Saturday could not have gone much worse for the Vancouver Canucks and their dwindling playoff hopes. After starting the weekend just one point behind the St. Louis Blues, they’re suddenly hanging on for dear life thanks to being on the wrong side of so many games and some rotten health luck.
The Canucks arrived in New York City for their Saturday afternoon tilt against the Rangers with growing confidence in their scoring attack, despite a setback losing in overtime to the Blues on Thursday. And heading into the home stretch of the season battling for the last playoff spot in the Western Conference, there was no better time to face a Rangers team fighting to crash the postseason party out East, albeit with an older, directionless roster.
The Canucks should’ve had no problems putting the Blueshirts away and gave every inclination that they would. For seemingly the first time all season, the Canucks were absolutely dominating their opponents in possession metrics and crushing the Rangers in shots on goal 39-12, including a 23-6 run after 40 minutes of play.
But in true Vancouver fashion, five of those 12 Rangers shots found the back of the net, including three on Kevin Lankinen in the third period alone. This resulted in the Canucks leaving Madison Square Garden with a shocking 5-3 defeat and no ground made in the playoff race.
But the biggest losses of the day arguably had nothing to do with the game itself. The Canucks suffered worse defeats in other ways, starting with an injury in the second period to Elias Pettersson.
Pettersson had been making key strides in recapturing his scoring touch of late, progress from his snakebitten play for most of the season. However, an unknown injury in the second period kept him from finishing the game (as did linemate Nils Höglander) and, according to coach Rick Tocchet, might prevent Pettersson from playing Monday and beyond.
The out-of-town scoreboard was even more unfriendly to the Canucks than the injury bug.
At the same time the Canucks were playing at MSG, the Blues dropped the puck against the lowly Chicago Blackhawks. It came as no surprise that by the time the game in New York was over, the Blues were already cruising to a crucial 4-1 win.
Meanwhile, down the road in Belmont Park, the New York Islanders took a 3-2 lead over the Flames with three minutes left, poised to keep Calgary off the points sheet. Thirty seconds later, Jonathan Huberdeau tied the game to force OT, where Nazem Kadri potted the winner and pushed the Flames in front of the Canucks in the standings.
Adding insult to injury, the Utah Hockey Club stomped out the Tampa Bay Lightning 6-4 later in the afternoon, putting them one point behind the Canucks with 22 games remaining for each.
Here are the updated Western Conference Wild Card standings after Saturday’s action:
The Canucks and their 76 points now sit third in the race for the final Wild Card spot, with the Blues in the driver’s seat at 79 points and the Flames second with 77. And with the Blues set to face the Nashville Predators on Sunday, the odds are high that the Canucks will be in a five-point hole by the time they face the New Jersey Devils on Monday.
As far as days of the season go, Saturday was about as terrible as it can get for the Canucks. Vancouver will hope that means there’s nowhere left to go but up, but with so little time left, they need to climb at breakneck speed.
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