Vancouver Canucks officially clinch 2024 Stanley Cup Playoffs spot

The near-decade-long nightmare is finally over as the Canucks have officially punched their ticket for the 2024 playoffs.

This was made possible because the Wild lost in overtime to the Golden Knights earlier today while the Blues got shut out by the Sharks. Those two scenarios got the magic number down to zero and now the Canucks can put an “x” next to their name as seen in the above tweet.

It marks their first appearance since 2020 when they made a surprising run to the second round while in the bubble in Edmonton before bowing out in six to the Golden Knights. There are only seven players left on the roster today who were a part of the prior run and the team is much better equipped to make some noise compared to the assembled squad from four years ago.

This will also be the first time since 2015 that there will be playoff games held in Vancouver. The last time a postseason match was held at Rogers Arena was on April 23, 2015, when the Canucks defeated the Flames 2-1 in Game 5 of their first-round matchup to force a Game 6. Whenever that first playoff game back in Vancouver will be held is bound to be an emotional moment for the players and the fans so don’t be shocked if there is an extra boost of energy that night.

Now that the Canucks have punched their ticket, their focus now shifts to working out the kinks in their armour and getting lacklustre aspects of their game in order. It’s starting to sound like a broken record just how much of a focal point the power play struggles have been for the team of late but that will be one of many areas Rick Tocchet and the coaching staff will look to iron out down the stretch.

They can also try and solidify their spot atop the Pacific Division as the Oilers currently sit four points back of the Canucks heading into tomorrow afternoon’s game. Although there is no such thing as an easy matchup in the playoffs, Vancouver would much prefer to clinch the division to set themselves up with a tilt against one of the Wild Card teams because the alternative is a heavyweight tilt against either the Oilers or Golden Knights which is not an ideal scenario for round one.

That is a problem for down the line, but first, the Canucks will commence the stretch drive with a matinee game against the Ducks. You can catch the action on Sportsnet 360 and Sportsnet Pacific with the puck drop scheduled for 12:30 p.m. PDT.