from Iain MacIntyre of Sportsnet,

Shaken by a five-game losing streak, the culmination of a dreadful start that has imperilled more than their season, the Vancouver Canucks’ next four games against the Calgary Flames may be the only playoff games they see in 2021.

Lose the series and they’re out – of playoff contention anyway. Lose badly, and it’s possible general manager Jim Benning or coach Travis Green or both could be out of a job, swallowed by the crater created by a young team that has followed last summer’s breakthrough by losing 10 of its first 16 games in a pandemic-shortened season.

Incredibly, those 16 games were played over a span of just 27 days. When the team limped home from Toronto overnight Monday and awoke to an honest-to-goodness day off, it meant Tuesday was the first night since Jan. 11 that Vancouver players went to bed without having played and without a game the next day.

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