By Joel Smart (The Cascade) – Email
Print Edition: March 7, 2012
This is absolutely the greatest time in the regular season. There is plenty to speculate about, with so many teams still vying for playoff positions. The Canucks are currently in a pretty positive situation in the Western Conference. Barring a catastrophic end to the season, they should be able to finish in either the first or second seed.
Before they played the Dallas Stars on Tuesday, the Canucks needed only 12 points to guarantee another Northwest Division title – six wins in 16 games, while either Colorado or Calgary would need to win every single game until the end of the season. If the Phoenix Coyotes, currently the third seed, won all 17 remaining games, they’d land 109 points – the Canucks would need 10 wins to top it. But of course, in reality, such a winning streak is pretty unlikely.
Of course, the Canucks know the value of the hometown advantage, going to game seven twice in last year’s playoffs. Line-matching can win a series, and having the last change at home makes it so much easier. As a result, the team will likely spend the last handful of games trying to win the President’s trophy, rather than looking at the distant specks in the rear-view mirror. Unfortunately for the Canucks, the New York Rangers have the early advantage. On the Western front, The Detroit Redwings and the St. Louis Blues are battling it out for Central Division supremacy. That means that there isn’t much room for the Canucks to falter if they want to stay ahead.
With so much still to be decided, it’s still up-in-the-air as to who the Canucks might face off against, with the Dallas Stars, San Jose Sharks and the Los Angeles Kings looking like the most likely candidates. A Chicago Blackhawks rematch isn’t even out of the realm of possibility. Much is yet to be decided.
For the Canucks, their immediate concerns down the stretch have to be the somewhat reduced offensive output by the Sedins and Ryan Kesler. These players were crucial in last year’s playoffs, and while the Sedins were on fire earlier this year, things have dropped off. Finding some consistency from their best players is going to be the key to the team’s success from here in. In the meantime, players like Maxim Lapierre and David Booth have really begun to show their worth. Booth, in particular, has managed to find his game, with 13 goals and 25 points in 40 games. Lapierre, on the otherhand, seems intent to show anyone paying attention that Zack Kassian isn’t the only physical presence on the team – with his infamous smirk driving opposing teams wild.
To varying degrees of critical approval, the Canucks traded for a more defensive, physical team at the deadline – a move that will rely on the ability of the first two lines to put the puck in the net. Though the team has been finding a way to win on most nights, it has happened less so in the last few games. It’s tough to tell at this point whether they should they have opted to stick with scoring depth, but as the playoffs draw even nearer, the team will look to really hit full stride – in a way they failed to do even on an impressive 13-game streak in which they took away at least a point from each game (and subsequent five-game streak).
The Canucks face a hungry Winnipeg Jets team that is hanging on to eighth place in the Eastern Conference on Thursday, with a 7 p.m. start. Then, Saturday’s Montreal match-up should also be an exciting game, despite the last-place position of the Canadiens. An unusual three-day break afterward will end next Wednesday, when the team faces the hard-working Phoenix Coyotes.
