The Vancouver Canucks will get the chance to spend Valentine's Day with their loved ones.
Monday is a team day off, as the club enjoys four days with no game action before facing the San Jose Sharks on the road on Thursday.
And what better time to get your mind off the game than after stealing a win from the Toronto Maple Leafs on Saturday night?
Juho Lammikko scored the game winner with 1:30 left to play in the second period and Thatcher Demko stopped 51 of 53 shots as the Canucks earned a 3-2 win in front of a national audience on Hockey Night in Canada.
J.T. Miller and Brock Boeser paced Vancouver to an early 2-0 lead in the first period. Auston Matthews and Ondrej Kase replied with a pair of power-play markers in the second.
After they were also bamboozled by Jacob Markstrom in Calgary on Thursday, the Leafs are now mired in their first two-game losing streak since late October. They're in Seattle as part of a four-game slate on Monday night, for their first-ever game against the Kraken.
The Canucks start the week sitting 11th in the Western Conference — one game above .500 with 50 points in 49 games. That ties their point total from last year's 56-game season.
After losing their lone game in the nine-day stretch out of the All-Star break, the Anaheim Ducks have slipped into the second wild-card spot, with a five-point edge on Vancouver. They're on a huge road trip starting Wednesday, with a three-in-four in Calgary, Edmonton and Vancouver.
Here's a snapshot of the Western Conference playoff picture as of Monday morning, as the gaps between games played begin to narrow. Other the Colorado — unbeaten in regulation in 2022 with a 17-0-2 record since New Year's — everything else is very much up in the air.
Central Division
1. Colorado Avalanche - 46 GP - 72 pts .783 pts %
2. Minnesota Wild - 43 GP - 61 pts .709 pts %
3. Nashville Predators - 48 GP - 60 pts .625 pts %
Pacific Division
1. Vegas Golden Knights - 48 GP - 59 pts .615 pts %
2. Calgary Flames - 45 GP - 58 pts .644 pts %
3. Los Angeles Kings - 47 GP - 55 pts .585 pts %
Wild Card
7. St. Louis Blues - 46 GP - 59 pts .641 pts %
8. Anaheim Ducks - 49 GP - 55 pts .561 pts %
9. Dallas Stars - 46 GP - 52 pts .565 pts %
10. Edmonton Oilers - 45 GP - 51 pts .567 pts %
11. Vancouver Canucks - 49 GP - 50 pts .510 pts %
12. Winnipeg Jets - 45 GP - 48 pts .533 pts %
13. San Jose Sharks - 46 GP - 48 pts .522 pts %
The Flames are now back in early-season form, riding a six-game winning streak and usually winning by multiple goals. Their closest game during this stretch was that 1-0 overtime win over Vancouver two weeks ago.
Now just one point behind Vegas, Calgary also added to its arsenal today, acquiring Tyler Toffoli from Montreal for a substantial package that doesn't really dent their current roster.
Jacob Markstrom was also named the NHL's first star of the week on Monday.
Elsewhere...
• Dallas laid an egg on Sunday, dropping a 4-0 decision to Colorado to snap a two-game winning streak.
• Edmonton delivered a win over the Islanders in its first game under new coach Jay Woodcroft on Friday, and is in San Jose to take on the Sharks on Monday night.
• Winnipeg has come out hot after the All-Star break, grabbing five of six possible points, and hosts Chicago on Monday night.
• The Sharks' game against Edmonton on Monday will be their first since the All-Star Break. They'll play six of seven at home over the rest of February, including hosting the Canucks on Thursday.
Even though this is not the way this season was supposed to look, schedule-wise, we're now in a month of February that's already carrying a very high level of playoff intrigue — in the West, anyway.
With the lowest points percentage of the Western Conference contenders, the Canucks still have an uphill battle to get to the postseason. But when they respond as well as they did to their coach's criticism after their lackluster start against the Islander last Wednesday and get all-world goaltending from Demko, it still seems like anything could be possible.
