In many ways, the Vancouver Canucks are in the midst of an identity crisis.

Forget any word of any off-ice drama. We’re not talking about whether or not this team likes itself. We’re talking about who this team is at its core.

Last season, in 2023/24, the Canucks looked very much like a team on the rise. As if the always-talented core had finally put it all together and were ready to push the team into a period of genuine contention.

Many saw it is a clear-cut step forward. Some thought that step forward might translate into a sprint as early as 2024/25. Most at least thought that the forward momentum would continue.

But that has just not been the case.

As of this writing, it’s officially happened: the Canucks have slipped out of a playoff position. Not by far – they’re just a point behind the Calgary Flames here on this Thursday morning. But it is a far cry from where expectations placed them heading into the year, and that’s obviously had a major impact on folks’ belief in this roster.

As is often the case in an identity crisis, questions have been raised. Were the 2023/24 Canucks a mirage? Were the people crowing about PDO all season in the right? Are these current Canucks the real deal?

Is the team as good as it was last year, or as bad as it’s been this past while?

We’re not here to answer those questions today. We’re just here to suggest that the Canucks are about to answer them themselves. Specifically, over the course of the next two weeks.

Starting with Thursday night’s matchup against the Los Angeles Kings, the Canucks will enter into a crucial two-week run to end the month of January. Based on where the team is at right now, and the shape of that schedule, it seems clear that, whoever the real 2024/25 Canucks might be, we’re about to see them revealed.

The game against the Kings is unique due to the previous circumstances of their Tanner Jeannot having knocked Brock Boeser out of the lineup with a cheapshot the last time these two teams met. Call it an emotional test at an emotional fraught time to kick off a vital fortnight of hockey, in addition to it being a key matchup with a team the Canucks are attempting to catch in the standings.

The remainder of January will feature another set of important divisional showdowns in the form of an extended-and-interrupted home-and-home series with the Edmonton Oilers, set for January 18 and 23.

At this point, we won’t say the Canucks are trying to catch the Oilers, too, because Edmonton is 11 points up and looks to be nigh-uncatchable. But that doesn’t change the fact that the Oilers are a significant benchmark for the Canucks to measure themselves against.

If the Canucks want to proven they can again be as a good a team or better than the one they were in 2023/24, it starts with competing with the Oilers. As such, these games will matter just a little bit more than the standard ‘four-point’ divisional matchups.

Outside of the Pacific, the Canucks also have some other intriguing opponents set for January. That includes a rematch with the Washington Capitals on January 25. When these teams met earlier in the month, it was a contentious game defined by one P-L Dubois running roughshod over the Canucks. How they respond in Round Two will go a long way in defining their identity as a team.

On top of all that, the Canucks wrap up January with a game against the Dallas Stars, one of the established top contenders in the Western Conference. Another benchmark.

The only three non-playoff teams the Canucks are facing in the midst of all this are the Buffalo Sabres, St. Louis Blues, and the Nashville Predators.

The Blues have been putting up more of a fight than expected in 2024/25. The Predators are seemingly always a tough out for the Canucks. And if we tried, we could probably come up with a third positive thing to say about the Sabres.

Regardless, the results of these games will also say a lot about the Canucks. If they want to right the ship on the season and start regaining some of the ground they’ve lost, the Canucks absolutely must win such winnable games. They need to be able to show they’re definitively better than such bubble franchises – if, that is, they actually are.

There are some other factors at play here that make this next stretch – eight games in 15 days to wrap up the month – so identity-solidifying.

For one, the Canucks are as healthy as they’re going to be. They’ve been able to use injuries as at least a partial excuse from Day One of the season. As of right now, it’s just Dakota Joshua on the IR. That’s as best as they can reasonably hope for at any mid-way point in any given season.

Some players will be playing through injuries, sure, but then others, like Elias Pettersson, seem to be hitting the other side of their injury-related struggles. Even Thatcher Demko seems to be rounding into form, and if he takes a little longer, that’s okay, because Kevin Lankinen remains stellar.

We can thus assume that as good as the Canucks play over these next two weeks is about as good as they can be, again for better or for worse.

Half of those eight games are home games. Currently, the Canucks hold a 7-8-6 home record, which is abysmal. It’s literally twice as many home losses as home wins.

Win out on those four home games, and the Canucks would improve to 11-8-6, which doesn’t look nearly as bad. Lose out, and the Canucks would move to 7-12-6, which is outright unsalvageable.

The real result will no doubt fall somewhere in between. But all this really means is that we should get a definitive answer over the next little while as to whether the Canucks are going to be defined by their home-ice struggles or overcome them.

That’s the book on the rest of January. The Canucks will either get through what they’re currently going through, proving that they have been a better team all along, or they won’t.

Either way, we’ll have a much clearer picture of who the 2024/25 Canucks really are when the calendar flips over to February.