Smashed: Canucks Fail to Hold Lead Against Struggling Predators

Alex Rickman

November 6th, 2022

Coming off an 8-5 win against the Ducks Thursday night, the Canucks were looking to build some momentum Saturday night with Nashville in town on Armed Forces night at Rogers Arena. Going into this contest, the Canucks held a 3-6-2 record to Nashville’s 4-5-1, with both teams struggling to keep the puck out of their own net so far this season, and with both teams set to start their struggling starting goaltenders, Thatcher Demko for the Canucks and Jusse Saros for the Preds, many were looking forward to what would likely be a high scoring affair.

With the importance of this game for the Canucks to have any hope of getting their season back on track, a quick start was needed, and it was a quick start we got, with Souperman himself Ilya Mikheyev capitalizing on a chance just 2 minutes into the first to give the Canucks the early lead. Keeping this pace up, less than 2 minutes after that JT Miller got on a Bo Horvat rebound to tally his 7th goal of the season, giving the Canucks the much-dreaded 2 goal lead. After some sustained pressure in the Nashville zone, Sheldon Dries, who was given the nod to play over Vasily Podkolzin, was called for interference on Mikael Granlund, putting the Canucks league-worst penalty kill into action. However, to the surprise of fans everywhere, the penalty kill looked as good as it’s been all season, squashing the Nashville power play and generating a breakaway chance for JT Miller, which in the end was saved by Jusse Saros. With Nashville taking over 10 minutes to even register a shot, things seemed to be looking the Canucks way early on in this game, and this continued into the latter half of the period, with another solid penalty kill and an Andrei Kuzmenko goal on the power play coming with 2 and a half minutes remaining in the period, his fourth power-play goal of the season. The final few minutes of this period got quite chippy, with a fight between Tanner Jeannot and Riley Stillman being the most notable moment of physicality, with 2 minor penalties also being assessed and some pushing and shoving after whistles taking place in the last 5 minutes.

Taking a 3-0 lead into the second, the physicality from the end of the first carried over, with Tanner Jeannot hitting Ethan Bear from behind, and Tyler Myers subsequently being penalized for his answer to Jeannot. Nashville’s Jordan Gross would then score his first career goal on the ensuing power play, cutting the Vancouver lead to 2 and putting a little light at the end of the tunnel for the Preds. However, Nashville soon after scoring would take an interference call, putting the Canucks power play back on the ice, and Vancouver hoped to get that goal back, but unfortunately was unable to capitalize, despite a flurry of chances at the end of the man advantage. After another 2 power plays to no avail, including a 17-second 5 on 3, the Canucks penalty kill would be called upon once again, and they would answer the call, with Nashville hitting a post but not being able to generate much more on the power play. Near the end of the period, Nashville was starting to find their game, playing an imposing physical game and making it difficult for the Canucks to get out of their zone, and even when they did it would only be for a moment before Nashville recovered the puck and sent it back down the ice. Despite this, the Canucks held strong, and the score remained 3-1 with 20 minutes of hockey to go.

In the third, Nashville struck fast, with Jordan Gross striking again with a point shot for his second career goal just over a minute in. With the lead now cut to one, this final frame was set to be a major test of the Canucks mental strength, with the team now needing to prove they can hold a lead late in a tight game. Unfortunately for the Canucks, Nino Niederreiter picked up the puck in front of the net a few minutes later and tied the game at 3 after Riley Stillman, who was already having a rough game, got caught puck-watching. The middle of the third was a very back-and-forth affair, with chances coming on both sides of the ice, albeit more for Nashville than Vancouver, and what started off looking like almost certain victory for the Canucks looked like it could very well just be another one of what is becoming a very long list of third-period chokes. In the end, the regulation wouldn’t be enough to settle the score of this game, and off we went to overtime to find a winner.

Overtime got off to a chaotic start, with some missed opportunities from both sides, including a near chance for a breakaway from Ilya Mikheyev and a, save from Saros off of a Bo Horvat shot off a 2-on-1. With a minute to go, after no whistles to this point, Bruce Boudreau called a timeout to give the Canucks a quick breather, hopefully giving them a chance at a strong push for the final minute, but nothing would come of it, with Demko having to make a save in the dying seconds to keep it level and send the game to a shootout. Elias Pettersson stepped up first in the shootout, but the shot was put wide despite Jusse Saros biting on his deke. After 2 saved shots from Mikael Granlund and JT Miller, Matt Duchene beat Thatcher Demko to make it 1-0 and give the Canucks a do-or-die shot. Bo Horvat stepped up to take it, but overskated the puck around the high slot, losing the puck and ending the game, with Nashville completing the comeback to win 4-3.

While this game started with some promise, questionable defence, along with an excellent performance from Jusse Saros after a rough first period, saw the Canucks blow another lead and, in the process, a valuable point. Vancouver will hope for a better result next game, when they visit Ottawa to take on the Senators on November 8th.

Three Stars

3rd- Bo Horvat 0G 1A 5SOG

Despite not scoring, Horvat played a good game all night, helping generate some good chances for the Canucks, putting up a solid defensive performance, and playing with some much-needed physicality. While overskating the puck in the shootout is hard to ignore, Bo was solid most of the way, and this performance shouldn’t only be remembered for the blemish at the end.

2nd- Jordan Gross 2G 0A 4SOG

The rookie blueliner potted his first 2 NHL goals this game and had a good chance for another. He may be a first-year player, but you never would’ve known judging by his performance, hardly putting a foot wrong all night. Nashville should be very happy with the performance of the young Gross, and I’m sure they’ll be hoping to see him perform like this for years to come.

1st- Juuse Saros 43-46 .935SV% 1.05GSAx

After a rough first period, Saros was a thorn in the side of the Canucks the whole rest of the way, not giving up a goal through the final 2 frames, overtime, or the shootout, with some incredible saves along the way. Safe to say that without Saros this game would’ve been a very different story