To call the Vancouver Canucks' season frustrating would be an understatement.
After winning the Pacific Division last season, the Canucks have dramatically regressed this season, being either just in or just out of the playoff picture for most of the year. Their on-ice performance has been uneven, but it's been just as bad, if not worse, off the ice. The drama between Elias Pettersson and J.T. Miller reached a boiling point before the Canucks traded the latter to the New York Rangers, but even then, more drama has popped up on seemingly a weekly basis.
Now, their season is all but over, and their playoff hopes died with a whimper.
The Seattle Kraken, Vancouver's rival in the Pacific Northwest, came into Rogers Arena and dominated the Canucks en route to a 5-0 victory on Wednesday night. Thatcher Demko, who recently returned to the Canucks' lineup after a long absence, made 14 saves on 19 shots, but it's hard to put too much blame on him when the defense gave up so many odd-man rushes. On the other hand, Joey Daccord posted a 24-save shutout for Seattle as Vancouver simply couldn't buy a goal.
“I saw a lot of nervousness,” Canucks coach Rick Tocchet said after the game. “You need some poise. I didn't think we had poise. Then they got a couple of quick goals on us, so you could see guys were getting nervous, chasing the game.”
With the loss, the Canucks are now eight points behind the Minnesota Wild and the white-hot St. Louis Blues for the final playoff spot in the Western Conference. They essentially need a miracle to make the postseason at this point, and with just seven games left, time is very much not on their side.
The Kraken, on the other hand, have already been eliminated from postseason contention, but they were more than happy to play spoiler for their rivals.
“Obviously, it [stinks] that we're not the ones fighting for the playoff spot,” Kraken forward Shane Wright said. “But anytime you can take out a division rival in a game important for them, it always feels good, for sure.”
