It’s the first Wednesday morning of March and 17 games remain in the Vancouver Canucks season.

Positioned in the first wildcard spot, two points are all that separate them from playing playoff hockey or golfing in April. With each game increasing in importance as the Canucks dig-in for their final push, I thought it would be interesting to provide an overview of the rest of the calendar and identify some of the crucial details that lay ahead.

The Canucks are currently enjoying a rare window of rest as they have two days in-between their loss to Columbus from Sunday night and their game this evening against Arizona. Their only other two-day windows are from March 16-17 and at the end of the season between their games against Dallas on March 30th and Arizona on April 2nd.

On the other end of the workload spectrum, the Canucks have 3 back-to-backs on their hands starting with Arizona on March 12th and Colorado on the 13th. They play Anaheim and Los Angeles on the 20th and 21st which will be a monumental opportunity to gain points against two teams that sold at this year’s trade deadline. Their final back-to-back is another Pacific Division series as they play Calgary and Anaheim on the 27th and 28th.

All being told, the Canucks will play their final 17 regular-season games over a 35-day span which will be a challenging gauntlet for Vancouver’s youth and tandem in goal until Jacob Markstrom’s return.

Every game matters in this playoff race but the ones against your closest competitors weigh the most. They play within their division 10 times which is significant not only because of the parity of the top half of the Pacific but also because of the weakness of the bottom. As mentioned earlier, Anaheim and Los Angeles sold at the deadline, as did San Jose, who are also crippled with injuries. Vancouver plays the once-great Californian teams four times: twice against the Ducks and one apiece against the Kings and Sharks. Playoff teams win the games that they are expected to. The Canucks must take advantage of this weak part of the schedule and grab at least 6 of the 8 possible points from these games. It will only get harder from here.

They also play the Arizona Coyotes three times. They are currently two-points back of Vancouver with two more games played. Then there’s the first-place Vegas Golden Knights, who the Canucks will play twice, which includes game 82 at Rogers Arena. Their only other divisional game is against Calgary at home on the 27th of March. These six games are the proverbial “four-point-games”, as every result cataclysmically alters the Pacific Division landscape. With each game, the stakes will mount and every inch of ice will be fought over. These six games will make or break Vancouver’s playoff dreams.

The other seven games are against Central Division teams and three Eastern Conference teams. Vancouver plays Columbus, Long Island, and Tampa Bay all at home which is crucial as they don’t have to endure the rigors of flying across the continent. In the Central, they play Colorado twice, Winnipeg, and Dallas. None of these games will be easy. All six teams are currently in a playoff spot or are neck-and-neck with other wildcard teams, fighting for their playoff lives.

With Jacob Markstrom’s opaque timeline to return, the Canucks will be running with Thatcher Demko and Louis Domingue for the majority of these games. Demko’s play of late has inspired little confidence in Vancouver’s fans and Domingue being left out to dry in the third period of the Columbus game has led many to think that between the pipes is an area of concern. The situation won’t be any easier for this tandem moving forward and a majority of the pressures and responsibilities will be placed on 24-year-old Demko who has yet to play 35 NHL games. The young goalie is no stranger to high-pressure situations from his youth, playing in the World Junior Championships for the Americans but the stretch-run of the NHL is an entirely new beast, especially in hockey-mad Vancouver.

This is absolutely a trial by fire for Demko and Canucks fans are all hoping that he can rise to the occasion.

In terms of which games Demko starts, I would guess that he gets at least three of the next four on Vancouver’s homestand. The game against Arizona on Wednesday is the most important game of the season so far and Demko strikes me as a player that wants to start those kinds of games for his teammates. If he can shake off his early struggles and give Vancouver a chance to win, it should alleviate some concerns in the fanbase. Where I can confidently see Louis Domingue making a start would be against Colorado on April 13th. It is the second half of a back-to-back where the Canucks will likely be drained from battling with the Coyotes again in a crucial game. He likely makes another start either against Anaheim or Los Angeles on the 20th or 21st. The Canucks third and final back-to-back comes at the end of March and hopefully, by then, there will be more clarity on the Jacob Markstrom front. If the Swede is unable to go, Domingue likely gets the second half again as Anaheim is the weaker opponent.

NHL.com rates Vancouver’s remaining schedule as the 18th easiest in the league and only Arizona has an easier final stretch from the Pacific Division. It is do-or-die time for Vancouver. They’ve shown this year that when faced with adversity, they met it head-on and become better for it. They have consistently shown that they can be greater than the sum of their parts, but they haven’t been that team recently, and fans are about to find out whether this Canucks team is capable of weathering the storm down the stretch.