The Vancouver Canucks set the fans home at Rogers Arena happy as they defeated the Calgary Flames 5-1 to kick off their 2025-26 regular season. Kiefer Sherwood, Jonathan Lekkerimäki and Brock Boeser each scored once while Filip Chytil found the back of the net twice in the victory. As for Thatcher Demko, he stopped 17 of the 18 shots he faced for his first win of the season. 

Thursday's game was close until the Canucks took control in the third period. Vancouver scored four times in the final 20 minutes while limiting the Flames to just five shots in the third. The game also featured some massive hits, which were originally called majors until they were downgraded to minors after video review. 

Looking at standouts, one of the Canucks best forwards was Chytil, who scored twice. He also led the team in shots with five while recording 16:25 of ice time. Considering the injury issues Chytil went through last season, Thursday's game was a welcome sight as he was able to provide offence as the team's second-line center.

Thursday was also a special night as Braeden Cootes made his NHL debut. The 2025 first-rounder played 11:14 and was able to record his first career hit. Post-game, Cootes spoke to the media about his first game and the crowd at Rogers Arena. 

"They're awesome," said Cootes. "They're so passionate. They're for sure like the best fans in the league. Honestly, that's it's a pretty cool building to play in, and a ton of support. So couldn't be more thankful for that."

As for some areas that need improvement, Vancouver's power play went zero for four while only recording six shots on net. While the Canucks did generate some chances, their passing was off, which led to easy zone clears for the Flames. For Vancouver's power play to be successful, they need to move the puck quickly and space themselves out in open ice, which will provide the puck carrier with more passing options. 

Clearing the puck out of the defensive zone was also a problematic trend during this game. The Canucks struggled to clear the zone which led to scoring chances for Calgary. In the end, Vancouver was lucky as Demko came up with some massive saves to keep the Flames off the board. 

They were good, said Foote when asked about the defensive structure of his team. I thought the structure was good. We didn't give them too much. The mistakes we made, we covered over pretty good. Between the dots. I think coming to our landmarks inside really helped us when we did make a mistake, leaving our zone or leaving their zone, we hustled back. Those things stopped more damage." 

Overall, Thursday was a good start to the 2025-26 season for the Canucks. 10 players recorded points, while 12 were credited with at least one hit. While there are some areas that need some work, Vancouver played a solid game and were deserving of the win on opening night. 

Stats and Facts:

- Kiefer Sherwood becomes the 20th undrafted player to record 960 hits
- Scoring his 79th career goal, Filip Chytil breaks his tie with Petr Prucha and is now in sole possession of the 54th most goals by a player from Czechia in NHL history.
- Recording his 121st assist with Vancouver, Conor Garland breaks his tie with Matt Cooke for 44th all-time in franchise history
- Filip Chytil records his first game-winning goal since joining the Canucks

Scoring Summary:

1st Period:

14:53- VAN: Kiefer Sherwood (1) from Drew O'Connor 

2nd Period:

No scoring 

3rd Period:

2:54- VAN: Filip Chytil (1)
8:52- VAN: Filip Chytil (2) from Arshdeep Bains
11:42- VAN: Jonathan Lekkerimäki (1) from Evander Kane and Conor Garland
13:04- CGY: Morgan Frost (1) from Yegor Sharangovich and Joel Farabee
17:05- VAN: Brock Boeser (1) from Elias Pettersson and Jake DeBrusk

Up Next:

The Canucks hit the road for a Saturday night battle against the Edmonton Oilers. Last season, Vancouver lost the head-to-head matchup with Edmonton, going 1-2-0 against their Pacific Division rivals. Game time is scheduled for 7:00 pm on October 11 at Rogers Place. 

Make sure you bookmark THN's Vancouver Canucks site and add us to your favourites on Google News for the latest news, exclusive interviews, breakdowns, and so much more. Also, don't forget to leave a comment at the bottom of the page and engage with other passionate fans through our forum. This article originally appeared on The Hockey News.

