RALEIGH — The Carolina Hurricanes routed the Vancouver Canucks 7-2 Thursday in Raleigh, N.C., delivering an embarrassing loss that closed a daunting opening stretch for Vancouver against four recent Stanley Cup Finalists in five games over 10 nights.
Carolina led 3-0 early and 4-0 before pulling away to 7-1, while Vancouver managed just one shot on target in the first 17 1/2 minutes despite coach Manny Malhotra warning his team to play its own game against the Hurricanes' speedy press. The Hurricanes eviscerated Vancouver on special teams, going 3-for-3 on the power play and 4-for-4 on the penalty kill while adding a shorthanded goal at 13:13 of the second period. Logan Stankoven scored three times for Carolina, including the shorthanded two-on-one that made it 5-1 after Jake DeBrusk had cut the deficit to 4-1, and DeBrusk scored both Vancouver goals.
“We acknowledge we’re going to have some rough nights,” Malhotra explained to reporters post-game in Raleigh, N.C. “But on our part and the way we coach it, it’s not going to be for lack of effort. We can’t have guys that are just going to go away in these situations. It shows what type of character we have when we show the ability to push back and play our game despite the score. And that, unfortunately, wasn’t the case tonight.” DeBrusk added: “We talked a lot during training camp, and the last couple of days, what’s expected of us. And obviously that wasn’t good enough.”
Defensive awareness was lacking even when structure was in place. On Andrei Svechnikov’s power-play goal that made it 3-0 at 9:25 of the first, Filip Hronek turned slowly and failed to tie up Svechnikov or stop Jackson Blake’s centering pass. Victor Mancini hesitated in the slot on Stankoven’s second goal to make it 6-1, and Aatu Raty and Arshdeep Bains left the high slot open on Stankoven’s final goal. There were positives for Elias Pettersson, who drove the top line that generated both Vancouver goals and won his matchup against Jordan Staal — five-on-five shots were 5-1 for Vancouver in 7:01 of Pettersson-vs-Staal ice time compared to 25-8 for Carolina without it — while rookie Jonathan Lekkerimaki had three shots, one assist and was plus-two. Malhotra scratched veterans Luke Schenn, 36, and Brendan Gallagher, 34, for Mancini and Bains to add speed, saying: “The one common thread with any player that is a scratch is that they're going to be upset. The guys want to play. They want to be in the lineup. So regardless of what reason you give them, there are going to be some feelings there, which is expected. (But) if you have a guy that's accepting of being out of the lineup and not really caring, then that's a whole other set of problems. So it's a good problem to have. The veteran guys, they're intelligent; they understand why it's happening. Again, they're not happy about it, but they understand it.”
Vancouver had split two games against Edmonton, the Cup finalist in 2024 and 2025, and lost 3-2 to 2026 runner-up Vegas before the 7-2 defeat to the reigning champion Hurricanes. The Canucks now head to the New York area for three games in four nights starting Saturday against the New Jersey Devils, with tests against Florida and Tampa Bay looming next week. The loss followed Stankoven's natural hat trick powers Hurricanes past Canucks 7-2 in Raleigh, a result Malhotra said showed how much work remains in the rebuild if effort and execution do not improve.