Canucks: A hard road ahead to make the playoffs

Article content

The Vancouver Canucks, despite all the injuries, despite the underlying — and resultant of injuries — uneven play, are still in a playoff hunt.

Article content

Going into Saturday’s game in Minnesota, the Canucks sat 6-6, a nice even .500 record.

Article content

Article content

That record, though, won’t get them into the playoffs. It would get them just 82 points, and that will leave them a dozen or so points off the likely playoff bar.

Conventionally, it has usually taken 95 points to get in the playoffs, 83 more points than they currently have.

That means playing .592 hockey the rest of the way. To put it another way, they need to find the equivalent of 41.5 wins in their remaining 70 games. That’s a tall order. Even healthy, does this look like a squad that can do all that?

Let’s take a look at how the rest of the schedule breaks down and see where the must-wins are.

November

The breakneck pace continues, with 14 games across the month. The Canucks open the month on the road, playing in Minnesota, then in Nashville, then a four-game home stand that feature must-win games against Columbus and Chicago. Then there is a three-game trip to the southeast where no opponent is easy: Carolina, Tampa Bay and Florida.

Article content

Article content

They return home for a pair of games against Dallas and Calgary — the Calgary game, again, is must-win. Then they take their traditional American Thanksgiving trip to southern California. Can they pull off a sweep against Anaheim, San Jose and Los Angeles?

Just these mentioned games here equates to seven wins, so they need to pull off at least one more win from home games against Colorado, Winnipeg or Dallas, and probably a win against one of the southeastern heavyweights. A 9-5 November would have the Canucks on 30 points, still needing 65 points over the rest of the year.

December

Even with the four-day break for Christmas — the Canucks are off from Dec. 23 through Boxing Day — they will play 13 times in December.

Already on the road in southern California, the road trip will conclude with a tough match-up against Colorado, then a four-game home stand vs. Utah, Minnesota, Detroit and Buffalo. The first two opponents are the toughest. Can they manage to sweep this series? They must win at least three, that’s for sure.

Article content

Then they are off on a tough five-game trip before Christmas, facing the difficult New Jersey Devils first, then the stumbling New York Rangers, and third the likely hard-skating Islanders. The trip concludes with games in Boston and Philadelphia.

They likely need to win three of those five games.

After Christmas, the Canucks host the Sharks, and have to win that one, then pop down to Seattle. Gotta beat the divisional rival there too. Then finally there’s a Dec. 30 visit from Rick Tocchet’s Flyers.

Out of this, you can see an 8-5 record on the month. That would leave them on 46 points for the season, still 49 short of where they need to be.

January

The Canucks avoid a New Year’s game of any kind, but continue their home stand against Seattle, then Boston. Need a split here.

Article content

Then it’s the longest road trip of the season — a freezing six-gamer to Buffalo and Detroit, then all three Eastern Canada teams, plus a final return via Columbus. Again, need a split here.

Then, back home, it’s a possibly season-defining eight-game home stand — Edmonton, the Islanders, Washington, New Jersey, Pittsburgh, San Jose, Anaheim and Toronto. There are three games there that look easy, the rest look hard. But gotta come out of that stretch winning at least five, surely.

That would give them nine wins out of the 16 games in the month, getting them to 64 points on the season. Still need 31 points …

February and March

There are just four games in February because of the Olympic break. Games in Utah and Vegas, somehow need a split there, then a home game against Winnipeg after the Olympics and a road game in Seattle. Again, need a split to close February.

Article content

There are 14 games in March — two at home against Dallas and Carolina. Again, need a split. Then road games in Chicago and Winnipeg, split those too.

Then there’s another eight-game home stand — Ottawa, Nashville, Seattle, Florida, Tampa Bay, St. Louis, Anaheim and Los Angeles. You can see four wins for sure in there, maybe even five.

The month ends with the beginning of a road trip, with visits to Calgary and Vegas. There’s at least one more win there.

You can see 10 wins in the 18 games, so now the Canucks would be up to 84 points on the year, needing 11 points in April.

April

The finish to the season has an obvious task here. There are nine games, the Canucks will need five, likely six wins, just to be safe.

They are on the road in Colorado and Minnesota, then home against Utah and Vegas, then back on the road for the California triple-header, then the home finale against Los Angeles before the season finale in Edmonton.

That’s a hard way to finish, but there are wins to be had for sure.

And there you have it, the road map for the rest of the Canucks’ 2025-26 season and a possible playoff spot. It’s easier when you spell it out like this, but still a big, big challenge given their lineup right now.

pjohnston@postmedia.com

Article content