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Canucks Lose 4-2 to Leafs but See Signs of Life
Vancouver dropped to 3-12-1 on the season Saturday night, but head coach Manny Malhotra says the team is making real progress despite the losing record.
The Vancouver Canucks lost 4-2 to the Toronto Maple Leafs on Saturday night, but head coach Manny Malhotra is choosing to focus on what he sees rather than what's on the standings page.
Vancouver sits at 3-12-1 after winning just one of their last 13 games — a rough stretch by any measure. Still, Malhotra pointed to a tighter defensive game and sustained offensive pressure as evidence the team is moving forward.
"It's not closer to where we need to get to, but there is progress," Malhotra said. "It's frustrating as we talk about these games loss after loss. But we do see improvement in different areas of our game. It's just tough to see those when there's no correlation to wins."
What Happened Saturday Night
Brock Boeser opened the scoring on a power-play breakaway to tie it 1-1 after the first period. The Leafs took over in the second — Auston Matthews notched his team-leading 11th goal of the season, and Zack MacEwen added another to put Toronto up 3-1.
Max Sasson pulled the Canucks back within one early in the third, redirecting a Brendan Gallagher shot, but William Nylander and Teddy Blueger — who each finished with a goal and an assist — helped Toronto close it out. Blueger's empty-net goal, assisted by goalie Anthony Stolarz, sealed the 4-2 final.
Stolarz stopped 26 shots for Toronto, which finished a four-game road trip at 2-2-0 and snapped a two-game losing skid.
Small Wins Inside a Big Slump
The Canucks came into this season expecting a rebuild. They missed the playoffs the previous two years and finished last overall in 2025-26, so a rough record isn't a shock. What Malhotra and his players are tracking is the how — and by that measure, things look slightly better.
Six of Vancouver's last eight losses have come by two goals or fewer. Earlier this season, they were dropping games by margins of five, four, and three goals. The defensive tightening is real, even if the wins aren't coming yet.
Boeser, who scored his fifth goal of the year, put it plainly after the game: "I think our team has played a lot better hockey of late. We're generating more shots and our defensive game is coming along. You've got to look at the little things."
Goaltender Merilainen also drew praise from Malhotra, particularly for a big stop on first-overall pick Gavin McKenna during a Leafs power play in the first period. "Every game he's played this year he's given us an opportunity to win," the coach said. "He's made some incredible stops."
The Long Road Ahead
For a first-year NHL head coach like Malhotra, managing a rebuild means selling the process to a dressing room that keeps losing. His approach: use video sessions to highlight the positives, not just the breakdowns.
"As coaches it's very easy to watch video and point out all the negatives, but you've got to catch them doing it right," he said. "When there are positives we tend to praise those things and celebrate those things and hope we see more of them."
For Canucks fans in Vancouver, patience is the ask right now. The team isn't going to make the playoffs this season — at 3-12-1, that ship has likely sailed. But if the defensive improvements hold and Merilainen continues to give the team a fighting chance most nights, the foundation Malhotra is building could start to look a lot more solid by the second half of the year.