The Vancouver Canucks are basically 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 house 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 won’t get discouraged or get damaging,” Canucks defenseman Tyler Myers stated. “We’re again house to get some momentum in our personal constructing and we have simply received to maintain pushing. You by no means know what can occur.”
The Canucks are again on the West Coast after a 2-2-2 street journey that concluded with a 3-1 loss to the Winnipeg Jets on Sunday. Vancouver performs six of eight video games at house to shut out the common season.
A conflict with the Kraken, who’ve been formally eradicated from playoff competition, is a can-not-lose affair — however the Canucks are doing their finest to not permit the state of affairs to strangle their minds.
” the massive image, clearly,” stated ahead Pius Suter. “However you’ll be able to solely deal with one after the other and simply battle exhausting and ensure the following sport we get two factors on the market. After which go from there. You possibly can’t actually suppose an excessive amount of at this level about all the opposite groups. You’ve got simply received to win.”
They may once more be with no trio of injured — and essential — forwards in Elias Pettersson, Filip Chytil and Nils Hoglander. One saving grace has been Suter’s play. Suter, who scored Vancouver’s lone objective in Winnipeg, has collected two targets 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 street 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 sport, minus the facility play and penalty kill, was just like the final sport towards Dallas,” stated Kraken coach Dan Bylsma. “Every (crew) took some swings. They’d some possibilities, we had some possibilities within the offensive zone. … It was a hard-fought sport.”
In a microcosm of their season, the Kraken began robust — taking a lead on Kaapo Kakko’s objective 62 seconds within the conflict — however surrendered a pair of targets 45 seconds aside by the three:19 mark and by no means regained the higher hand.
“I feel we had sufficient possibilities to win that sport, however simply could not put it in,” Kakko stated.
It’s a small constructive, however Kakko’s objective offers him a career-high 41 factors on the season (14 targets, 27 assists). The second total choose within the 2019 NHL Draft has netted 10 targets and 27 factors in 42 video games since being acquired through commerce from the New York Rangers in mid-December.
After struggling below the expectations of being a excessive draft choose with the Rangers, Kakko’s progress bodes properly for the Kraken’s future.
“I feel I am simply enjoying my sport extra,” Kakko stated. “I really feel like my sport is within the O-zone … I can rating targets and perhaps discover anyone else for an excellent likelihood.”
–Area Stage Media
