Abbotsford Canucks are on the Hunt for the Calder Cup

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Even though the Vancouver Canucks are not a part of the Stanley Cup Playoffs, the Abbotsford Canucks are playing their first-ever playoff game on Tuesday, May 3rd, against the Bakersfield Condors. The first round of the Calder Cup playoffs is a best of three series, so there are no games to take off as the first team to win two will move onto the next round in a best of five series in the Divisional Semi-Finals.

Abbotsford and Bakersfield played very similar seasons, both tallying 84 points on the season. The Condors sit in fourth place, as the Canucks sit one spot behind at the fifth spot in the Pacific Division. The season series between the two teams was very close all year, but the Canucks had the edge as they went 4-3-1 over the Condors in their eight meetings during the regular season.

As we know, the Vancouver Canucks haven’t made the postseason, but this allows the team to reassign players to Abbotsford to play some meaningful games, get some more playing time, and help Abbotsford make a run for the Calder Cup.

The Vancouver Canucks have reassigned Sheldon Dries, who was named Abbotsford’s team MVP this season with 62 points in 54 games played, and Nic Petan, who are both key pieces to the team’s offense, being two of the top three scorers for the team. Other notable Abbotsford Canucks have returned to the team, such as goaltenders Spencer Martin and Arthur Silovs and speedy forward Will Lockwood. But one Vancouver Canuck rookie and 2019 first round has been reassigned to Abbotsford to try and build up his game going into next season, and that would be 20-year-old Vasily Podkolzin.

The Russian power forward will look to gain more experience and build up his confidence going into next season after being an impactful player for Vancouver in the last part of the season.

Unfortunately, Abbotsford will not have the chance to play any home games in this series as Bakersfield finished a higher seed, but the team will look to win their first playoff game at the Mechanic Banks Arena in Bakersfield at 7:00 pm Tuesday.

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