This was just a hockey game.
Yes, Wednesday’s game was the end of the 2024-25 season for the Vancouver Canucks, which gave it some finality and invited all sorts of big-picture analysis and reflections on the past and thoughts of the future. But it was still just a game.
It wasn’t really a microcosm of the season, even though a goaltender leaving the game with an injury made it slightly resemble one. The Canucks simply lost to a better team. That happened a lot this season, but it’s not like the way they lost was emblematic of anything. There was no grand metaphor, no great symbolism to be found.
As Sigmund Freud , “Sometimes a cigar is just a cigar,” and sometimes a hockey game is just a hockey game.
The mundanity of the game itself, however, makes it hard to focus entirely on the game. If there had been a little more excitement — a comeback push in the final minutes or at least more than a single Canucks goal, it might have been easier. Instead, it was like the game itself conspired to fade into the background.
What are you supposed to ask a player after a game like that?
There was a certain resigned nature to the postgame comments from most of the Canucks. They’ve known the end was coming for weeks now and have had time for it to sink in.
“It’s such a disappointing year, I’m not even going to look ahead to anything,” said Quinn Hughes. “Just go home, enjoy myself, and probably put my phone away and see what happens.”
One Canuck, however, was still fired up: Kiefer Sherwood. His season ended the same as it began: hitting everything that moves and forechecking hard, consistent to the end. And he wanted it to be clear that this season was unacceptable and that next season would be better.
“I think our chip on our shoulder for next year grows even bigger,” said Sherwood. “We’ve got something to prove and something to work for. I saw a lot of personalities change down the stretch there once we got eliminated. We’ve got to channel it the right way.”
This game may have been tied going into the third period, but it wasn’t a particularly close game, as the Golden Knights took a firm hand in the third to put the Canucks away. But it still had Sherwood thinking of the close games the Canucks lost this season.
“I think with so many close points, close overtime games, close come-from-behinds, and leads, too, our urgency needs to be ready from training camp next year,” said Sherwood. “We see how close the margins are. At the end of the day, the worst feeling is when your fate is in someone else’s hands. We can’t let that happen again next year.”
Sherwood got a close look at the playoff atmosphere in Vancouver last year as their opponent with the Nashville Predators. It’s something he was looking forward to experiencing from the Vancouver side this year, making the season extra disappointing.
“You only get so many cracks at it as a player,” said Sherwood. “We have a special presence, market, fanbase here and we need to take full advantage of it. You see the passion that the city has. The playoff last year was something special to be a part of on the other side, but I came across a video today of the 2011 series and I just got chills watching it because there’s so much love for the game that everyone breathes here.
“You just want to give them something to keep cheering for. That’s our goal for next year and we’re going to make it happen.”
Sherwood threw down the gauntlet after I watched this game.
- The Canucks opened the scoring with some simple spadework by the Suter line. Nils Höglander defeated two knights in combat, winning the puck on the forecheck against Nicolas Hague and Jonas Rondbjerg, freeing it up to Conor Garland, who curled out above the goal line for a quick shot. Pius Suter picked just the right time to cut in front of Akira Schmid for the screen, then tucked in the rebound. It was just some satisfying hockey the way it’s supposed to be played.
- “Höggy, his first half was tough,” said head coach Rick Tocchet. “The last seven weeks, he’s been one of our better guys, taking in the information…He’s got to really work on a few things this summer — retention of hockey IQ things. He’s got to stay focused. These are things that when you’re 24-25, to really get to the next level, you’ve got to do that…You watch him some nights, he’s a hell of a player, but then he’s got to make sure that he stays focused.”
- Brett Howden nearly responded for the Golden Knights with a bizarre bouncing puck, as an aerial pass was tipped first by Filip Hronek, then batted towards the net by Howden. The bunted puck beat Kevin Lankinen but not the crossbar. As I always say, that’s why they call them netminders; if it’s not on net, they don’t mind.
- Like a that seems a bit off, Quinn Hughes added a weird post of his own. He threw a puck toward the net but it immediately ramped up the stick of William Karlsson, lofting up into the air over Linus Karlsson, Brayden McNabb, and Vegas goaltender Akira Schmid, only to hit the inside of the far post and just barely stay out.
- The Golden Knights tied up the game late in the second period when Max Sasson misread the play and lost track of where he was supposed to go in the defensive zone. To be fair, it was a tough play, as the Golden Knights were rotating around the zone like moons around Saturn, and we’re still not sure . Anyway, Victor Olofsson got open and hammered in a one-timer.
- Lankinen had a heck of a game — or, at least, two-thirds of a game. Before leaving the game in the second intermission with a reported muscle strain, Lankinen stopped 19 of 20 shots to keep the Canucks in the game. Like the area of the carpet that was cleaned by a visiting vacuum cleaner salesman, Lankinen was a bright spot.
- Nikita Tolopilo came in for Lankinen in the third period just as Vegas seemed to start taking the game seriously. It was a tough position for Tolopilo to be in but he acquitted himself fairly well under the circumstances. Sure, Pavel Dorofeyev beat him cleanly under the glove to make it 2-1, but Dorofeyev is the Golden Knights’ leading goalscorer. He beats a lot of goaltenders cleanly.
- A few minutes later, Tolopilo had no chance on a Jack Eichel tip that made it 3-1. The Vegas star took a heavy hit from Kiefer Sherwood a moment earlier and some might surmise that Eichel took the hit personally given the low stakes of the game. I’m not so sure.
- I’m higher on Kirill Kudryavtsev than most, so it’s been nice to see him get into a couple of games here at the end of the season. He’s not the flashiest of players but he got a big cheer from the crowd when he recovered from a Tanner Pearson forecheck by leading the former Canuck to believe he was going to pass to his defence partner before quickly changing direction and sending Pearson sliding to the ice.
- The Golden Knights added one more goal into the empty net to make it 4-1 but at least it was a special goal. It was the 42nd game of the season and 49th of his NHL career for Cole Schwindt but he had yet to score a single goal, so when he took a pass from Shea Theodore, hustled to centre ice, and fired the puck in from the neutral zone, he got a hearty cheer from his teammates.
- Retiring equipment manager Patty O’Neill got a lovely tribute during a first-period commercial break, earning a standing ovation from the crowd and appreciative stick-taps from both benches. O’Neill even got Hughes to flash a rare smile when he start twirling his white towel over his head — the only towel that will spin in the air this year with the Canucks missing the playoffs.
- “He's a terrific person,” said Hughes of O’Neill. “We've had some great years and some tough years here through the six years I've been here, and you know he's one guy that no matter what, you come in, he's got a smile on his face, and he's the same person to everyone. He acts the same every single day. He's a legend in Vancouver; a pillar for the organization.”
- “Patty’s a guy that you wish you could win him a Cup,” said Tocchet. “When we lose, they hurt. Everything’s about the players but the trainers, they put a lot of hours in. And they’re slugging bags and, win or lose, they’re always doing the same thing. They’re a part of the team. I actually hoped we would win tonight for Patty but it didn’t work out that way.”
