Canucks-Preds series could be a nightmare for arena availability

Monday night's 3-1 win for the Minnesota Wild over the Los Angeles Kings just about wraps things up as far as the Vancouver Canucks' first-round opponent goes.

Yes, there's still a chance the Canucks could finish first overall in the Western Conference — if the Canucks beat the Flames and Jets this week, while the Dallas Stars lose in regulation to the St. Louis Blues today — but most likely they're going to enter the Stanley Cup Playoffs as the second seed.

They could also lose the division to the Edmonton Oilers, but the Canucks need to pick up only one point in their two remaining games to win the Pacific Division.

A second-place finish would mean they'll face the Nashville Predators, who are guaranteed to be seeded seventh after the Kings dropped their penultimate game of the season.

The Kings cannot pass the Predators to become the first wild card team, nor can the Vegas Golden Knights. Nashville has more regulation wins than both squads and that's the first tiebreaker should they be tied on points.

Vegas could yet pass Los Angeles for third place in the Pacific, but that would simply bump L.A. down to the second wild card and the eighth overall spot in the west.

A Vancouver-Nashville series is expected to have an ugly schedule, certainly in the latter stages, but possibly also in the opening.

As first reported by Sportsnet's Elliotte Friedman and confirmed by a league source to Postmedia on Monday evening, there's a good chance a Canucks-Predators series might not start until April 23, a surprising twist given the scheduling challenges created by Rogers Arena's limited availability in the first week of May.

And also that the Predators are now already off, having finished their regular-season schedule Monday night. An April 23 start would mean they'd have been off for a full week. The Canucks' final regular season game is Thursday in Winnipeg.

Starting April 23 would be curious. Rogers Arena has no bookings between April 20 — when the Stanley Cup Playoffs begin as a whole — and April 29, when Justin Timberlake is performing. And there is only one booking at Nashville's Bridgestone Arena next week, an April 25 Tim McGraw concert.

A Saturday start would have been very unfair to the Canucks, who close the season Thursday in Winnipeg and deserve to get some rest after a strong season. That's why many speculated a Sunday start as ideal. It's understood that Sunday or Monday is still a possibility.

If the series were to start Sunday or Monday, the teams would likely travel on April 25, before resuming play in Nashville on April 26.

But an April 23 start would mean Game 2 would either be the next night or April 25 at the latest.

That would mean Games 3 and 4 would be back to back — April 27 and 28. If Game 5 became necessary in Vancouver, they'd play at Rogers on April 30.

And no matter whether the series starts as late as April 23 or as early as Sunday, the back end of a seven-game series is guaranteed to be ugly.

If Games 6 or 7 were necessary, things would continue to be hairy. Game 6 would be back in Nashville — no bookings at Bridgestone between April 29 and May 4 — but a potential Game 7 in Vancouver would have to happen May 3 because Pearl Jam is booked to open its 2024 world tour at Rogers on May 4 and 6.

In other words, Game 6 would be on a back to back, either behind Game 5 on May 1 or, more likely, on May 2, in front of Game 7.

Either way, that's a five-hour middle of the night flight between the two cities.