Thanks to Bill Shakespeare — and more recently, George Clooney — the ides of March are a well-known time of the year. Apparently, we’re meant to be wary of it, but as a hockey fan, one can’t help but look forward to it. As the calendar hits mid-March, playoff races are in full swing, and each game means so much. Save for the playoffs themselves, there is no more exciting time in hockey. At the time of publication, Colorado is clinging to the eighth and final playoff berth in the West, but by the time you read this, they could be as high as sixth or as low as 11th. The day after that, well, who knows?
Currently, the Vancouver Canucks have a firm hold on the second seed in the Western Conference, but are in a race of their own. They have a shot at retaking the number-one spot, but they appear to be content just coasting into the post-season (much to the ire of Canuck fans the world over). It would take a catastrophic collapse for them to miss the playoffs at this point, but with such a logjam between the five or six teams hovering around that eighth seed, it would be frivolous to predict the Canucks first-round opponent. It really doesn’t matter if the Canucks finish first or second, because who finishes seventh or eighth could be determined on the final day of the season.
With that in mind, here are the three teams that would likely give the Canucks the most trouble should they meet come the ides of April.
3. Calgary Flames
Regardless of where these two teams are in the standings, neither has ever had a decisive edge over the other in head-to-head matchups.
The Flames had been riding the consistently stellar play of goaltender Miikka Kiprusoff until a few weeks ago, when the whole team seemingly caught fire (pardon the pun). Kiprusoff is still playing fantastically, and he’s capable of bringing an offensively starved team within a goal of the Stanley Cup. Of course, Calgary is a much different team than they were in 2004, but one thing that hasn’t changed, aside from their goalie’s play, is that of their captain. Jarome Iginla, a notoriously slow starter, was a focal point of trade rumours early in the season. Now, however, he’s on top of his game and is playing some of his best hockey of the past few seasons.
The Flames are hot, led by a star goalie and a surging captain. They always seem to get up for matchups against their divisional rival, and always have a chance to beat them.
2. Chicago Blackhawks
Really, who wouldn’t want this matchup again? Hawks’ captain Jonathan Toews has had some post-concussion complications, but there’s no denying the rivalry these two teams share.
The Blackhawks currently sit in the sixth seed, but are perilously close to falling down to seventh (or worse), but have all the right tools to go far in the playoffs (again), though they do lack a top-tier goaltender. Still, they have Patrick Kane, Duncan Keith, and Dave Bolland, all notorious Canuck-killers — and that’s excluding Toews. These two teams played one of the most exciting and memorable playoff series of the past few years, and most would kill to have it again — but it almost goes without saying that a matchup against the Hawks could spell danger for the Canucks.
1. Phoenix Coyotes
The Canucks lost to the Bruins last year because they couldn’t beat a hot goalie and were stifled by a stingy defensive team. They struggled to put away Nashville for many of the same reasons. Nashville wasn’t as deep offensively as Boston, and that naturally played into Vancouver’s favour, but still played Vancouver to one of the most even six-game series ever.
Phoenix is more like Nashville. They score by committee, play a suffocating defensive game, and have a goaltender playing pretty well in Mike Smith — all of which are factors that would be the bane of an offensive team like Vancouver. Two of the matchups between the teams ended as 2–1 finals, both in shootouts, speaking volumes about Phoenix’s ability to slow any game to a halt.
Vancouver thrives when playing an exciting, up-tempo brand of hockey. Take that away from them, and it could spell the Canucks’ undoing should the two teams meet early in April’s playoffs.
