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Vancouver Canucks 'pause' on playoff bubble as NHL suspends season

March 12, 2020, 3:41 PM ET [290 Comments]
Carol Schram
Vancouver Canucks Blogger • RSSArchiveCONTACT
Well, here we are.

The Vancouver Canucks and their 30 NHL rivals are "on pause" following the league's announcement on Thursday morning to suspend operations due to the coronavirus outbreak.



The news comes following a dramatic Wednesday night in the NBA, when the Utah Jazz/Oklahoma City Thunder game was suspended just before tipoff when word came down that Jazz center Rudy Gobert had received a preliminary positive test for COVID-19.

Gobert's teammate, Donovan Mitchell, was also reported to be positive on Thursday.



As Gary Bettman mentions in his statement, the fact that NHL and NBA teams share many facilities makes players and staff vulnerable to this highly contagious virus. The hope is that by limiting travel and contact, the spread will start to abate and, best-case scenario, games can be resumed to finish out the regular season and playoffs in some form.

As part of the conversation today, the league is reported to have asked teams for arena availability through the end of July.

For the moment, the Canucks are asking fans to hang onto their tickets.



Here's my full story on today's news:



The Canucks, of course, travelled to Glendale on Wednesday to prepare for a pair of back-to-back games against the Coyotes and Avalanche on Thursday and Friday.



That has now changed, as teams and officials have been ordered home.





According to Darren Dreger, teams are also being asked not to meet or practice from here on out.



While that directive makes sense under the circumstances, it certainly puts players in a difficult situation. Even if the 'pause' is short, it's not clear to me how they'll be able to stay in game shape. Will they have opportunities to skate or use the gym or team training/medical facilities?

What about injured players? How will Jacob Markstrom's rehab be impacted?

So many questions!

Frustrating, but I understand why we don't have all the answers at this time, as this story has evolved so quickly. We'll all just have to wait and see how things pan out.

Word is that the AHL is holding a conference call on Thursday afternoon and is expected to follow suit, also stopping their games. The Utica Comets dropped a 3-1 decision to the Syracuse Crunch on Wednesday and were set to host Belleville on Friday before visiting Springfield on Saturday.

With 15 games left in their regular season, the Comets sit third in the AHL's North Division, in a playoff spot with a record of 34-22-3-2.

April's World U18 championship in Michigan was also cancelled on Thursday. The IIHF continues to hold off on a decision about the men's World Championship in Switzerland in May.

As far as the Canucks' playoff potential, they're right on the bubble. Winnipeg beat Edmonton 4-2 on Wednesday night to move into the first wild-card spot in the West with 80 points. The Canucks are tied with Nashville at 78 but currently sit just outside the playoff cutline; the two teams have played the same number of games (69), but Nashville has one more regulation win, and that's the first tiebreaker this year.

This will all get very interesting if the teams do get back to work — especially if they end up shortening what's left of the regular season, as once source has suggested could happen.



The number that works in Vancouver's favour is points percentage. The Canucks are one point behind Calgary, with one game in hand, so they have a .565 points percentage compared to the Flames' .564 (and .563 for Winnipeg). If the league was to decide to progress directly to playoffs, they'd probably have to use this metric to determine playoff seeding, since teams around the league have played different numbers of games. That would move Vancouver into third place in the Pacific.

Still — all very speculative at this time.

And don't worry, I'll be around to keep you informed as the story develops and things go forward. God knows, I'm going to have some time on my hands with no games to cover or do stats for.

For the moment, we also still have some European games to monitor. I believe seven European hockey leagues have now cancelled their seasons but for the moment, the KHL, at least, carries on.

In the meantime — stay safe! We're in pretty good shape so far here in B.C., but keep washing your hands and stay at home if you feel sick. The 'social distance' suggestion is probably pretty smart, too, if you can manage it.

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