No matter who the Vancouver Canucks find themselves matched up with in the first round of the Stanley Cup playoffs, there will be no easy opponents.
The Oilers’ remarkable run has pulled them up the standings. At Christmas, they looked done and dusted.
No more.
Even if they stumble a little, they’re still highly likely to win home-ice advantage for the first round of the Stanley Cup playoffs, a good thing since just about every possible opponent will be a plucky one.
Let’s take a look at who the Canucks might face in the playoffs, with two months of the regular season left:
Vegas Golden Knights
Such a matchup would happen if the Canucks’ pace slowed considerably and the Oilers’ wild form since Christmas continues on, meaning Edmonton were to win the division and the Canucks would end up second or third.
The other scenario where this might happen would see Vegas hit a wall and fall behind the Los Angeles Kings, who just fired their coach. Vegas is in an injury rut and so it’s very possible they’ll struggle their way into the playoffs, but given how rough things have been in L.A. of late, it’s hard to imagine a coaching change will right their ship so well that they’ll overcome the 10-point deficit they currently have given away to Vegas.
Threat level: Vegas are the defending champions. Repeating in the NHL is very hard; teams that win the Cup struggle to recover physically over their shorter summer from the wear and tear of a playoff run that demands so much from a body that’s already depleted by a long regular season.
Still, the Golden Knights are as deep as it gets and play a fantastic system under their brilliant head coach Bruce Cassidy. They might be wounded, but they’re hardly a team you want to face with big stakes on the line.
Just as the Oilers, who saw their remarkable 16-game “winning” streak come to an end Tuesday. (We say “winning” because the streaks include overtime and shootout wins.)
Los Angeles Kings
The Kings have the second-highest chance of playing the Canucks: 22 per cent.
They currently sit fourth in the Pacific, but they actually hold the first wild card at the moment so if the Canucks finished with the best record in the West and the Kings remained the best wild-card team, the Kings would actually face the winner of the Central Division and the Canucks would face the second-ranked wild card team.
But the wild-card race is a big mess, with St. Louis and Nashville both hot on L.A.’s heels, and Seattle and Calgary not far behind either.
Threat level: Early in the season the Kings sure looked dangerous. But the team has obviously lost unity; just look at veteran Drew Doughty’s comments about the priorities of some of his teammates, saying they were “too worried about themselves and worried about their points” instead of winning after a 5-3 loss to the Buffalo Sabres. L.A. is 3-5-2 in its last 10 games. That’s said, they’re still plus-20 in goal differential.
This is no slight opponent: they’re young and talented, and also old and wily.
Edmonton Oilers
Despite their crazy streak, they’re still just third in the division, 14 points back of Vancouver and seven points back of Vegas. They have a 15 per cent chance of facing the Canucks.
They do have four games in hand on Vancouver and five on Vegas, so if they do keep their excellent form going forward, they’ll at least keep pace with Vancouver and Vegas, who are on tears of their own: Vancouver is 8-0-2 in its last 10, while Vegas is 7-2-1.
It’s all a little miraculous this season for the Oilers, who were off to an all-time awful start and in fact sat under .500 before they went on this 16-game tear.
But their defending has improved, so has their goaltending and Conor McDavid remains himself, the best player in the world.
Threat level: The real question here is are you convinced by Edmonton’s defence corps and their goaltending? You know they’re going to pile the pressure on offensively, but how will their defence handle the Canucks’ deep and focused attacks?
Seattle Kraken/Nashville Predators/St. Louis Blues
The Kraken, the Predators and the Blues each have an eight per cent chance of facing the Canucks. All three have had their struggles at times this season, mostly due to their defensive play.
Threat level: St. Louis has played Vancouver very tough this season, while the Canucks have had their way with the Predators and the Kraken. All three play a very hard-nosed, hard checking style and if their goalie were to get hot, they’re primed for an upset.
Still, the Canucks would go into a playoff series against any of these squads as the favourite.