The Canucks continue to stay cursed as playoff hopes slip away

The Vancouver Canucks find their hopes of the 2025 Stanley Cup playoffs slipping away. 

After pushing themselves above the playoff line briefly, the Canucks have fallen back and sit five points out of a playoff spot heading into Monday night’s four-game NHL slate, with just 12 games remaining on their schedule. 

It’s been a challenging campaign for the Canucks, with an inconsistent Elias Pettersson and often injured Quinn Hughes and Thatcher Demko all hampering their efforts, in addition to significant trades, including sending J.T. Miller to the New York Rangers.

On Sunday, they fell 5-3 to the Rangers despite outshooting them 39-12, with Pettersson and Niles Höglander leaving the game due to injury.

Tyler Yaremchuk and Frank Seravalli dove into Vancouver’s fading postseason hopes on the latest episode of Daily Faceoff Live.

Yaremchuk: If that loss [to the Rangers] happens in November, you sit there and go, ‘hey, we played great sometimes; those don’t go your way.’ But when that’s a loss on game 70 in a tight playoff race? Oh, that’s a dagger.

Seravalli: It feels like we’ve reached our pet’s heads falling off stage for the Vancouver Canucks; that’s really where they’re at. Think about the way this year has unfolded, from start to finish.

It’s been one thing after the other, and I would say that this has been a cursed season for the Canucks, except it feels like a lot of what we’ve seen has been self-inflicted, outside of some of the injuries and some of that has to do with roster construction. 

This team just isn’t as good as last year’s team, and some of it also has to do with just the internal strife and near-daily drama that surrounded this club; you’ve got a couple of decent stories. Keifer Sherwood has been a monster, hitting everything in sight, and Pius Suter hit 20 goals, but outside of that, you go, ‘now what?’ 

You can watch the full episode here…