Speaking of Players Of The Week...
In the last blog, I highlighted the AHL veteran forwards who have been leading the Abbotsford Canucks during their recent hot streak. But prospect Jack Rathbone is also contributing in a big way, as the 22-year-old continues his development in his second pro season.
Rathbone has dealt with some injury issues this season, so he more than doubled his offensive output for the year over the last week — now at 5-14-19 and a plus-one in 18 games played.
The Baby Canucks finished out their six-game homestand on Saturday with a 5-2 win over the Manitoba Moose — outscoring their opponents 26-9 over those four games.
This week, they'll hit the road to face the Bakersfield Condors on Wednesday, then visit the Colorado Eagles on Friday and Saturday. With former Condors coach Jay Woodcroft now up in Edmonton, Colin Chaulk has taken over as Bakersfield's interim bench boss. The 45-year-old is in his first season with the team, having previously served as an assistant with AHL Belleville in 2019-20 after several years in the ECHL.
Also — while we have a moment, I wanted to briefly touch on former Canucks and players with B.C. connections at the Olympics.
This storyline is not as big as it was in 2018, when Willie Desjardins was at the helm for Canada's bronze medal team.
In fact, with the preliminary round complete, the biggest local note is Port Moody's Kent Johnson, who leads the Canadians with 1-3-4 in three games. Originally tagged as an alternate/taxi squadder, Johnson is tied for seventh overall in scoring in a tournament that hasn't had a ton of offensive punch. The scoring leader so far is Sean Farrell, an undersized 20-year-old on Team USA, with six points.
The Canadian roster also includes former Canuck Adam Cracknell (1 assist) as well as two players with strong family ties to the Kootenays and to Vancouver — Adam Tambellini (2 points) and Landon Ferraro (0 points). Former Canucks assistant Nolan Baumgartner is also helping out as an assistant coach.
On the IIHF website, the
roster for China's team is listed with their Chinese names, which means 21-year-old Delta Hockey Academy goalender Paris O'Brien is listed as Yongli Ouban and 36-year-old captain Brandon Yip, who hails from Maple Ridge, is going by Jinguang Ye.
Because Canada lost to the U.S. in its preliminary-round game, the Canadians will be playing China for a second time in the fourth qualification name on Monday night/Tuesday morning, at 5:10 a.m. PT.
And kudos to the Chinese. Though they were ranked 32nd in the world coming into this tournament and almost had their guaranteed spot as hosts pulled from them because it was believed they wouldn't be competitive, they've been OK. Yes, they lost 8-0 to Team USA and 5-0 to Canada, but that 3-2 loss to Germany was a nail-biter that really could have upended the Group A standings if it had gone a little differently.
In Group B, former Canucks defenders Yannick Weber and Raphael Diaz are taking one last spin for Switzerland, who finished last in their group with an 0-2-1 record. Surprising Denmark, in their first-ever Olympics, grabbed second spot in the group behind the Russians, beating both the Swiss and the Czechs. And yes, that Danish roster includes former Canucks first-round draft pick Nicklas Jensen, now 28 years old. Often strong at World Championships, he has just one assist so far, and is a minus-four.
Finland took top spot in Group C, edging out Sweden with an overtime win in their head-to-head matchup. One-time Canuck Markus Granlund has just one assist, but has been skating on the Finns' top line with his KHL linemates from Ufa. For Sweden, former Canucks Oscar Fantenberg and Philip Holm are both patrolling the blue line.
We've also got former Vancouver Giant Milos Roman suiting up for Slovakia (one assist), and our old pal Ronalds Kenins skating alongside one-time Canucks prospect Rodrigo Abols for Latvia.
In Monday's other qualification-round games, Denmark will take on the Latvians while Germany meets Slovakia at 8:10 p.m. PT. Then, at 12:40 a.m. PT, the Czechs will take on the Swiss.
USA, Finland, Russia and Sweden, ranked in that order, have received the byes into the quarterfinals.
Vancouver Canucks Blogger • 
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