{"id":534681,"date":"2026-04-01T12:46:23","date_gmt":"2026-04-01T12:46:23","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/534681\/"},"modified":"2026-04-01T12:46:23","modified_gmt":"2026-04-01T12:46:23","slug":"elias-pettersson-and-the-canucks-are-one-loss-away-from-finishing-32nd","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/534681\/","title":{"rendered":"Elias Pettersson and the Canucks are one loss away from finishing 32nd"},"content":{"rendered":"


\n\t\t\t\t\t
\n\t\t\t\t\t \"Vancouver <\/p>\n

Photo credit: Sergei Belski-Imagn Images<\/p>\n

Elias Pettersson and Adam Foote are down to one hard truth: if Vancouver loses to Colorado, 32nd place becomes official.<\/p>\n

That is the bad news hanging over the Canucks right now. There is no soft way to frame it, and no scoreboard trick left to hide it.<\/p>\n

Vancouver sits 32nd in the NHL with a 21-44-8 record and 50 points. Chicago is at 67 points, which leaves the Canucks with no margin at all.<\/p>\n

So Wednesday is not just another late-season puck drop. It is a game that can lock the Canucks into the league basement before the schedule is even finished.<\/p>\n

That makes Pettersson the center of the story again. He still has 6 points in his last 5 games, and Vancouver still leans on him more than anyone else to create something off the rush.<\/p>\n

The problem is what comes after that first touch. The Canucks have scored 187 goals in 73 games, the fewest total on the matchup board against Colorado.<\/p>\n

One more loss would stamp this season<\/p>\n

Foote is coaching through a finish that has turned from disappointing to damaging. Vancouver is 2-8-0 in its last 10 games, and the slide has dragged every conversation back to the same place.<\/p>\n

That place is the standings. The Canucks are not just near the bottom. They are already there, and another loss would remove the last bit of suspense.<\/p>\n

Colorado is a brutal team to face in that spot. The Avalanche come in at 49-14-10 and average 3.75 goals per game, while Vancouver is sitting at 2.49.<\/p>\n

The matchup gets even tighter when you look at recent leaders. Pettersson has 6 assists over the last 5 games, while Jake DeBrusk has 2 goals in that same stretch for Vancouver.<\/p>\n

That is not enough support against a club with Nathan MacKinnon on one side and Martin Necas piling up 8 points in his last 5 on the other. Vancouver does not have room for another quiet night from its top six.<\/p>\n

And there is no hiding from the special-teams gap either. The Canucks are running at 19.7 percent on the power play and 71 percent on the penalty kill, while Colorado is at 18.1 percent and 83.7 percent.<\/p>\n

Those numbers tell the story of a team chasing the game too often and failing to clean it up after. Too many holes, too little push, too much pressure landing on the same few forwards.<\/p>\n

If Vancouver loses, last place is no longer a threat. It becomes fact, and that label will sit over this roster all summer.<\/p>\n

Previously on Vancouver Hockey Daily<\/p>\n

POLL<\/p>\n

14 HOURS AGO|135 ANSWERS<\/p>\n

Elias Pettersson and the Canucks are one loss away from finishing 32nd<\/p>\n

Would an official 32nd-place finish force the Canucks into major roster changes ?<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Photo credit: Sergei Belski-Imagn Images Elias Pettersson and Adam Foote are down to one hard…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":534682,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5128],"tags":[3528,894,144,2318,5,7747,517,4,893,27,5313],"class_list":{"0":"post-534681","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-vancouver-canucks","8":"tag-adam-foote","9":"tag-canucks","10":"tag-colorado-avalanche","11":"tag-elias-pettersson","12":"tag-hockey","13":"tag-jake-debrusk","14":"tag-nathan-mackinnon","15":"tag-nhl","16":"tag-vancouver","17":"tag-vancouver-canucks","18":"tag-vancouvercanucks"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nhl\/116329526567578120","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/534681","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=534681"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/534681\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/534682"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=534681"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=534681"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=534681"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}