gallagher now at a complete stop.
  • Even still, the goal could have been prevented by Pettersson making like adult Link and getting on his horse to pick up Bunting in the middle of the ice. Instead, when the puck hit Dvorak’s skate and was sitting in the slot, Bunting was first to it with a quick shot to beat Leevi Meriläinen.

“No one’s happy with how we’re playing”

  • Malhotra called out the Canucks’ “dumb penalties,” which feels pretty pointed since there were only two Canucks penalties in the entire game: a roughing penalty to Linus Karlsson and a holding penalty to defenceman Elias Pettersson. Of the two, Karlsson’s was the dumbest, as he got carried away with Porter Martone before a faceoff and got his glove up in the rookie’s face for an incredibly unnecessary penalty.
  • “The level of frustration is high, I would say,” said O’Connor. “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 look at Winnipeg: we were really bad in Winnipeg. We have a decent response, played pretty good in Edmonton, and then more of the same tonight. Just not good enough.”
  • With an “A” on his chest, O’Connor is supposed to be one of the leaders on this team, but he’s been remarkably ineffectual this season. With his size and speed, O’Connor should be setting the tone with an aggressive forecheck, but he’s averaging 5.17 hits per 60 minutes of ice time — a lower rate than Marco Rossi.
  • At least O’Connor saved a goal with a few minutes left in the first period. Meriläinen gave up a sizeable rebound, and Jamie Oleksiak failed to box out Noah Cates. Just as Cates was tucking the puck around Meriläinen, O’Connor made like the NFL in 2013 and stopped the tuck, getting his stick on the puck and deflecting it back into his goaltender.

Worst period ever

  • The less said about the second period, the better. Legally speaking, it was 20 minutes of hockey. Like, if Canucks fans went to court and argued that they didn’t get the full 60 minutes of hockey they paid for, the judge would rule in favour of the Canucks. But if it went to a trial by jury…it would be close.
  • The Canucks went 13 minutes and 14 seconds without a shot on goal. What’s worse is that they had a power play during that time: a full two minutes at 5-on-4 where they couldn’t get a single shot on net. It was painful.
  • The Flyers got a power play goal, though. Because of course they did. Three minutes into the second period, Luke Schenn went chasing the puck to the boards, and no one layered in behind him to pick up Travis Konecny at the side of the net. Matvei Michkov hit him with an against-the-grain pass from behind the net, and Konecny made no mistake.

Too little, too late in the third

  • The Canucks, looking for a response in the third period, immediately gave up the 3-0 goal 25 seconds in. They got bailed out by Flyers defenceman Travis Sanheim, who made zero effort to stay onside on the zone entry, so the Canucks’ coaching staff, with video coach Ian Beckenstein, had their first successful challenge of the season.

  • “They did a great job of pulling up the different angles that they had and saw that the weak-side defenceman was off, so we weren’t holding our breath too much on that one,” said Malhotra.
  • After the disallowed goal, the Canucks finally came alive like they were part of Hugh Jackman’s circus. They outshot Rick Tocchet’s park-the-bus Flyers 13-to-2 in the third period, which would almost be impressive if Canucks fans hadn’t experienced Tocchet hockey firsthand.
  • “I mean, we shouldn’t need a goal to get called back for us to play harder,” said O’Connor. “Catch a break like that, I guess maybe it gave us a little bit of a spark, I don’t know.”
  • I had to laugh at Bunting’s absurd overreaction to being called for elbowing Linus Karlsson. Act like you’ve been called for a penalty before.

  • Bunting was incensed for the rest of the game. He was insistent that Karlsson took a dive, when the more reasonable explanation is that it really sucks to take the cap of an elbow pad to the schnoz. Bunting’s threatened Karlsson by name later in the period on a hot mic.

  • In fairness to Bunting, he nearly cost them the game with his careless elbow. The Canucks’ first power play unit came through after nearly two full minutes on the ice. Elias Pettersson sent a cross-ice pass to Jonathan Lekkerimäki, who played catch with Brock Boeser like he had come out of a cornfield, then hammered a one-timer past Joseph Woll.

  • “They did do a good job of pushing back,” said Malhotra. “Yes, they’re a tired team on the other side, but give our group some credit for applying that pressure. But again, the lesson being that we wait so long, those are the types of effort and mentality that we need out of the gate.”
  • The Canucks had two more opportunities on the power play. One penalty was again drawn by Karlsson, somewhat making up for his “dumb penalty” in the first. The other was a bizarre penalty on Woll for removing his own goalie mask during play. That’s a rare one.

  • Unfortunately, the Canucks couldn’t capitalize on either power play. Lekkerimäki hit the crossbar on the penalty drawn by Karlsson, but on their final power play, the Canucks couldn’t even manage one shot on goal, even when they went 6-on-4 with Meriläinen pulled for the extra attacker. It was deeply unpleasant to watch.
  • Then the Flyers scored into the empty net, game over, everyone go home.
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