Canucks week ahead: The need to keep rolling on the road

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Every game truly matters for the Vancouver Canucks now.

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They’ve long talked about wanting to play meaningful hockey games. Well, the time has arrived for the 2021-22 edition of Vancouver’s National Hockey League squad.

The Canucks are on a four-game road trip and need to win two, and probably at least three, of those games to keep their playoff hopes alive.

Once again, it’s not boring to be a Canucks fan.

Here’s a look at the week to eat:

The story

The Canucks know what they have to do form here on out: Win two out of every three games.

Outsiders know the math already — to get to 95 points, which is the minimum points needed most seasons to make the playoffs — the Canucks will have to win 19 or 20 times in their remaining 29 games.

Head coach Bruce Boudreau acknowledged this after Thursday’s 7-1 thumping of the Calgary Flames.

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Every game from here on will be assessed through this lens. Is there still enough runway left?

Given how many wins the Canucks have reeled off under Boudreau — 17 of the 25 wins on the year have come with him in charge — the pace they have to set is not impossible, but it still remains unlikely.

So much of it is because of the exploits of Thatcher Demko, who has been all-world in the Canucks’ goal for much of the season, even under Boudreau’s predecessor Travis Green, when the offense was struggling to create opportunities at five on five and wasn’t pumping in goals on the power play.

The opponents

The Canucks flew to New York City on Friday and will practice in Manhattan on Saturday before facing the New York Rangers on Sunday at Madison Square Garden. The Blueshirts are second in the very-competitive Metropolitan Division, behind the Carolina Hurricanes, and have won seven of their last 10 games. They play in Pittsburgh Saturday before returning home to host the Canucks, a break for the visitors. Teams flying east often struggle in their first game, having to deal with the time change and the after-effects of sitting in an airplane for five-plus hours.

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On Monday, the Canucks will face the New Jersey Devils in Newark. The Devils do have Jack Hughes, Quinn Hughes’ brother, in the lineup but have mostly underwhelmed this season. They’re focused on the future but are still a tricky opponent, especially on the second night of a back to back.

Next Thursday, the Canucks will complete their Big Apple set, facing the New York Islanders at their new arena in suburban Elmont, just on the edge of Queens. The Islanders have struggled to generate offense for much of the year but didn’t have any problems doing so in Vancouver last week, and in general have been playing much better over the past month. They defend hard and will be a tough matchup for the Canucks ahead of the final game of their road trip, a week Saturday in Toronto against the high-flying maple leaves.

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NEXT GAME

sunday

Vancouver Canucks at New York Rangers

4:30 p.m. PT, Madison Square Garden. TV: Sportsnet. Radio: Sportsnet 650.

stock-rising

JT Miller: The man who may or may not be on the trade block — the argument for moving him is obvious, that he’ll never again be so valuable as a trade chip, given his contract status and playing form — had a four-point night on Thursday. He’s 10th in the NHL in scoring as of this writing. He’s back playing center again but made his hay against the Flames on the power play, with the Canucks currently firing on all cylinders, scoring eight goals in their past five games with the man advantage. Miller’s inch-perfect shooting and passing make him a key cog on the power play.

falling stock

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Jaroslav Halak: Will the veteran netminder play again this season? The Canucks do have their Rangers-Devils back to back situation to start off the week, so it’s very possible he’ll play in there.

Question of the week

“I know that blue and green is important for BC, but I can’t stop thinking about the black and gold color scheme …” — Artem Z., Kyiv

A large portion of Canucks fans do love the skate. Artem here, for instance, became enamored of the Canucks during the 1994 Stanley Cup run.

Thursday night was the only scheduled appearance of the Skate for the 2021-22 season, but there’s hope it will be worn again in coming seasons, perhaps even emerging as the new third jersey option.

Even players are advocating for it to be seen more.

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“I’d love to wear these at home every time,” JT Miller said post-game Thursday.

But that would also require a turnabout from ownership, who are known to prefer the Orca-centric crest they inherited when they bought the team nearly two decades ago and the more historic blue and green colors the team has sported since 2007.

It’s also possible that the rarity of the Skate being put in actual use adds to the allure of it when it is put into action, and might even drive sales in its own right.

The real question underneath all this is which would be the more consistent sales scenario: Retaining the current blue and green branding, buttressed by occasional roll-outs of the nostalgic black, yellow and red get-ups, or vice versa?

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