By: Brayden Fengler / April 16, 2024 With the Canucks win tonight over their divisional rivals, the Calgary Flames, Vancouver has now officially clinched first place in the Pacific Division. A position that they came close to falling out of over recent weeks, but have ultimately held for the bulk of this season.
With this win the Canucks not only lock the bragging rights of being the best team in the Pacific Division, but they have also guaranteed themselves a matchup with one of the two wild card teams.
Wild Card Race
Currently, those positions sit with the Nashville Predators at the first wildcard spot and the Vegas Golden Knight with the second.
With the Vegas Golden Knights’ win tonight against the Chicago Blackhawks they now jump up above LA’s 97 points, with 98. However, as both teams will play a final game against different opponents on Thursday. If Vegas wins, then they lock their spot at third in the Pacific Division, but if they lose, this opens the door for LA depending on their games’ outcome.
Meanwhile, the Predators have already played their last game of the season and the Avalanche, who rank third in the Central, are well ahead of them still with one game in hand. Meaning Nashville has locked in the first wildcard spot.
Battle for the Conference
With the Canucks now locked in the Pacific and holding the second position in the conference, it may not matter to them what happens with the second wildcard spot, as currently that team is slated to face off against the Dallas Stars, who hold two more points than the Canucks to top the conference.
With that said though the next few games still leave the door open a crack for Vancouver to become the best in the West. Dallas only has one game left to play same as Vancouver, if the Cancuks win their last game and Dallas loses, they will both have a 51-22-9 regular season record. But Vancouver has 44 regulation wins compared to Dallas’ 40. This distinguishing factor would be enough to earn Vancouver the conference.
With the factors between Vancouver and Dallas still in flux as well as the wildcard race with LA. and Vegas anything is still possible and the playoff picture remains to be fully painted even with just two days left in the regular season.
Below is the schedule for the four remaining upcoming games concerning Vancouver, Dallas, LA, and Vegas. Again, Nashville has already played their last game of the season and will have their exact playoff placement decided by the results of these four games.
- Wednesday, Apr 17th – Blues vs. Stars (6:30pm PST)
- Thursday, Apr 18th – Canucks vs. Jets (5:00pm PST)
- Thursday, Apr 18th – Ducks vs. Golden Knights (7:00pm PST)
- Thursday, Apr 18th – Blackhawks vs. Kings (7:30pm PST)