Vancouver Canucks: 3 takeaways from loss to Calgary Flames
The Vancouver Canucks improbable playoff hopes grew even slimmer after last night’s loss to the Calgary Flames by a score of 3-1.
A week ago, the Vancouver Canucks had a 0.5% chance to make the playoffs. But after their three-game winning streak, the team found themselves at a 1.6%. Last night’s loss to the Flames, once again narrowed those odds. Here are my three takeaways from last night’s game.
Are you scoreboard watching?
This is a takeaway from last night’s game because yesterday the Dallas Stars, Minnesota Wild, Chicago Blackhawks, Colorado Avalanche, and the Arizona Coyotes all had games.
All five of those teams are teams the Canucks trail in the standings. So my question is, are you scoreboard watching? I know I certainly am. I even found myself watching a Blackhawks game the other night, in which they lost to the Philadelphia Flyers.
The Canucks are already going to have an extremely difficult time getting into the playoffs. TSN’s Jeff Paterson said on the PatCast that if the Canucks went 7-0-1 over their remaining eight games, Arizona would need to go 5-4 in order for the Canucks to grab the second and final wild-card spot.
More from The Canuck Way
- Which team won the Bo Horvat trade?
- What to expect from newcomers Anthony Beauvillier, Aatu Räty
- Back to the future: How the skate uniforms became a regular Canucks’ feature night
- Canucks kick off 2023 with disappointing 6-2 loss to Islanders
- 2nd period penalty trouble sinks Canucks in 4-2 loss against Winnipeg
That also doesn’t take into account the roles other teams could have in this. If any of the teams already ahead of the Canucks in the standings do just as well as them — the Canucks will be left on the outside looking in.
Yesterday, the Avalanche beat the Blackhawks, the Coyotes lost in a shootout to the New Jersey Devils, and Minnesota lost to the Carolina Hurricanes. That means that the Canucks were six points out of the wild card spot, held by the Avalanche with 80 points.
Again, they will need to win nearly every game from here on out to make the playoffs, and the loss to the Flames last night makes it even more difficult and improbable.