THE MOJ: 6 buzzworthy stories as 2025 comes to a close in B.C. sports
Published 5:00 am Friday, December 5, 2025
Canucks Limp Home: After only picking up three points out of a possible eight on their recent road trip, the Canucks woke up on Wednesday morning with 23 points that puts them 30th in the overall standings, with only Nashville and Calgary below them with 22 points each.
It’s been a tough go but if you go back and read the ‘10 Burning Questions’ we had for the team at the start of the season, you can see that probably seven of them have been answered negatively.
Now comes a four-game homestand that starts with Utah on Friday with subsequent visits from Minnesota, Detroit and Buffalo. After that, it’s a five-game Eastern swing, which by the end could see Canuck fans logging on Tankathon.com to pass the time.
I’m hearing that if this slide continues, you could see some changes within the team’s management group after Christmas.
Toughest stretch for Hughes? Quinn Hughes has won pretty much everywhere he’s played, so with the Canucks languishing at the bottom of the NHL standings, you wonder how this is affecting him.
Hughes went through some similar struggles early in his career in Vancouver but he’s the captain now and one wonders how that burden impacts him.
“It’s a good question. I don’t really equate it to anything else ‘like these 15 games remind me of 15 games in 2019.’ Obviously with some of the injuries we’ve had, it’s tough to see where we are at in the standings but all we can do is try to move on,” Hughe said.”Losing is obviously the hardest part.”
As for getting leadership support from his teammates, Canucks head coach Adam Foote believes that his captain is getting some help in holding teammates accountable.
“There are guys that are supporting him. I’ll give the guys credit: there is a lot of accountability in our room. The first guy that comes to mind is a guy like Fil (Filip Hronek), he’s that guy,” noted Foote. “Since he came back from his injury on the Winnipeg trip (last year) to now, there’s been huge growth as far as maturity and how it’s in his game. If we’re struggling, Fil is there as a solid leader not just for Quinn but the team.”
He added that Tyler Myers, Marcus Pettersson and Brock Boeser have stepped up as well.
Dillon’s 1,000th game: It was a memorable night to say the least for Surrey’s Brenden Dillon, who appeared in his 1,000 th NHL game on Monday night when his New Jersey Devils played host to the Columbus Blue Jackets.
Unfortunately for Dillon, he didn’t finish the game after a second period skirmish with Dmitri Voronkov of the Blue Jackets.
Dillon’s an amazing story as he was never drafted by an NHL team. In fact, Dillon wasn’t selected in the WHL Bantam draft either but his hard work and perseverance paid off.
I’ve gotten to know Dillon over the years and he’s actually been a participant in ‘The Moj Shootout’ golf tournament and you couldn’t find a nicer guy. Ironically enough, I texted him Monday afternoon not only to congratulate him on his 1,000th game but to also let him know that the tournament is coming back to life next year as part of ‘Touchdown Kelowna’.
At around 10:30 p.m. on Monday night, I got a thank you text from Dillon and didn’t think much of it. Fast forward to Tuesday morning and watching the highlights of what happened. I immediately texted Dillon expressing my concern.
Within an hour, he replied saying he was all good. Dillon didn’t even miss a game as he played Wednesday night against one of his former teams in the Dallas Stars.
I’m extremely happy that he avoided serious injury because they don’t get much better than ‘Dils’.
Bublé and the media: Burnaby’s Michael Bublé has been in the news lately as he’s been sparring with NHL Insider Frank Seravalli on social media.
Bublé called Seravalli out on an appearance with ‘Donnie and Dhali” last week – an appearance in which he also stated the media ‘wants’ the Canucks to lose.
Look, Michael is an old friend and we actually texted back and forth on the Seravalli thing but I will disagree with him on the aforementioned point. Losing isn’t good for anyone covering the team.
When a team is winning, it draws more people in. That means more clicks on socials, more downloads of podcasts and more views on YouTube. Then there’s the fact that it’s a lot easier walking into a room after a 5-1 win and conducting a media availability session than there is after a 7-0 loss.
I love Micheal but he’s way off on this one.
Lions re-sign Hatcher: The Lions announced Tuesday that they have re-signed receiver Keon Hatcher to a two-year extension. The University of Arkansas product enjoyed a career-year with the Lions in 2026 with a CFL-best 1,688 yards on a career-high 102 receptions with nine touchdowns.
Hatcher silenced those who doubted that he could return to his previous form after tearing his Achilles in the 2024 Western Final. Instead, Hatcher has gotten better.
Next up for Lions general manager Ryan Rigmaiden is putting pen to paper for All-CFL offensive tackle Jarell Broxton and defensive tackle Jonah Tavai.
The Whitecaps got it right by signing Muller: With the Whitecaps getting set to take on Inter Miami for the MLS Cup on Saturday in South Florida, one has to congratulate the organization on the acquisition of Thomas Muller, the German midfielder who has taken this team to another level.
I recently had an opportunity to talk with some people within the organization on how Muller has fit in and just become ‘one of the fellas’ with his new teammates. Someone responded to me on ‘X’ that this has always been Muller’s persona but I’m still amazed at how he’s adapted.
Playing for the Whitecaps in Vancouver is the polar opposite of playing for Bayern Munich in the Bundesliga. Despite the Whitecaps recent run, everyone knows Vancouver is a hockey town yet if Muller and the Caps keep this up that gap will narrow.
Veteran B.C. sports personality Bob “the Moj” Marjanovich writes about the B.C. sporting scene for Black Press Media. This column is brought to you by:
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