VANCOUVER — The Tampa Bay Lightning defeated the Vancouver Canucks 6-2 Thursday night at Rogers Arena, extending Vancouver’s losing streak immediately following a win to seven games. Nikita Kucherov and Anthony Cirelli each had multi-point performances for Tampa Bay, which had lost seven of its previous ten games.
The loss came just two nights after the Canucks’ 5-2 victory over the Florida Panthers, a team that reached the Stanley Cup Finals the previous two seasons. Vancouver coach Adam Foote described Thursday’s performance as a step back after Tuesday’s progress. “They took advantage of a couple of mistakes,” Foote said. “They’ve been playing a lot of years together, so they’re connected. It’s the grit and the 50/50 battles — how hard they’re in on pucks.”
Vancouver’s last consecutive wins came in December 2025. The Canucks’ current homestand continues Saturday with a game against the St. Louis Blues.
Six different Tampa Bay players scored, including Jake Guentzel, Brandon Hagel, and Darren Raddysh. Canucks centre Marco Rossi, who has nine points in his last four games, assisted on goals by Linus Karlsson and Liam Oghren, but was not among Vancouver’s goal scorers. “It wasn’t our best today, so it’s crucial to learn from it,” Rossi said. “You recognize, you’re going to have some nights like that, but it’s important just to learn from the mistakes.”
Karlsson echoed that sentiment, stating, “It was a tough game. Watch video tomorrow and try to get better.”
The Lightning took control of the game with three goals in a span of less than five minutes in the second period, turning a 1-0 lead into a 4-0 advantage. Vancouver’s Oghren scored at 12:06 of the second period to make it 4-1.
Canucks veteran Marcus Pettersson pointed to a lack of collective effort as a key issue. “We’ve got to find ways to stop that bleeding,” he said. “I think there’s too much, like, hope that a guy beats a guy and One can get something going, instead of working as a five-man unit and transporting the puck as a five-man unit up the ice.”
Rookie Zeev Buium quarterbacked the Canucks’ top power-play unit during a first-period power play, gaining more ice time on the unit typically held by Filip Hronek and Tom Willander. Buium has eight points in 31 games with Vancouver, less than his production in similar ice time with the Minnesota Wild.
Canucks goalie Kevin Lankinen allowed six goals on 30 shots. Despite the loss, he made a desperation save on Hagel in the second period, prompting Hagel to acknowledge the save after the whistle. Lankinen had been building towards a fourth consecutive quality start before Thursday’s game.
Vancouver managed only 21 shots on goal, triggering an in-arena promotion offering discounts on Uber Eats. The team has been held to 23 or fewer shots in nine of its last 20 games, and tested Lightning goalie Andrei Vasilevskiy just 10 times in the first 40 minutes.
Elias Pettersson, who scored twice against the Panthers, finished with one shot on target in 16:10 of ice time against Tampa Bay. He had an opportunity early in the game, but held onto the puck looking for a pass instead of shooting.
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