The Vancouver Canucks begin their first big test of the season on Thursday.
The team has had a middling start to its season, putting up a 1-2-0 record so far. Vancouver got off to a winning start by thoroughly beating the Calgary Flames in Game 1 before losing to the Edmonton Oilers and St. Louis Blues in regulation.
But if the Canucks were hoping to get a break from the NHL schedule-maker, they were sorely disappointed.
Between this Thursday and Sunday, the Canucks will play three times on the road. They get a true litmus test in the form of the Dallas Stars on Thursday before a must-win game against the Chicago Blackhawks on Friday. On Sunday, they take on the Washington Capitals.
The even crazier part of the Canucks’ schedule is that Vancouver doesn’t have a full two days off between Friday and Sunday’s games. The Blackhawks game is scheduled for 8:30 p.m. ET, and the Capitals game is at 12:30 p.m. ET Sunday. That means the Canucks will play three games in about 64-and-a-half hours.
This is what NHLers mean when they talk about young players learning to prepare their bodies for the grind of the schedule. This is why keeping a level head and a strong focus is so important – you have to navigate through a schedule that never feels particularly fair to you, and that probably means you’re not at 100 percent much of the time.
Now, you might look at the Canucks’ schedule and say, “Hey, Vancouver does get a break here by playing a ‘gimme’ game against the sad-sack Blackhawks.” And that is true, considering the Canucks won each meeting in the last three seasons – but you also have to acknowledge that the Stars are one of the best teams in the league, and last season, the Capitals were the best team in the Eastern Conference.
The Stars and Capitals have gotten off to strong starts to the year, with Dallas going 3-0-0 and Washington going 3-1-0. And the Hawks are 2-2-1 so far.
So each of the Canucks’ next three games could be losses that send them sliding down the Pacific Division standings – or they could be three wins that give them the foundation to climb to the top of the Pacific and stay there. So Vancouver needs to make an early statement.
How The Vancouver Canucks Performed During 4+ Game Road Trips In 2024–25With the Canucks now embarking on their first five-game road trip of the 2025–26 season, let’s take a look at how they performed in their five 4+ road game road trips during 2024–25. It’s not going to be a cakewalk for the Canucks to reverse their slow start, and they will need both goalies – Thatcher Demko and Kevin Lankinen – to get them through this brutal stretch of the schedule.
Demko's played better so far, with a 1.54 goals-against average and .944 save percentage. Maintaining those types of impressive performances throughout the season will be a massive boost for the Canucks, which ranked sixth-last for save percentage in 2024-25, according to naturalstattrick.com.
In any case, the Canucks need better performances than they’ve got thus far – especially on offense, where their average of 2.67 goals-for per game is tied for 25th in the NHL – and they need those improved performances right away. Vancouver has the talent to be a Stanley Cup playoff team this season. Still, they need to be consistently good in all sorts of situations, including this upcoming punishing stretch of games, if they’re going to get back into the post-season this year.
The Canucks’ next few games could prove to be a positive harbinger of what’s to come – or they could add to a losing stretch that puts them behind the eight-ball and pushes them lower in the standings. It’s potentially a rollercoaster situation for Vancouver, and how the Canucks respond to this challenge will begin to shape the organization's identity this year.
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