Vancouver Canucks chasing new team for playoffs and they play them in 10 days
The Vancouver Canucks’ playoff hopes are looking increasingly bleak, but they’re not out of the race just yet.
With eight games left, the Canucks sit seven points behind the playoff bar with one game in hand. That’s a lot of ground to make up, and the Canucks are missing several key players due to injury, but there is still a pathway to qualify for the postseason.
While all the attention was on passing the St. Louis Blues for the second wild-card spot, the focus has now switched to catching the Minnesota Wild. The Blues have won a staggering 10 straight games and now look in control of a wild-card spot.
NHL.com
The Canucks will not only need to catch the teams ahead of them, they’ll need to pass them. The tiebreaker is regulation wins, and the Canucks have just 26, four fewer than the Blues and seven fewer than the Wild. This means getting equal on points will likely not be enough.
The Wild and Canucks face off on April 12 in a contest which could hold massive playoff implications. For that game to matter, the two teams must trend in opposite directions in their five games before that date.
The Canucks need the Wild to win no more than two of their next five games. One of those games is against the lowly San Jose Sharks, but they also play the desperate New York Rangers and Calgary Flames. The Wild’s next five games are as follows:
- @ New York Rangers
- @ New York Islanders
- vs. Dallas Stars
- vs. San Jose Sharks
- @ Calgary Flames
The Canucks need to do the opposite and win at least four of their next five games. That’ll be tough, considering they have three of the NHL’s top seven teams coming up on their schedule.
- vs. Seattle Kraken
- vs. Anaheim Ducks
- vs. Vegas Golden Knights
- @ Dallas Stars
- @ Colorado Avalanche
If the Wild win just two of their next five and the Canucks win four, that would leave a three-point gap before that April 12 matchup. If the Canucks then won that game, they’d be just a point back with a game in hand.
The Canucks would then have two games left on their schedule, at home against the Sharks and Golden Knights, while the Wild would have just one hosting the Ducks. There’s a possibility the Golden Knights would already be locked into their standings position, leaving them with nothing to play for.
The Canucks will also need the Flames to stumble, although, with the two teams nearly equal on points, there’s much less ground to make up. The Flames are just one point ahead with the same number of games played.
It’s a daunting path to the postseason for the Canucks. Most prediction models give them less than a 10 per cent chance of pulling it off, but it is still possible, and as long as there’s a chance, this Canucks team won’t quit.