While Vincent Desharnais was in the Vancouver Canucks’ opening night lineup as their sixth defenceman, but what hoped to be a happy marriage fell off the rails quickly.

After the Canucks took a 4-1 lead against the Calgary Flames after the first period of their season-opener Wednesday, it didn’t take long for it to evaporate in what ended up being a 6-5 overtime loss for the Vancouver squad.

Desharnais, partnered with another newcomer in Derek Forbort, found himself in the cross-fire on the Flames’ second and third goals of the night, helping spark their comeback. On the first, he worked to box out a Flames forward in front of the net, trying to give goaltender Arturs Silovs a clean look, but he was beaten by Rasmus Andersson with three minutes left in the second. Just 2:41 into the third, the big blue liner did much of the same, boxing out a Flames forward to give Silovs a look, but Martin Pospisill was able to beat him.

“The bottom four defence were bad,” CanucksArmy’s Canucks Conversation host Harman Dayal said Thursday. “Desharnais and Forbort were on the ice for two goals against, and their breakouts were sloppy.

“Overall, the team was leaky, whether in the slot, off the cycle, or defending the rush. Part of it is early-season hockey, but I wonder if, as a big-picture takeaway, trying to push up the ice to use your forwards’ speed makes you more vulnerable defensively off the rush.”

During Thursday’s practice, Desharnais was replaced on the third pairing by Noah Juulsen, now in his fourth year in the organization.

After practice, Canucks head coach Rick Tocchet said they were willing to have a rotation amid depth players across the roster.

“If Vinny sits out some games, he’s going to work with our guys,” he said. “It worked with (Nils Hoglander), it worked with Dakota (Joshua).

“You can’t be afraid to have that [ability to sit players to help them work on their games]. Juulsen could come in tomorrow or the next game and we can have a little bit of a rotation and guys can work with the coaches. I think that’s important.”

Drafted by the Oilers in the seventh round of the 2016 draft, Desharnais has been a success story, working his was up hockey’s ranks and turning it into 114 games with Edmonton between 2022-23 and 2023-24. This summer, however, he priced himself outside of what the team was willing to pay him, and he moved a province west, signing a two-year, $2-million AAV deal on July 1st with the Canucks.

The first regular-season meeting between the Oilers and Desharnais’ Canucks takes place on Nov. 9th in Vancouver, and he will make his regular-season return to Edmonton on January 23rd.

Zach Laing is the Nation Network’s news director and senior columnist and makes up one-half of the DFO DFS Report. He can be followed on Twitter at @zjlaing, or reached by email at zach@thenationnetwork.com.