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Looking Back At The Vancouver Canucks' Lineup During Their Inaugural Game At Rogers Arena In 1995

A day after making perhaps one of the greatest comebacks in franchise history, the Calgary Flames were humbled 5-1 by the Vancouver Canucks at Rogers Arena in Vancouver on Thursday night.

Here are my three takeaways for the game:

Kings of Comeback(ish)

After outshooting the home team 3-2 for the first 5:41 of the first period, not only did the Canucks restrict the Flames to just two shots on goal, but they put six on them for the rest of the period including a goal off a giveaway.

But Calgary, being a great comeback team it is, rebounded in the second period.

By the second break, the Flames had outshot the Canucks 39-26 in total shots in the game. Even though the stat sheet showed 16-13 shots on goals as favoring Canucks, the scoring opportunities were 17-9 in Calgary's favor., including seven high-danger scoring opportunities for Flames versus a flat out zero for the hometown Canucks. Yet, Vancouver was still up 1-0 by the second intermission.

Unfortunately, it was the third period, where the Flames crapped the bed. More on that below.

0-for-4 on the Power Play

This was probably the most disappointing. A team that has four opportunities at the man-advantage and comes up with zero goals is not going to go very far in the regular season.

During Calgary's first power play, they were 0-for-3 in faceoffs, which was a big reason why the man-advantage didn't materialize into anything. So they need to clean up their faceoff act as well.

Keep Playing

Yeah, I'm not a pro hockey player, but even I know you don't stop playing until the ref blows the whistle.

I get how the Calgary players were concerned about their comrade Kevin Bahl getting hit in the head and falling on the ice, but that doesn't mean you freeze up and leave the goal unguarded.

As a result, Vancouver's Filip Chytil scored a goal and put the Canucks up 2-0.

How costly was that?

It drained all the life out of the Calgary bench, and until the next Chytil goal 5:59 minutes later, the Canucks outshot the Flames 10-3 in total shots.

After that, Vancouver put on two more goals.

Except for a Morgan Frost goal, the Flames never recovered and frankly never had a chance.

Bottom Line

As to things that I did like, going 4-for-4 on the penalty kill is amazing. The Flames did get out of their zone more easily than they did against Edmonton and they did have a lot more scoring opportunities than against the Oilers, but ultimately it was that second goal that just killed any life on the Calgary bench.

The Flames will now host the St. Louis Blues for their home opener on Saturday.

ST. LOUIS – It’s only one game, right?

That’s the message coming from the St. Louis Blues locker room after a disheartening 5-0 loss to the Minnesota Wild in the season-opener for both teams at Enterprise Center on Thursday.

The Blues delivered a stinker of a result after lots of preseason hype of building off of how the team finished in the second half of last season and into the playoffs before falling to the Winnipeg Jets in seven games in the first round.

Minnesota’s top line of Matt Boldy, Marco Rossi and Kirill Kaprizov, who on Sept. 30 signed the richest contract in NHL history (eight years, $136 million; $17 million average annual value), combined for eight points (two goals, six assists) and Filip Gustavsson stopped all 26 shots the Blues threw at him, including the first 14 in the second period.

Jordan Binnington did not have a good night, allowing five goals on 21 shots.

Here are tonight’s observations:

* This game was decided at the net front – Blues coach Jim Montgomery hit the nail on the head when he talked about the net front presence at both ends of the ice.

The Wild were on top of it from their end; the Blues were not.

Four of five Minnesota goals came as a result of being at the net, whether it be a rebound, a loose puck or just being in the right place at the right time.

“I think our habits, special teams, our battle level on 1-on-1 battles wasn’t at the level that we expect,” Montgomery said. “And then I think the biggest difference was the battle at the net front. There’s a process that we believe in and a lot of those details and habits within our process cost us tonight.”

