The Vancouver Canucks are primarily in must-win territory as they put together to host the Seattle Kraken on Wednesday.
With their playoff aspirations flickering, the Canucks (34-27-13, 81 factors) return dwelling exterior of a playoff place and needing to vault a pair of groups to advance to the Stanley Cup chase. They entered Tuesday six factors behind the St. Louis Blues for the ultimate wild-card slot within the Western Convention.
“We will not get discouraged or get damaging,” Canucks defenseman Tyler Myers stated. “We’re again dwelling to get some momentum in our personal constructing and we have simply obtained to maintain pushing. You by no means know what can occur.”
The Canucks are again on the West Coast after a 2-2-2 highway journey that concluded with a 3-1 loss to the Winnipeg Jets on Sunday. Vancouver performs six of eight video games at dwelling to shut out the common season.
A conflict with the Kraken, who’ve been formally eradicated from playoff rivalry, is a can-not-lose affair — however the Canucks are doing their greatest to not permit the scenario to strangle their minds.
“You realize the large image, clearly,” stated ahead Pius Suter. “However you may solely deal with one by one and simply battle exhausting and ensure the subsequent recreation we get two factors on the market. After which go from there. You possibly can’t actually assume an excessive amount of at this level about all the opposite groups. You have simply obtained to win.”
They may once more be and not using a trio of injured — and necessary — forwards in Elias Pettersson, Filip Chytil and Nils Hoglander. One saving grace has been Suter’s play. Suter, who scored Vancouver’s lone purpose in Winnipeg, has collected two objectives and 6 assists within the 4 video games since moving into Pettersson’s top-line heart position.
The Kraken (31-38-6, 68 factors) are kicking off a five-game highway journey. Seattle, which has managed just one victory in six outings (1-4-1), ended a four-game homestand with a 3-1 loss to the Dallas Stars on Monday.
The Kraken fell in each halves of a two-game set with the Stars in Seattle, dropping the primary conflict 5-1 on Saturday.
“The script on this recreation, minus the ability play and penalty kill, was just like the final recreation in opposition to Dallas,” stated Kraken coach Dan Bylsma. “Every (crew) took some swings. They’d some probabilities, we had some probabilities within the offensive zone. … It was a hard-fought recreation.”
In a microcosm of their season, the Kraken began robust — taking a lead on Kaapo Kakko’s purpose 62 seconds within the conflict — however surrendered a pair of objectives 45 seconds aside by the three:19 mark and by no means regained the higher hand.
“I feel we had sufficient probabilities to win that recreation, however simply could not put it in,” Kakko stated.
It’s a small constructive, however Kakko’s purpose offers him a career-high 41 factors on the season (14 objectives, 27 assists). The second total decide within the 2019 NHL Draft has netted 10 objectives and 27 factors in 42 video games since being acquired by way of commerce from the New York Rangers in mid-December.
After struggling beneath the expectations of being a excessive draft decide with the Rangers, Kakko’s progress bodes properly for the Kraken’s future.
“I feel I am simply enjoying my recreation extra,” Kakko stated. “I really feel like my recreation is within the O-zone … I can rating objectives and possibly discover someone else for a superb probability.”
–Discipline Stage Media