At this point, the Vancouver Canucks might earn a playoff spot and they might not— it’s a coin flip. The burning question right now is whether or not they could get anything done if they were to make the playoffs.
It takes more than good goaltending and goals to make the playoffs. Let’s take a look at three things playoff teams have and discuss whether or not the Canucks have these things to be capable of making the last 16.
Resilience
Resilience is defined as “the capacity to recover quickly from difficulties.” This week, the Canucks proved that they are resilient.
In back-to-back games, the Canucks found themselves down by two goals just minutes into the game. The Washington Capitals’ Evgeny Kuznetsov found the back of the net twice in less than seven minutes on Friday, while it only took the Tampa Bay Lightning five minutes to get two.
In both instances, the Canucks proved their resilience. In both games, they locked it down defensively for the rest of the first and second periods, and then came out swinging in the third. They sent the game to overtime against the Capitals, while an unfortunately early whistle prevented Conor Garland’s goal from tying the game against the Lightning.
This is an immense improvement over the Canucks team we saw last season, who infamously lost almost every game in which they gave up the first goal. The team has grown as a group, and has fans wondering what they could do if they were to make the playoffs.