In most other circumstances, watching the Vancouver Canucks take three of four points from the Edmonton Oilers and Calgary Flames would be cause for celebration.
The Canucks rode two big third periods to a 4-1 win over Edmonton on Saturday and a 6-5 overtime loss to the Flames on Sunday. It was a decent weekend's work which was utterly overshadowed by the beginning of the Stanley Cup Playoffs, the hand-wringing over the club's eventual draft lottery position, and the endless chatter about the managerial future of the franchise, with Geoff Courtnall's name now in the mix.
With two games left to go, the Canucks wake up Monday morning in 26th place in the league standings — tied with Detroit and Columbus with 48 points, but ranked highest because they hold the edge in the tiebreakers.
They could still move up as many as three more spots: San Jose and L.A. each have 49 points, and Ottawa has 51. They can't catch the Flames, who hold a five-point edge with 53 points, with two head-to-head games left to go.
If you've been following this space for awhile, you know that I'm never a big proponent of Tank Nation. I believe players — and coaches, in this case — need to put their best foot forward until the bitter end, as it reflects on their future opportunities and their statistics.
Over the last two games, J.T. Miller has led the charge with five points, and is a plus-3. With four assists and a plus-one, Quinn Hughes has cracked the 40-point plateau. At 0.74 points per game, he has almost matched his output of 0.78 from his rookie season. If he can add another two points in these final two games, he'll move into the top 10 in points by a defenseman for the year. Now at minus-23, he'll have a tough time getting out of the bottom 10 in plus-minus, though.
And these games certainly mean something to players like Matthew Highmore and Tyler Graovac. Highmore has one more year on his current deal, which will pay him a very economical $750,000 next season. But he has been playing big minutes in the top six with the Canucks, and has started to pick up points — five in the last seven games, including two goals against Edmonton on Saturday.
In limited minutes, Graovac has scored three times in the last seven games, and got the comeback started on Sunday with his power-play goal early in the third period. Now 28, the big pivot has only had one season in his entire career where he hasn't been on a two-way contract. This year, he's being paid based on the NHL minimum of $700,000 (minus the salary deferral and escrow, of course), for every day that he's on the Canucks' main roster. When he's on the taxi squad, he's at $175,000. That was a significant drop from last year, when the Canucks paid him $400,000 at the minor-league level.
Graovac will be an unrestricted free agent, again, at the end of this season. He knows the drill — and I'm sure he's doing everything he can to finish the season on a high note. He could wrap up with as many as 14 NHL games played — the most since he appeared in 52 games for the Minnesota Wild back in 2016-17.
Then there's Jonah Gadjovich, the 22-year-old who finally got to make his NHL debut against the Flames on Sunday. He played just 4:55 — didn't get back into the game after his fight with Connor Mackey early in the second period, which was retaliation for Mackey's hit from behind on Highmore.
Gadjovich also made a poor defensive play leading up to Josh Leivo's game-opening goal in the first period. Within the culture of hockey, the fight was the perfect opportunity for him to show that he's willing to stick up for his teammates — and to get himself noticed, in a good way.
The Canucks selected Gadjovich with the late second-round pick in the 2017 draft that they were awarded as compensation when the Columbus Blue Jackets hired John Tortorella to be their coach. It seems ironic that his first game with Vancouver comes a week after Torts' time in Columbus has officially come to an end.
Speaking of Gadjovich, he was named MVP of the Utica Comets in what has turned out to be their final season, despite missing the last two weeks after his call-up. He finished with 15 goals and 18 points in 19 AHL games this season, a big step up from 17 points in 39 games last year. He has exactly 100 games on his minor-league resume; I bet he'd love it if the count stopped right there.
With 23 points, Lukas Jasek finished the season tied with St. Louis Blues prospect Sam Anas for top spot in the Comets' scoring race. And for all his past injury issues, it's nice to see that Jett Woo got into all 28 Comets games in his first AHL season.
And as far as who's going to run the team after this season is over, I had less clarity than ever after reading Ben Kuzma's weekend chat with Geoff Courtnall, who's rumoured to potentially be joining the club in some sort of advisory capacity.
I suggested last week that if dominoes were going to fall, it could happen during this homestand if the Canucks wanted to follow the New York Rangers model and get the people who are going to shape this team going forward into position to handle players' exit interviews later this week. At this point, it feels like no decisions are imminent. But I guess that could change at any time.
Meanwhile, enjoy the playoffs! We've got Game 2 of Boston/Washington on Monday night, as well as the first games of Nashville/Carolina and St. Louis/Colorado.
Given how close all four of the weekend games were, I probably shouldn't be too hard on myself that my bracket picks went 0-for-4, sigh. There's still time to recover.
After Saturday's news that David Perron had gone on the Covid Protocol list, I switched my pick for that series from the Blues to the Avs. It's still not confirmed whether or not Perron has tested positive — or even if he's going to be in the lineup on Monday. I'll just laugh if the Blues take Game 1 after all this.
Finally, here are your official reminders about the game times for the Canucks' last two games: Tuesday at 1 p.m. PT and Wednesday at 12:30.
Don't freak out if you tune in and hear the voices of the Flames' broadcasters. As
Thomas Drance explained for The Athletic, these last two games are needed to satisfy the Flames' regional TV rights package with Sportsnet. The Canucks' regional package has already been completed, so we'll see a home game with a road broadcast crew on Tuesday, then the same team doing the final game of the year from Calgary on Wednesday.
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