Vancouver Canucks HC gets 100% real about team maintaining confidence despite playoff odds falling to 1.3% after latest loss

The Vancouver Canucks lost 3-2 to the Vegas Golden Knights on Sunday at Rogers Arena. Nils Hoglander opened the scoring early, but the Canucks couldn’t keep the lead. Victor Olofsson scored the game winning goal late in the third period.

Vegas took control after the first period. Ivan Barbashev and Nicolas Roy also scored for the Golden Knights. Adin Hill made 19 saves in net. Vegas moved five points ahead of the Kings for first in the Pacific Division.

The Canucks are now eight points behind the Minnesota Wild for the final wild-card spot. They have lost four of their last five games. Despite getting outshot by Vegas 35-21, they were closer in the faceoffs with 49.2%. Now, Canucks chances of making playoffs are 1.3% per moneypuck.commm.

After the game, Rick Tocchet spoke about the team's struggles. He focused on the challenge of building confidence. When asked how hard it is to stay positive, Tocchet gave a clear answer.

"Confidence is something you don’t buy at a store,” he said. “ You work at it every day. You know, adversity — how you handle adversity — it builds confidence too. If you can handle adversity, you should be a confident guy. So yeah, I’m always big on that. You just can’t just turn on confidence."

Tocchet explained that confidence comes from preparation, not from luck or momentum.

"You build that. You build it with your preparation, with practice habits, with your summer training. And then when you’re in these types of games," he added.

The Vancouver Canucks (35-29-13) will next face the Dallas Stars (50-22-5) at 8:00 PM EDT on April 8.

Rick Tocchet was not sure about Canucks playoff spot after Saturday's win

The Vancouver Canucks won 6-2 against the Anaheim Ducks on Saturday at Rogers Arena. Despite the win, coach Rick Tocchet was not sure about securing a playoff spot.

"Getting to the postseason is slim,” Tocchet said. “We talked [on Friday] about details and professionalism, that's something we’ve got to work on every day, so got to give a lot of credit. Really enjoyed the first period, a lot of fun watching the guys make some plays.”

Troy Terry scored first for Anaheim, but defenseman Elias Pettersson tied it 1-1 with his first NHL goal. Filip Hronek made it 2-1 at 10:46 with a deflected shot. Brock Boeser scored on the power play to make it 3-1.

Conor Garland added another power-play goal, and Dakota Joshua scored at 14:10 to make it 5-1. Later, Trevor Zegras scored to cut the lead to 5-2. Max Sasson scored on a breakaway for the final 6-2 score.