The Canucks playoff aspirations officially ended on Wednesday night when the Minnesota Wild beat the San Jose Sharks 8-7 in overtime. Although Vancouver sits eight points back of both the St. Louis Blues and the Wild, they can’t finish ahead of either team because they lose the tiebreakers to both clubs.
Not that running the table was in Vancouver’s sights anyway, even following their miracle three-goal, final-minute comeback victory in Dallas against the Stars on Tuesday night.
The club begins playing out the string of one of the most unfortunate and toxic seasons in franchise history.
In a big, big way, injuries and lockerroom discord added up to disrupt a Canucks team previously on the upswing.
Optimists, even die-hard cynics among the fan base, saw a glimmer of Stanley Cup hope following last spring’s seven-game loss to the Edmonton Oilers in the Western Conference semi-final.
All we need is a healthy Thatcher Demko they said. Maybe a tweak of the depth here or there.
A handful of prospects saw ice time in the 2024 postseason, a young man, Arturs Silovs, who would normally be a third-string goalie, carried the club with occasional flashes of brilliance, and the coaching staff was being commended for its overall efforts.
Revisionists now try to sell this season’s backslide as inevitable, somehow predicting the chronic injuries, the departure of J.T. Miller, their most well-rounded, heart-and-soul forward, and a severe drop-off from the remaining top pivot, Elias Pettersson.
Regardless, the scars and flaws are now greater than anyone could have imagined eleven months ago.
There is no moral victory or off-season momentum with any win achieved over the final four games. That’s a myth.
It’s good old fashioned playing out the string, and the decisions made this summer by Canucks management are so pivotal, they could impact the franchise’s hopes for the next half dozen years, and of course the future security of those managers themselves.
