Nearing the final stretch of a long road trip, the Vancouver Canucks have made the best of tough circumstances as of late, winning five of their last six games.
The successful East Coast tour will bring one final test on Monday, though, when they play the Columbus Blue Jackets.
And while Vancouver’s opponents, who are riding a 13-21-9 record, don’t have much of an edge on the red-hot Canucks, anything can happen given the game’s odd start time of 10 am PT due to the observation of Martin Luther King Jr. Day.
The away team is battling more than their regular travel fatigue, too.
Coming off a 1-0 victory in Buffalo against the Sabres on Saturday night, the Canucks were unable to board their plane to Columbus because of a snowstorm that had caused interruptions across the Northeast.
So, instead, Vancouver’s players and staff boarded a bus and headed back across the border to Toronto, where they caught a plane Sunday night that took them to Ohio in time for their game this morning.
As for the impractical detour north of the border, team reporter Kate Pettersen mentioned Sunday that road closures made the option to bus directly to Columbus much more difficult.
All options were considered with safety as the top priority of course. A lot of road closures in the area and different areas hit harder by the weather system along the driving route.
— Kate Pettersen (@CanucksReporter) January 14, 2024
A few minutes later, Pettersen revealed that the time was en route to Columbus.
Columbus bound ✈️ thanks for all the well wishes for our travels today!
— Kate Pettersen (@CanucksReporter) January 15, 2024
With 29 wins and 61 points over 43 games, Vancouver currently sits atop the NHL standings with the league’s best record.
After today’s game, which will be broadcast on Sportsnet, the Canucks will head back to BC for a five-game home stretch that kicks off this Thursday with a matchup against the Arizona Coyotes.
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With files from Daily Hive’s Preston Hodgkinson
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