Canucks extend winless skid to eight games after 6-3 loss to Hurricanes

VANCOUVER — The Vancouver Canucks’ early-season skid is wearing on players, even after outside observers tempered expectations for the rebuilding NHL team ahead of the 2026-27 season. Vancouver lost 6-3 to the Carolina Hurricanes on Tuesday, marking its eighth straight defeat. The Canucks have collected one point over that span, in a 3-2 overtime road loss to the Florida Panthers on Oct. 15. Star centre Elias Pettersson said losing “sucks” and that he had no good words for it.

Forward Max Sasson said the players are professionals who want to win and that the losing has become old. He said the group needs to start winning, but that begins with playing the right way and finding a way through tight games. Vancouver is 2-8-1. There have been some encouraging moments: the Canucks entered Tuesday with the NHL’s worst penalty kill at 58.1 per cent, yet held the reigning Stanley Cup champions scoreless on the power play. Goaltender Leevi Merilainen also stopped a penalty shot by Sebastian Aho during a Carolina power play in the second period. The teams were tied 3-3 heading into the third before the Hurricanes scored three unanswered goals. Carolina is 8-2-1.

Hurricanes winger Nikolaj Ehlers acknowledged his team was not at its best throughout the game. He said Carolina played more as it needed to in the third period, getting pucks deep, creating turnovers, generating offensive-zone time and shooting more. Ehlers said the Hurricanes did not play a great first 40 minutes, but took the two points and still needed to be much better. In each of Vancouver’s past four games, the score was tied or the Canucks were ahead entering the third period; they lost all four. Head coach Manny Malhotra called that a lesson: when the team lacks detail in the third or gives opponents an opening, they make Vancouver pay. He said staying in games through hard work was positive, but 40, 45 or 50 minutes is not enough in the NHL; the team has to stick with the process.

Malhotra, a former NHL centre, said he understands how losses can weigh on professional athletes, but is not relying on his own experience to buoy the team. He said this is a new generation of athletes and the group has to deal with the situation together. Players must understand that no cavalry or special potion is coming to get them out of the slump; it is up to the room to find a solution.

**Loading up**

Hurricanes coach Rod Brind’Amour put centre Logan Stankoven on a line with wingers Nikolaj Ehlers and Jackson Blake for the first time this season, and it paid off immediately. The trio combined for nine points. Stankoven and Ehlers each scored twice and added an assist, while Blake had three assists. Brind’Amour said the three talented players displayed plenty of skill together, adding that such a combination does not always work but did that night.

**Dynamic Deslauriers**

Journeyman forward Nicolas Deslauriers scored twice for Carolina, including his first goal since April 2025. He now has five multi-goal games in his career, three of them in Vancouver. Asked why the West Coast has been a sweet spot for him, Deslauriers said he did not know, joked that the team should play Vancouver more often and that he should play there more often, then said it may simply happen by chance and not to get used to it. This report by The Canadian Press’s Gemma Karstens-Smith was first published Oct. 21, 2026.