Vancouver Canucks: Power rankings through four weeks

There were some rough patches for the Vancouver Canucks last week, but Elias Pettersson returned and and has guided them to the third spot in the Pacific Division right now. Here is where they stand in power rankings across the web.

The Vancouver Canucks may have finally crashed back to earth going 1-3-0 last week — with each defeat coming by three or more goals.

But the Canucks shrugged off a rough week with a convincing 5-2 home victory over the Minnesota Wild on Monday night, ending the five-game winning streak of their former Northwest Division rivals.

Vancouver is trying to get by as the injuries pile up. Top defenceman Alexander Edler is out three-to-six weeks with a knee injury, goalie Anders Nilsson is on the IR with a fractured finger and Brandon Sutter will miss several weeks with an upper-body injury. Chris Tanev is also day-to-day with a hip injury.

Can the Canucks pull out some victories without some of their key contributors? Or will it be a repeat of last season, where a hot start is erased by a complete unraveling in December? We’ll soon find out.

In the mean time, here’s a look at where the Canucks sit in power rankings across the web.

• TSN.ca: The Canucks move down 11 spots and fell to 22nd. TSN noted the Canucks were outscored 9-1 in those losses to the Arizona Coyotes and Pittsburgh Penguins. It didn’t help that teams like the Coyotes (19th), and Edmonton Oilers (10th), moved up significantly and ahead of Vancouver.
• theScore: Same as TSN. The Canucks were previously ranked 11th by theScore, but moved down 11 spots to 22nd. Again, big jumps by certain teams didn’t help Vancouver’s case, and they simply didn’t play good hockey last week.
• Yahoo Sports: Ryan Lambert moved the Canucks down to 20th; they placed 12th last week.
• Sports Illustrated: Jeremy Fuchs has the Canucks at the 21st spot, though he says “the post-Sedin era is certainly going better than expected.” Stay positive, Canucks fans.
• NBC Sports: J.J. Regan has the Canucks way down to the 25th spot, emphasizing they were outscored 16-5 last week. It’s the lowest Vancouver has been ranked on the five power ranking lists I gathered.

The good news for the Canucks is that they’re holding onto the third seed in the Pacific Division. The Coyotes, Anaheim Ducks, Los Angeles Kings and Vegas Golden Knights are at the bottom of the Western Conference standings. If that doesn’t change, the Canucks will have every fighting chance at making the postseason.

Last week was a sloppy one for the Canucks, but they now have a healthy Pettersson to join the red-hot Bo Horvat, and the two can hopefully get the struggling Brock Boeser going again. If that happens, Vancouver should move back up into power rankings for next week.