Ryan Hartman, who scored twice, scored the first goal after getting a puck by Dylan Holloway’s stick check, then being at the net after Logan Mailloux, making his Blues debut, couldn’t get enough of the puck sliding trying to sweep it away at 15:54 of the first period:

what a move and what a finish 🤯 pic.twitter.com/lQsgR4e8VE

— Minnesota Wild (@mnwild) October 10, 2025

Then Boldy was parked in front of Binnington and to redirect a Kaprizov pass off the boards at 17:30 of the first for a 2-0 Wild lead, which was a defensive breakdown and missed assignment of another guy in tight:

sit back... relax... and enjoy pic.twitter.com/x4Kk8zEc7b

— Minnesota Wild (@mnwild) October 10, 2025

Minnesota’s third goal, a power-play marker scored by Joel Eriksson Ek, at 12:27 of the second made it 3-0 and came on the Wild’s first shot of the period after the Blues put up the first 14. But it was another case of funneling a puck to the net and Eriksson Ek being in the right place in tight:

Ekker putting the puck where it belongs pic.twitter.com/eyHla3vWSL

— Minnesota Wild (@mnwild) October 10, 2025

And on Rossi’s goal that made it 5-0 at 7:27 of the third period, another case of funneling a puck to the net and driving the goal to collect the rebound in the crease:

goal 5 ⬇️ pic.twitter.com/LV95P8cUg4

— Minnesota Wild (@mnwild) October 10, 2025

“I thought through the first two (periods) we did some good things and there's some things that we need to clean up,” Blues captain Brayden Schenn said. “… Defensively, got to work on closing plays a little bit faster. We did some good things tonight, but there's a whole lot we can clean up and grow and get better.”

At the other end, Gustavsson was seeing the puck because the Blues just simply didn’t get enough bodies to the net. The goalie’s eyes were clear as day at that end of the ice far too often throughout the game.

“Offensively we've got to get harder in front of the opposition's goalie, that's for sure,” Schenn said. “Nothing against them, but I think we just weren't hard enough there ... willingness to go there and make it hard on Gustavsson. We had some looks, but they weren't second and third opportunities and chaos around the net. That's obviously something we've got to focus on here moving onto the next game.”

* Logan Mailloux had a rough first Blues game – Needless to say, it wasn’t the greatest of debuts for Mailloux, playing his first game after being acquired from the Montreal Canadiens on July 1 for Zack Bolduc. He played 14:12 and was a minus-2 in the game.

The 22-year-old looked jittery when the puck was near him, fumbling it, not playing it cleanly throughout the game. The first Hartman goal started as a result of Mailloux misfiring a batted puck out of the zone that led to the sequence for the goal in which he tried to atone himself with a sliding play but not getting enough of the puck.

The Rossi goal also started with a defensive play in which Mailloux’s pass to partner Tyler Tucker was off the mark.

This is a process, and there are going to be nights where it doesn’t go right and the teaching moments will be there. You have to remember, this was Mailloux’s ninth NHL game, and there’s a long-term plan here, and judging someone’s play by just one game.

It wasn’t the kind of game Mailloux had hoped or envisioned, but there are certainly some teaching moments, that’s for sure.

* Blues shot selection was not good enough when game could have changed at start of second period – The Blues came out in the second period with a purpose. And that purpose was to try and re-grab the game.

They had a firm grip on it until the two goals late in the first by the Wild. They grabbed it back by pumping the first 14 shots on goal in the second period and having a 22-7 edge on the shot clock.

Unfortunately, the shot selection was not the idea to aim at the Wild logo, which the Blues were adept at doing. If that was the case, they win this game running away. But it also goes hand in hand with not taking the goalie’s eyes away.

“Well one, we weren’t taking away his eyes, so even if you are shooting at the logo, which you are correct,” Montgomery said. “A lot hit the whatever animal that is. And I don’t have an answer. We have a lot of good players that score a lot of goals and for whatever reason, we weren’t on our mark tonight.”

