Vancouver Canucks vs. Detroit Red Wings - Sunday November 30 - 11 a.m. - CITY TV - TSN1040
Vancouver Canucks - 16-6-1 - 33 points - first in Pacific Division
Detroit Red Wings - 13-5-5 - 31 points - third in Atlantic Division
Fortunes change fast in this year's NHL. During their day off on Saturday, the Vancouver Canucks were passed by SIX teams in the league standings.
The Ducks lost, but Nashville and St. Louis both won to reach 34 points and knock Vancouver down to third place in the Western Conference. In the East, Pittsburgh, Tampa Bay, the Islanders and Montreal also all moved to 34 points.
The Canucks and Red Wings are the only game in town today—because of Grey Cup, I presume. They get the Hometown Hockey treatment on CITY TV. Brandon, Manitoba is in Ron McLean's spotlight today.
After talking a bit yesterday about the Canucks' chances of making the playoffs, last night's shuffle in the standings offers up a good reminder that it wouldn't take much to drop out of the picture—like last year.
I've heard a lot of buzz this week that teams in playoff positions at U.S. Thanksgiving will almost always go on to make the postseason. Pat Graham at the Associated Press has some numbers to
back that up, courtesy of
The Globe and Mail.
Since the 2005-06 season, NHL teams in postseason position entering the American Thanksgiving holiday have gone on to make the Stanley Cup playoffs 77.3 per cent of the time, according to STATS.
Even better for the Canucks:
Only five teams seeded in the top-three at Thanksgiving have failed to make the post-season over the past eight seasons (2012-13 didn’t get rolling until January). The last to do so was Minnesota in ‘11-12, in research provided by STATS.
That Wild team was undone by injuries. And last year, the Canucks were a pretty solid 13-9-5 at Thanksgiving. But that record set them at 31 points in 27 games during last season's condensed schedule—two points less, with four more games played than where they are today.
According to the Associated Press article, "loser points" are one of the biggest reasons why it's so tough to knock teams out of the standings. Unless teams start losing a big pile of games outright, they can usually dig in their fingernails and cling to a playoff spot.
Four Western Conference teams from last year's playoff picture are currently sitting on the outside looking in: Minnesota, San Jose, Dallas and Colorado. They've been replaced by the Canucks, Flames, Predators and the Jets.
Vancouver's currently six points up on the first time outside the Wild Card—Minnesota has 27 points. If the Canucks can grow that gap to 10 points, I'll start to breathe a little easier.
Now—on to today's game.
The Canucks and Red Wings are both hot teams going into Sunday's contest, having won their last three games. While the Canucks shut out Columbus on Friday, Detroit bounced back from a 4-1 deficit to beat Cory Schneider's New Jersey Devils 5-4 in a shootout.
Detroit has been a tough foe for the Canucks in recent years. The Wings won both meetings last season and have a 4-0-1 record against Vancouver in their last five games. I can still remember Roberto Luongo getting torched for eight goals in a
weekend daytime meeting at the Joe on February 24, 2013—a game the Canucks lost 8-3.
Luongo's gone, but Ryan Miller's record isn't much better in his old stomping grounds. He's 2-9-2 in his career and has lost his last six games against the Wings.
Willie Desjardins is still looking for more from his team. "I’m glad we have the points because they can’t take them away but, for us, we’re not playing exactly the way we want,” Desjardins
told Jason Botchford at
The Province. "We have to get playing better."
Once the Canucks started losing last season, the snowball effect kicked in. The same thing could be happening with winning, as players like Shawn Matthias see what life is like on the other side of the fence. "It’s the first time I’ve ever been on a team this good, a winning team," Matthias told Botchford. "I was talking to my dad about this last night. It’s fun coming to the rink and winning. This is the most fun I’ve ever had playing hockey."
Hopefully the boys can have some more fun today. Enjoy the game!
Vancouver Canucks Blogger • 
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