The Vancouver Canucks are essentially in must-win territory as they prepare to host the Seattle Kraken on Wednesday.
With their playoff aspirations flickering, the Canucks (34-27-13, 81 points) return home outside of a playoff position and needing to vault a pair of teams to advance to the Stanley Cup chase. They entered Tuesday six points behind the St. Louis Blues for the final wild-card slot in the Western Conference.
“We can’t get discouraged or get negative,” Canucks defenseman Tyler Myers said. “We’re back home to get some momentum in our own building and we’ve just got to keep pushing. You never know what can happen.”
The Canucks are back on the West Coast after a 2-2-2 road trip that concluded with a 3-1 loss to the Winnipeg Jets on Sunday. Vancouver plays six of eight games at home to close out the regular season.
A clash with the Kraken, who have been officially eliminated from playoff contention, is a can-not-lose affair — but the Canucks are doing their best not to allow the situation to strangle their minds.
“You know the big picture, obviously,” said forward Pius Suter. “But you can only focus on one at a time and just battle hard and make sure the next game we get two points out there. And then go from there. You can’t really think too much at this point about all the other teams. You’ve just got to win.”
They will again be without a trio of injured — and important — forwards in Elias Pettersson, Filip Chytil and Nils Hoglander. One saving grace has been Suter’s play. Suter, who scored Vancouver’s lone goal in Winnipeg, has collected two goals and six assists in the four games since stepping into Pettersson’s top-line center role.
The Kraken (31-38-6, 68 points) are kicking off a five-game road trip. Seattle, which has managed only 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 both halves of a two-game set with the Stars in Seattle, dropping the first clash 5-1 on Saturday.
“The script in this game, minus the power play and penalty kill, was similar to the last game against Dallas,” said Kraken coach Dan Bylsma. “Each (team) took some swings. They had some chances, we had some chances in the offensive zone. … It was a hard-fought game.”
In a microcosm of their season, the Kraken started strong — taking a lead on Kaapo Kakko’s goal 62 seconds in the clash — but surrendered a pair of goals 45 seconds apart by the 3:19 mark and never regained the upper hand.
“I think we had enough chances to win that game, but just couldn’t put it in,” Kakko said.
It is a small positive, but Kakko’s goal gives him a career-high 41 points on the season (14 goals, 27 assists). The second overall pick in the 2019 NHL Draft has netted 10 goals and 27 points in 42 games since being acquired via trade from the New York Rangers in mid-December.
After struggling under the expectations of being a high draft pick with the Rangers, Kakko’s progress bodes well for the Kraken’s future.
“I think I’m just playing my game more,” Kakko said. “I feel like my game is in the O-zone … I can score goals and maybe find somebody else for a good chance.”
