Canucks playing for more than just points this season

After months of waiting, fans of the Vancouver Canucks can finally take in some meaningful games. The team kicks off its regular season Wednesday in Edmonton, but this year is unlike any other.

Pressure is intensifying on the team to make the playoffs and find some consistency in their play along the way. Since the 2014-15 season, the Canucks have only made it to the post-season once, and that was during the bubble when the COVID-19 pandemic paused the season. It was a successful run as they went deeper than any other Canadian team before eventually losing to the Vegas Golden Knights.

From the outside, this year’s team has the players to make a push for the playoffs, they just need to execute.

Bik Nizzar, host at station Sportsnet 650, says if they don’t then there could be some changes to the on-ice line-up.

“Vancouver has to make the playoffs. The management group has the security of, ‘We just arrived on the job.’ If they don’t make the playoffs, it’s OK for them, but a lot of these players have been here for some time. This core is built by the previous regime. They’ve had multiple cracks at it to make the playoffs… so, if they don’t make it this year, a lot of the players will certainly feel the heaviness of the business of the NHL.”

His comments come as the Canucks have tied up some players to either new or nearly-new contracts.

“Bo Horvat goes into the final year of his contract. Other players like Brock Boeser just signed a three-year deal, so that’s not a long-term commitment and it was given by this regime but it’s a player that was previously drafted. Someone like Conor Garland was traded for, by the previous regime as well,” Nizzar explained. “So, you can go through the roster and it’s really as this new regime tries to build it out, there are not a lot of pieces that they are beholden to. It’s Quinn Hughes, Thatcher Demko, J.T. Miller, and Elias Pettersson who’s a young, emerging talent as well — that’s really the core and everything else is up conversation and debate for the management group and for fans as well.”

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Some players, like Miller, have vocalized how tired some teammates are of not making the post-season, while others have stopped just short of guaranteeing it.

Overall, they seem to all have the same sentiment — there’s no more excuses.

“Thatcher Demko, specifically, he’s getting to a certain age where he has solidified himself as a starter and you can just see mentally, it’s a little different. He corrected himself when talking about, ‘If we make the playoffs,’ but, ‘When we make the playoffs.’ J.T. Miller is going to take more of a leadership role, and you hear Hughes and Pettersson, these guys are 22 and 23 years old, and you can see them growing up now and the tone with which they’re speaking sounds different.”

Nizzar predicts fans will see a lot of 8-2 runs for the team this year, where they either win eight and lose two and vice-versa.

“There is a lot of volatility to this team. They haven’t figured out consistency for multiple seasons, so you’ll see them have very high highs and very low lows because that’s just the personality of the team, so [fans] can be optimistic but you’ll see what you want to see.”

The Canucks had two out of a possible seven wins in the pre-season.

The team is in Edmonton for the first of five games on the road to start the regular season before returning to Vancouver for their home opener on Oct. 22nd.

You can hear Bik Nizzar Monday-Friday from 3 p.m. to 4 p.m. daily on Sportsnet 650 and catch him, alongside Sat Shah, for the Canucks Post-Show.