Here we are.

After 37 games in 70 days, the Vancouver Canucks now get six days off before they pick up their 2020-21 schedule next Wednesday, at home against the Calgary Flames.

The break comes after the Canucks ran out of gas in their two home games against the Winnipeg Jets. On Wednesday, mental mistakes led to two Too Many Men penalties for Vancouver during a brief stretch of the second period. After they'd played the Jets pretty even for a scoreless 25 minutes, Andrew Copp was able to make them pay on both calls. That was the difference in the 5-1 loss. Copp would go on to add two more late goals in the third, which gets him to 10 for the year.

Now, Vancouver sits and watches what happens around them in the North Division. For the moment, they're still in fifth place — two points behind Montreal, who now have six games in hand, and two ahead of Calgary, who have three games in hand.

But the Flames are now riding a three-game losing streak — the last two, against Ottawa. And they've scored just two goals in total in those three games. They're now 4-4-0 since Daryl Sutter took over behind the bench on March 11. The Canucks are 4-2-1 over the same time frame, so they have made up one additional point as well as wiping out one game in hand.

The Canucks and Flames will be even in games played when they go head-to-head next Wednesday. Calgary hosts Winnipeg for three home games between now and then: Friday, Saturday and Monday. They'll be playing their fourth game in six nights against a rested Canucks team on March 31.

Hopefully, the Canucks will be somewhat healthier by then. Bo Horvat was able to play against the Jets on Wednesday and Travis Green didn't go easy on him; he logged 22:40 of ice time and finished with four shot attempts, one hit, one takeaway — and an uncharacteristic three giveaways — while playing his usual role as the game's busiest faceoff man. In the circle, he went 14-for-28 for the night, for 50 percent.

Repeating his pattern from Monday, Brandon Sutter took the morning skate, but was not able to play in the game.

That left Tyler Graovac in the lineup once again. He played 10:25 on Wednesday, with two shot attempts, three hits and a 3-for-6 record on draws.

As the break goes on, I expect we'll start to get some clarity on how Sutter, Jay Beagle and Elias Pettersson are progressing. The schedule is showing complete days off on Thursday and Friday, practice on Saturday, two more days off Sunday and Monday, and another practice on Tuesday ahead of the return to game action on Wednesday. So there will be some opportunity to monitor who's on the ice and for Travis Green to provide updates if he chooses to do so.

For the moment, there isn't much point in looking ahead at what the schedule holds in April. That's now subject to change, because of the Montreal Canadiens' current Covid pause.

When Habs general manager Marc Bergevin addressed the media on Thursday, he explained that of the team's two players currently in protocol, one tested positive for a Covid variant, and the other is being treated as a close contact. The players are Joel Armia and Jesperi Kotkaniemi; for the moment, we don't know which one is in which situation.

From the outset this season, the league was adamant that there was no magic number which would automatically trigger game postponements; everything needed to be handled on a case-by-case basis. Their protocols have changed through the season. In some recent cases, they have allowed games to continue to be played while teams had positive cases — Noah Dobson, for instance, just finished his two weeks in isolation but the New York Islanders' schedule was unaffected. I assume the reason they acted so aggressively in Montreal's situation is because of the concern that variants can be even more contagious.

All the more reason to breathe a sigh of relief that the Canucks got in and out of the Bell Centre last week without, apparently, bringing the virus home with them.

Through Thursday, no additional Montreal players have been added to the list. If that holds, the team will remain off the ice through Sunday, then practice on Monday before resuming their schedule against Ottawa on Tuesday.

Based on that plan, they'll have lost four games — on top of already having played the fewest games in the division. And with an April schedule that already had them playing 16 games in 30 days, with two days off between games only once in the entire month, word is that the entire North Division schedule grid may have to be adjusted to get everything in.

It sounds like it's going to be a tight squeeze. Right now, the last games for the North Division teams are scheduled for Saturday, May 8. South of the border, the league has scheduled one makeup game for May 9, and three for May 10. Apparently, they're hoping to start the playoffs on May 12.

Without much runway at this point, the schedulemaker is going to have to get creative to squeeze everything in and still hit that playoff target. It sounds like there is a plan in place, but the league won't be announcing it until they're sure that Montreal is out the other side of this situation and no further postponements are required.

Even though the Canucks have wrapped up their season series against the Canadiens, there could be a trickle-down effect as other opponents' schedules are re-worked.

However it plays out, it should benefit Vancouver that they have fewer games that need to be squeezed in. Looking at other teams that have come out of postponements, they've had a tough time — particularly when dealing with the heavier schedules caused by the makeup games.

So the Habs have a daunting challenge ahead, and the Flames are trending downward. Even though the numbers look grim, that outside opportunity still exists for the Canucks to punch their playoff ticket...

If you're jonesing for hockey to watch while the Canucks are off, there are options.

On Friday, the NCAA Tournament begins — although the 16-team field is down to 14 before they even begin with Notre Dame and Michigan both forced to withdraw due to positive Covid test results. In Canada, TSN holds the rights to the games — you can mostly find them on the TSN.ca website or the app.

Later on Friday, the NWHL picks up where it left off before Covid burst its playoff bubble back in January. The women's pro league plans to play two semfinals on Friday and its championship game on Saturday at Warrior Arena in Boston. In Canada, those games can be found on Twitch.

And, of course, we've got our old standby — the KHL playoffs. As I type this on Friday morning, Vasily Podkolzin's SKA Saint Petersburg is up 1-0 on Dynamo Moscow after one period.

Up 3-1 in the series heading into this game, SKA will play the winner of the series between CSKA and Lokomotiv in the Western Conference Final if they advance. CSKA Moscow currently leads that series 3-2, with Game 6 set for Saturday.

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