By: Brayden Fengler / March 14, 2025 With just 17 games left to go this season, the Canucks are currently sitting one position out of the second wildcard spot. Leaving them with their work cut out for them if they want to punch their ticket to the Stanley Cup playoffs.
Let’s explore what the Canucks need to do over their final games to make this home stretch count.
Key Personnel Performances
Of the remaining 17 games there are certainly some contests that will be more important than others. But while the exact stakes of each game may vary, they all matter at this stage in the season. This means that for the Canucks to have any sort of shot from here on out, all of their key personnel need to be playing their role.
Quinn Hughes is back in the line-up now, which is good for the Canucks, but it’s unclear at what percentage Quinn can play at after his various ailments this season.
"I don't know if he's 100%, probably shouldn't say that," said Elias Pettersson when talking about Quinn Hughes.
— Noah Strang (@noahstrang_) March 13, 2025
Praised his captain's toughness. #Canucks
With this being the case the team will need to protect him far more than they have been all season. The team needs to do a little more, to disincentives teams from taking that extra shot a Quinn like Ryan Lomberg got in the other night in the Calgary Flames contest.
On the offensive side of things, it’s a broken record at this point, but Pettersson must be Pettersson. If there was ever a time for EP40 to snap back into form it’s right now. Over the last four games, Pettersson is running a point-per-game pace with 3 goals and an assist.
Although through those games his deployment has varied a lot, from 16:05 one night, to as high as 20:57 another. Can you guess which game of the last four saw the lowest production from Petey? you’d be correct if you guessed the game when he was played the least.
Tocchet just needs to let Petey play to the max without throttling his ice time every other game, because the Canucks simply aren’t built to play without him at top deployment. If Pettersson can’t pull himself together and get the job done in these last 17 games, the team’s playoffs odds are all but shot anyways.
Lastly, the door is essentially closed on Demko being a meaningful part of this season, having only laced up for 17 games so far this season, and still injured. Kevin Lankenin just needs to keep being himself, as much trouble as the Canucks have had all season up and down the lineup, for some reason, even without Demko, the Canucks always seem to get the goalie situation right.
Divisional Match-ups
Five Pacific Division match-ups come between now and the end of the NHL season, with all five of those games coming within the last eight contests. In order, Vancouver’s final divisional match-ups will be Seattle, Anaheim and Las Vegas back to back to back, followed by three teams out of their division (but in their conference) ending with games 81 and 82 against San Jose and Las Vegas.
On paper, the Canucks should be able to beat every team, so long as said team doesn’t come from Sin City.
Seattle, Anaheim and San Jose are not close competitors to the Canucks in the standings and are teams they have beaten this year. The exception of course is Las Vegas who poses more of a threat sitting first in the Pacific and having bested the Canucks in their two previous meetings already this season.
Key Conference Games
Oddly enough the games that the Canucks need to focus on more than anything are their final match-ups against St. Louis and Utah. The Canucks sit just two points above both teams in the west, and they can only cross their fingers and hope that Minnesota or Calgary fall out of their wildcard spot and drop below the Canucks.
But with the Hockey Club and the Blues, Vancouver does have the power to pull themselves up while pushing St. Louis and Utah down in their respective games. Of all the games on the calendar, if the standings hold their course over the weeks ahead these two will be the most important.
Expected Wins and Wins to Steal
In addition to the games already mentioned within their division that are winnable, the Canucks also play the following beatable teams outside of the Western Conference within their last 17 games.
The Canucks play Chicago Saturday, a team who they have played twice already this season and have won both contests. They then play the Blue Jackets once more who are battling for their own wildcard spot and are also a team that the Canucks bested in their last match-up with them this season.
Unfortunately for the Canucks there are a lot more wins they will need to steal over the final games if they want to stay not only above 500 hockey, but above it enough to elevate into that second wild card spot.
Vancouver will play the Winnipeg Jets two more times before the season’s end. The Jets beat the Canucks 6-1 in their last battle, and are also ranked number one in the Western Conference as it stands now. The Canucks also play the New York Rangers, New York Islanders and New Jersey Devils before the season is over.
These are all teams which have bested the Canucks in their previous outings this year. The Canucks are on par or better than NYR and the Islanders in the standings, with the Rangers one position out of a wild card spot as well and the Islanders just 4th from the bottom of their conference.
Lastly, the three final games of the season that aren’t inter-division games are against Dallas, Colorado and Minnesota. Dallas and Colorado are firmly in a playoff spot and Minnesota is significantly ahead of the Canucks in the first wild-card spot in the west as well.
Dallas also just picked up Mikko Rantanen at the trade deadline, which in no way shape or form helps the Canucks’ odds in that match-up.
The road to the playoffs for the Canucks is not as simple as it was last year. Their odds could certainly be longer, but at this stage of the season not only do they have to go on a run themselves, but they need to hope that the out-of-town scoreboard falls in their favour as well.