* Team play dipped – When the Blues were up 14-0 in shots in the second period, they had the territorial edge. But an untimely Schenn hooking penalty halted the momentum and 15 seconds later, Eriksson Ek made it 3-0 and instead of sticking with the process, the team’s play sagged instead.

There was no cohesion, little urgency and the effort level as the game wore on dipped.

And it reflected onto Binnington, who allowed a poor fourth goal to Hartman, who made a veteran move count by locking up Colton Parayko’s stick with his legs that was not called leading up to it:

2ND OF THE NIGHT pic.twitter.com/NlEgNqFU8u

— Minnesota Wild (@mnwild) October 10, 2025

“It’s a long season. It’s a journey, it’s a grind,” Montgomery said. “You’re going to have nights where unfortunately the score ends up like tonight at times. I did think for the first two periods, until it went 3-0, I liked our game quite a bit. The execution of special teams and being at the net front I think is why they separated from us. I didn’t like our game after that. Once it went 3-0, I didn’t like the energy on our bench, I didn’t like the energy that we had on the ice and the game kind of got away from us in the third.”

* Boobirds already? – The pregame hype was one thing. But that tone changed at the end of the second period when some boobirds could be heard, then they grew a bit louder at game’s end.

For Game 1 of 82, that’s way too soon.

“You obviously want to win the home opener in front of your fans,” Schenn said. “You know what, it's a long season. We can't dwell on one game. We have to turn the page and the best part about it is we have a game in a day and a half. We can go right back at it and make some adjustments and we know we can be better.”

The injury bug just won’t stop fluttering around the Florida Panthers.

After starting the season with three key players on LTIR – Sasha Barkov, Matthew Tkachuk and Tomas Nosek – Florida was forced to finished Thursday’s game against the Philadelphia Flyers down a man due to an apparent injury.

Defenseman Dmitry Kulikov left Florida’s 2-1 victory over the Flyers with just under 10 minutes left in the second period and did not return.

The play saw Kulikov go awkwardly into the boards after attempting a body check in the neutral zone.

He immediately skated to the bench afterwards, skating slowly across the ice and gingerly holding his right arm.

Soon after, the Panthers officially ruled him out with an upper-body injury.

After the game, Florida Head Coach Paul Maurice did not have much of an update on his veteran blueliner.

"We'll get him looked at tomorrow and then we'll give you a better idea,” Maurice said.

If Kulikov is unable to play, Uvis Balinskis will slot into his spot in Florida’s lineup and next to Jeff Petry on the third defensive pairing.

The Panthers will practice on Friday in Fort Lauderdale before hosting the Ottawa Senators on Saturday.

Maurice’s next opportunity to provide an update will be after Friday’s skate.

Stay tuned.

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Photo caption: May 6, 2024; Sunrise, Florida, USA; Florida Panthers defenseman Dmitry Kulikov (7) looks on against the Boston Bruins during the first period in game one of the second round of the 2024 Stanley Cup Playoffs at Amerant Bank Arena. (Sam Navarro-Imagn Images)

Former Pittsburgh Penguins forward Anthony Angello has announced his retirement from hockey. 

Angello, who played in 31 games for the Penguins from 2019-22, announced his retirement via his Instagram. 

"The time has finally come to hang the skates up. Hockey is a beautiful game that I gave everything to, and wow, was it ever generous in return. It’s given me friends, memories, and experiences to last a lifetime. It’s allowed me to chase and accomplish childhood dreams," part of Angello's post read. 

Angello compiled three goals and five points in 31 games with the Penguins. He was most recently with the AHL's Milwaukee Admirals and Syracuse Crunch during the 2024-25 season. He compiled seven goals and 14 points in 41 games with the Admirals and four goals and 10 points in 19 games with the Crunch.

The Penguins picked Angello in the fifth round of the 2014 NHL Draft. He played his college hockey at Cornell before joining the AHL's Wilkes-Barre/Scranton Penguins and eventually the main NHL squad. 

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