After Sunday afternoon’s loss to the Tampa Bay Lightning, the Vancouver Canucks’ record against playoff teams fell to 3-5-2. That is a bad record to have against the 15 best teams in the league, otherwise known as nearly half the NHL.

Contextualizing this record, however, did not reveal anything positive about the Canucks play against playoff teams. By comparing the Canucks to other playoff teams in various counting stats, they finish bottom-5 in almost every category.

Looking at that chart, the Canucks record of 3-5-2 actually flatters them. They are last among playoff teams in goals per game and shots for per game and second last in high-danger chances for per game. The team that doesn’t generate shots or quality chances, who gets out-chanced by opponents and scored on, usually doesn’t win a lot of games. The Canucks only have two regulation wins against playoff teams. That is tied with the Boston Bruins for second worst, above only the New York Rangers, who have one regulation win. The only factors keeping the chart from being red across the board for the Canucks is they are doing a decent job of limiting shots against and some competent goaltending.

A big part of the crooked goals against numbers for the Canucks has been the two games against the New Jersey Devils and Edmonton Oilers, where Arturs Silovs allowed six goals and Kevin Lankinen let in seven. There has been quite a discrepancy in goaltending stats between the two against playoff teams. Lankinen has a 3-2-2 record with a .899 SV%, while Silovs is at 0-3-0 with a .847 SV%. Ideally, replacing Silovs with Thatcher Demko should boost these numbers significantly.

It must be pointed out that this is a very small sample size. Only the Rangers have played fewer games against playoff teams. The Canucks have also battled injuries to key players for the entire season. The numbers could improve from bad to middling in fairly short order if JT Miller returns and increases the offence’s potency. Coupled with, hopefully, better goaltending from Demko, the Canucks should see an uptick in effectiveness.

These roster additions could not come soon enough. At this point in time, the Canucks have feasted on non-playoff teams (11-3-2), which has pushed them into a Pacific Division playoff spot and a solid points percentage (11th in the NHL). For the rest of December, the Canucks are slated to face four playoff teams out of 10 games. However, January is murderers’ row. Nine of the 15 games are against teams currently in playoff contention. The club faces a stretch where they face a playoff team in eight of nine games, including six in a row and a road back-to-back against the Carolina Hurricanes and Toronto Maple Leafs.

Until this point in the season, the Canucks have held down a playoff spot, but when looking at their record against other playoff teams, that looks like a mirage. Poor offence and too many scoring chances against have prevented any success against stiffer competition. Solid goaltending from Kevin Lankinen and decent shot prevention have allowed for a few wins.

The Canucks have the rest of December to get healthy and figure out how to generate more offence before they face the toughest part of their schedule. If they maintain the path they are on, the Canucks  are quickly tracking to be on the outside looking in for the playoffs.