Let me steal a lede for this Vancouver Canucks story. To quote our sister site at CanucksArmy, writer Michael Liu’s words: “Adam Foote is a hockey terrorist and the product on the ice is absolutely horrid.”

Of course, every team has won a game in the calendar year of 2026. Right? (Natalie Portman Star Wars meme). Nope.

If there’s any time for the Edmonton Oilers to see the Canucks – it’s right now.

The Canucks are in a sorry state, having just travelled east and lost all six games on the roadtrip in regulation by a combined score of 31-9, extending their winless skid to nine games.

There have been zero wins in 2026 for the Canucks, and the pressure is on with the Oilers in town. Their last win was on Dec. 29 over the Seattle Kraken. Their last regulation victory 10 days before that. One victory in their last fourteen games.

You get the idea. With every subsequent fact about the 32nd-place team – by a six-point cushion, to boot – you just roll your eyes as an Oiler fan.

The Oilers couldn’t possibly, wouldn’t be silly enough to play down to their competition, right?

Well…

The rebuild is on

It wasn’t always like this. In fact, in the aftermath of the seismic Quinn Hughes trade, Vancouver won four in a row. General manager Patrik Allvin was touting slogans like “hybrid retool” and the usual non-acknowledgments out of this market.

That has quickly changed.

President Jim Rutherford came out this week and said this team is open for business, publicly vying for a top draft pick, and saying the words that Canucks’ fans never believed they hear.

“We may end up saying no to offers, certainly, but we’re not going to say no to having conversations about any player. This is about improving this team without taking shortcuts,” Rutherford told Postmedia on Wednesday.

Everyone knew Kiefer Sherwood would be an attractive trade chip, but are Elias Pettersson’s days officially numbered? What value does Brock Boeser have on the open market? Or Tyler Myers?

That’s the work to do, identifying their core moving forward.

The growth, particularly of Zeev Buium, Tom Willander, Marco Rossi, et al, is where their top priorities lie on the ice.

But the games need to be played.

“It [stinks]. I hate losing,” said Elias Petterson this week. “The message is to try to do whatever to get the next win.”

Who’s got the goods?

Brock Boeser finally scored on Thursday, although in a 4-1 loss to the Columbus Blue Jackets to finish the roadtrip.

Boeser had been mired in a 22-game goalscoring drought, which has not been a fruitful $50 million extension that either party hoped for when he re-upped in the summer.

He’s scored 10 goals and 22 points, fourth on the team in points.

“There’s some tough times right now and the only way to get out of these tough times is hard work,” said Boeser after the game. “Our team needs to understand that.”

Offence is simply hard to come by for this team.

In their last 10 games, according to Moneypuck, the Canucks have just a 34.2 per cent goal share at 5-on-5, which is remarkably not the worst in the league, thanks to the Anaheim Ducks’ freefall. The fancy stats suggest it shouldn’t be that bad in this stretch, but they remain 31st overall when you account for the full season, and their expected goals crater the same.

It also doesn’t improve when you expand for all situations.

Their -24 goal differential at 5-on-5 is ten goals worse than the Oilers and third worst in the league.

Regional rivalry

The Oilers will play their fourth game in six nights in their third timezone tonight (say that ten times fast).

Edmonton tends to play down to its competition, but the Oilers passed the test, narrowly, when playing the streaking Jets last week in a similar spot.

This is their third head-to-head on the season, with the Oilers beating the Canucks 3-1 on October 11 in a game they both should’ve been ahead by five goals, but then were later fortunate to close out in regulation.

Edmonton lost in overtime on October 26th, where they were fortunate to get a point.

The common denominator in those games was Thatcher Demko. But he’s on injured reserve right now, which you probably could’ve guessed anyway. They’ll play one last time on April 16.

Notes…

Team leader in points, Elias Pettersson, has a three-game point streak.
Undrafted multi-year pro Drew O’Connor is endearing himself to fans through his honest play 5-on-5, providing a bright spot. He had a 65.22 CF% vs CBJ on Thursday. On the year, he’s scored 10 goals and 17 points.
You’d have to expect Kevin Lankinen between the pipes. He’s faced over 35 shots in back-to-back games. Lankinen has never had a lower save percentage than this season so far at .887.
Jake DeBrusk said this: “I’ve never lost this many games in a row in my life.”
DeBrusk has been scratched multiple times this season and the trade smoke is swirling. He’s always linked to the Oilers, but I would be cautious. He seems to be unhappy and mentioned in trade rumours every other year. This bit of nepotism scares me too (son of colour commentator Louie DeBrusk, of course). Although on paper, he provides things the Oilers lack, I’m anxious.
DeBrusk is also just in year-two of a seven-year, $5.5 million annual contract. He’s scored 12 goals and 22 points on the season. Four times in his career has he surpassed the 20-goal plateau.
Kiefer Sherwood hasn’t played since last Saturday and is listed as day-to-day. Marco Rossi has been out since Dec. 30.
Zeev Buium was a surprising healthy scratch against Montreal, but in the two games since, he’s been over 21 minutes of TOI and provided an assist.
another defeat would tie the longest losing streak in franchise history, dating back to 1997-98.
If the Canucks lose, they continue down a slippery slope towards one of their worst losing streaks in franchise history. However, because the cowardly NHL does not include OT/SO losses as part of a losing streak, they still have some runway to achieve 10 in a row like the 1997-98 Vancouver Canucks.
That was a low point for the franchise, the season Mark Messier was signed, and Trevor Linden was stripped of the “C”. He was subsequently traded by incoming coach/GM Mike Keenan, and they finished dead last in the west. It was the final season for Pavel Bure, who requested a trade and held out until January 1999, finally dealt to Florida by new-GM Brian Burke.
The Oilers are 6-3-1 in their last 10 regular season games vs the Canucks.

Michael Menzies is an Oilersnation columnist and has been the play-by-play voice of the Bonnyville Pontiacs in the AJHL since 2019. With seven years news experience as the Editor-at-Large of Lakeland Connect in Bonnyville, he also collects vinyl, books, and stomach issues.

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