Why do we watch hockey? It may be because of the glorious goals and moments that last a lifetime, but in the end, we are searching for a good story. In all those moments, heroes emerge. A lot of the time, the superstars create those moments, with their shifty hands and tape-to-tape passes, anything to come up clutch. However, this year's Last Word On Hockey Summer Series is all about those unexpected heroic moments. Often, they make for the most intriguing storylines. An unlikely hero can score a Stanley Cup Playoff series-clinching goal, make a series-saving save, or maybe it is a season-long performance unlikely to be repeated. Today, we will talk about the Vancouver Canucks unlikely heroes.
Credit Image: © Eric Seals/Detroit Free Press via ZUMA Press Wire
Some wonder what makes an unlikely hero. It can be a player who has a massive improvement out of nowhere. It can be a player who defies the odds to create a big moment. Moreover, it can even be a youngster who propels his team to an unexpected victory.
No doubt, the Canucks have had their fair share of heroes. Many of us remember the big moments, such as when Alex Burrows slayed the dragon in 2011 in Game 7 of the Stanley Cup Playoffs against the Chicago Blackhawks in Round 1, or when Roberto Luongo stood on his head and made 72 saves in a 5-4 quadruple-overtime win against the Dallas Stars in the 2007 Western Conference Quarterfinals. Kirk McLean also had a heroic run in the 1994 Stanley Cup Playoffs, during which the Canucks reached the Stanley Cup Final.
However, we are not here today to discuss the fan-favourite moments, but rather the moments created by players who we did not expect. We do not need to look that far to find some of those players.
The honour for the team's unlikely hero is none other than Chris Tanev . The defensive defenceman is definitely not known for his goal-scoring, but he sure has a flair for the dramatic when he does find the back of the net. His first career goal was an overtime winner against the Edmonton Oilers on February 4, 2013, when he scored with 19 seconds left in the overtime period to give the Canucks the victory. Interestingly enough, the moment that defined him as a hero was in the same vein.
After the 2011 Stanley Cup Playoffs, the Canucks had not won a postseason round for eight years. In the unique 2020 Stanley Cup Playoffs, the Canucks were part of the play-in portion of the tournament, meaning that they had to play in a qualifying round. In Game 4 of the qualifying round against the Minnesota Wild , Tanev fired home a shot from the point 11 seconds into overtime to send Vancouver to the Stanley Cup Playoffs officially. That marked the first postseason series win since 2011 and would spark a decent run in the playoffs after that.
Tanev left the Canucks after the 2019-20 season as a free agent after ten seasons with the club. That offseason was one of the most disastrous offseasons in recent years, as the team failed to retain key players such as Tyler Toffoli , Jacob Markstrom , and the aforementioned Chris Tanev . This left a lot of frustration among Canucks fans and cemented general manager Jim Benning's tenure with the Canucks as mostly a failure due to poor and short-sighted asset management.
The second unlikely hero who we will discuss today is Kevin Bieksa . Most would argue that Kevin Bieksa 's goal to send the Canucks to the 2011 Stanley Cup Final was a fluke, but being in the right place at the right time is important in hockey. It was one of the most bizarre endings to a playoff game. Bieksa scored in Game 5 of the Western Conference Finals against the San Jose Sharks in double overtime. Alex Edler was looking to dump the puck in around the boards, but the puck hit a stanchion and landed right at the blueline onto Bieksa's stick, leading to a goal while everyone on the ice thought the puck went out of play.
"It was probably the ugliest goal of my career, but the biggest," said Bieksa after the game. It may be ugly, but it cemented Bieksa as one of the unlikely heroes in Canucks history. In 2022, during Bieksa's retirement ceremony, the team gifted him a piece of that very stanchion as well as the game puck from his famous overtime goal performance.
In the 2024 Stanley Cup Playoffs, third-string goaltender Arturs Silovs made a name for himself after both Thatcher Demko and Casey DeSmith were injured in the span of the opening three games of the first round against the Nashville Predators . He won his first playoff game in Game 4, when Brock Boeser scored a hat trick, including two goals in the final three minutes of regulation to tie the game, and Elias Lindholm scored the winner in OT. Silovs made 27 saves in that game. He also pitched a shutout in Game 6 to eliminate the Predators. In 2025, he led the AHL's Abbotsford Canucks to their first Calder Cup Championship.
In that same season, Dakota Joshua was the recipient of the Fred J. Hume Award as the " unsung hero " on the Canucks, and for good reason. He scored 18 goals and 32 points for a career high, and also scored two goals in Game 1 of the Stanley Cup Playoffs against the Predators. In the summer of 2024, Joshua was diagnosed with testicular cancer, but he pushed through and returned in November of 2024 after undergoing surgery.
Heroes always battle through adversity, and some shine brighter than others. Tanev blocks shots and sacrifices his body on a regular basis. Bieksa was always willing to take risks and protect his teammates, dropping the gloves when needed. Silovs came out of nowhere, but stayed calm in the face of tough opponents. Joshua goes to the dirty areas and wins puck battles, racking up the hits. These players may not get the spotlight often, so we hope that we have shined a light on some of the unlikely heroes from the Canucks.
Main Photo Credit: Perry Nelson-USA TODAY Sports
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