Canucks are back in the playoff race after perfect road trip

Don’t look now, but the Vancouver Canucks are back in the playoff race.

Believe it or not, the Canucks are rolling after a perfect three-game road trip that saw them beat the defending Stanley Cup champion Colorado Avalanche, conference-leading Vegas Golden Knights, and the San Jose Sharks in the second half of back-to-back games.

KUZY CALLED GAME. pic.twitter.com/1cWtzoQOmo

— Vancouver Canucks (@Canucks) November 28, 2022

They’ve now won five of their last six games, with their recent success starting to be reflected in the standings. The Canucks are just one point back of a playoff spot, albeit having played an extra game than the teams they’re chasing in the standings.

The Canucks are one-point back of a playoff spot

Vancouver has come a long way since going winless in its first seven games to start the season. A win on Tuesday against the visiting Washington Capitals would give the Canucks a .500 record for the first time this season.

The Canucks are 9-5-1 since their dreadful seven-game start, which gives them the 11th-best points percentage (.633) in the NHL since October 27 — a stretch of over four weeks.

Vancouver’s next seven games are against teams currently below the playoff bar, and they’re playing five of those contests at home. With 11 games left before the Christmas break, the Canucks will play eight of them at Rogers Arena.

While Thatcher Demko has struggled behind a leaky defence, the Canucks’ top offensive stars have been filling the net with regularity this season.

Elias Pettersson (27 points), Bo Horvat (24), J.T. Miller (23), Andrei Kuzmenko (21), and Quinn Hughes (21) are all averaging better than a point-per-game through the first 22 games, while Brock Boeser (14 points in 16 games) also has an impressive stat-line despite missing six games due to injury.

Pettersson is tied for 10th in NHL scoring, while Horvat is second in the league in goals. Hughes is tied for fifth in points by a defenceman.

The Canucks’ penalty kill has struggled mightily this season, ranked 31st out of 32 teams at 66.2%. But their power play has been great, ranked fifth in the NHL at 28.6%, and since October 27, the Canucks have been the best in the league with the man advantage (34.6%).

It won’t mean much unless the Canucks continue stringing wins together with more regularity than they did in October, but it’s a start.

Can they keep it up?

“I think we’re playing better. I think we’re playing more consistent, and more as a group,” Bruce Boudreau told reporters after Sunday’s big OT win in San Jose. “But there’s a lot of steps we can take to become a better team yet, and we’ve done a lot of it with a lot of road games. So hopefully we can take advantage of some home cooking for a little while and then we’ll see where we’re at.”

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