Local News
Canucks’ climb for playoff spot getting steeper by the day
For most of this season, the Vancouver Canucks’ most compelling battle cry has been: “Hey, we’re still in it.”
Goalie Thatcher Demko’s off-season lasted until December, Elias Pettersson “trained around” his sore knee in the summer, and winger Dakota Joshua had cancer. Then Derek Forbort lost his dad and his health, Brock Boeser got concussed and J.T. Miller took his leave of absence. And that was just the first month.
But the Canucks were still in a playoff position.
Filip Hronek got injured, Quinn Hughes got injured and Pettersson got worse, then got injured, too. And the Canucks were still in it.
Miller got traded and Pettersson vanished. And even now, with Demko and Hughes still out of the lineup with their third injuries of the season, and Boeser goal-less in nine games, and Pettersson just scoring his second in 18, and Joshua and Nils Hoglander at nine goals combined (after amassing 42 last season), Vancouver is still in the National Hockey League playoff race.
But the battle cry becomes less hopeful by the day, and time is seriously undermining the Canucks’ dream about getting suddenly healthy and blasting off and surging into the Stanley Cup Playoffs with a puncher’s chance of upsetting someone who finished a time zone ahead of them in the standings.
Tuesday’s desperate 4-2 loss at Rogers Arena against the Montreal Canadiens makes it harder to be hopeful. But check back with us after the Canucks visit the Calgary Flames on Wednesday in the second of back-to-back games.
Besides the fading battle cry, at least there was confirmation late Tuesday from Vancouver coach Rick Tocchet that Hughes, the key to everything, was travelling to Calgary.
“A good possibility he could be in,” Tocchet said as he walked away from the microphones post-game.
Despite being slightly outshot and outchanced, the Canadiens took advantage of egregious Canuck mistakes as Montreal’s best players, Nick Suzuki and Cole Caufield, badly outplayed the guys expected to be Vancouver’s top players.
A breakaway by Suzuki, a two-on-one finished by Caufield and a shot by Juraj Slafkovsky, which appeared to nick Canuck defenceman Tyler Myers’ stick before rising past goalie Kevin Lankinen, had the visitors ahead 3-0 before the game was half over.
The Canucks haven’t scored more than three goals in a game since Jan. 27, which was 15 games ago. They’re also the only NHL team without a win this season when trailing after 40 minutes (0-19-4).
But they scored twice in the third period Tuesday to make it close: Hronek at 4:05 and Pettersson at 11:08, both with wrist shots from distance that Montreal goalie Sam Montembeault struggled to track through traffic.
The Canucks’ comeback effort ultimately fell short after Mike Matheson’s empty netter with 17 seconds left sealed the win for the visitors.
“We pushed, but it was too late,” Canucks winger Dakota Joshua said. “We had some good looks but just not good enough at the end of the day. We’ve got to find a way to make it happen.
“We don’t really need consolation (prizes) at this point. We need to find a way to score. Tomorrow, it only gets more heated and bigger games, so we need to find a way.”
Wednesday’s visit to Calgary could be the game of the season for Vancouver. For now.
The Flames lead the Canucks by one point in the race for the final wild-card playoff spot in the Western Conference and have played one less game.
But the race isn’t that simple.
The St. Louis Blues are also only one point out, and Utah Hockey Club is another two back. So there are four teams chasing one playoff spot. Eventually, this dawdle of a “race” is going to turn into a sprint as the finish line nears.
With a four-team field, someone is probably going to win 11 or 12 of their final 17 or 18 games. Someone is going to get to 92 or even 94 points, which is where the eighth playoff seed always seems to be.
At 29-24-11 – and 3-6-0 since the February schedule break – the Canucks are on pace for 88 points.
With 18 games remaining, Vancouver needs to go 11-6-1 to reach 92 points. And to do that, they’ll definitely need Hughes, and maybe Demko, and certainly must score more than two goals per game like they have for two months, even if they have to carry Pettersson.
They may need Lankinen to do something extraordinary, like play both halves of this week’s back-to-back and win on the road in Calgary after facing 26 shots from the Canadiens and arriving in the middle of the Alberta night on the post-game charter from Vancouver. This is Lankinen’s first season as, essentially, an NHL starter.
“My mindset is always prepare as well as you can, no matter what’s next,” he said. “So I’m just going to do my routine, and if I get the nod, then I’m ready to go.”
“Yeah, quick turnaround,” Tocchet said. “No excuses, even though it’s a back-to-back. We can’t have that excuse. I think I rolled the four lines (on Tuesday); I don’t think anybody was taxed tonight, so I think we should be okay.”
Pettersson said falling behind 3-0 was “a big hill to climb.”
That climb towards the playoffs will soon look like Mount Everest if the Canucks don’t start scoring and winning.
“For sure, there’s belief,” Joshua said. “You know, every night we think we’re going to go out there and find a way. That’s what makes it frustrating when we don’t.”
“We’ve just got to stick with our own program,” Lankinen said. “We know every game’s a playoff game now, so to stick with it.”
Because the Canucks are still in it. Somehow.
