Two years ago, the Nashville Predators saw their playoff hopes trickle away after a late-season injury to starter Juuse Saros.
Tuesday, they found themselves on the flip side of fate after the Vancouver Canucks announced that Thatcher Demko was unavailable for Game 2 of the team’s first-round Stanley Cup playoff series.
After watching a 2-1 third-period lead morph into a 4-2 loss in Game 1, the Predators seized their opportunity to even the series before heading back to Nashville, relying on a bit of puck luck and a whole lot of determined defending.
Just 1:14 into the first period, one-time Canuck Anthony Beauvillier deflated the fired-up Vancouver crowd by deflecting a bouncing puck past Casey DeSmith to open the scoring.
Nashville goal!
Scored by Anthony Beauvillier with 18:46 remaining in the 1st period.
Assisted by Filip Forsberg.
Vancouver: 0
Nashville: 1#NSHvsVAN #Canucks #Preds pic.twitter.com/NcYo365cTv— NHL Goals (@nhl_goal_bot) April 24, 2024
At 6:39 of the second, after the Canucks failed to convert on three power-play opportunities, a beauty from Filip Forsberg proved to be the game-winner after he was left unmarked in prime scoring position.
This goal from Forsberg was pretty Filthy… 😮💨 #StanleyCup
🇺🇸: @espn ➡️ https://t.co/Pp9X7OGP3W
🇨🇦: @Sportsnet or stream on Sportsnet+ ➡️ https://t.co/sEijvXhbA1 pic.twitter.com/StDpnlLK5k— NHL (@NHL) April 24, 2024
Less than two minutes later, Colton Sissons added an insurance marker. And while Nikita Zadorov got the Canucks on the board before the end of the middle frame to keep things interesting, the Predators never lost control of the game — even though they barely left their zone in the third period. The Canucks logged 37 shot attempts in the final frame, and Nashville didn’t get a shot until Kiefer Sherwood hit the empty net from 40 feet with 1:53 left to play.
Saros was only called on to make six saves in the third, for a total of 17 on the night. The Preds finished the night with 30 blocked shots, led by six from defenseman Alexandre Carrier.
“That’s the level that we needed to raise from Game 1,” said veteran defenseman Ryan McDonagh.
The two-time Stanley Cup champion ranks sixth among active players with 1,859 blocked shots in his career — and had four blocks himself on Tuesday.
“That’s what we talked about,” he said. “So that’s a great sign, and we’re going to need to keep building on that. We probably spent a lot of time in our zone, but it doesn’t have to be pretty at this time of the year. Our group will be better next time in those situations and hopefully get the puck out a little bit better.”
While Nashville coach Andrew Brunette said he “doesn’t like defending,” he felt it was good for his group to go through such a tough defensive gauntlet successfully.
“There are going to be stretches in games where you’re going to get hemmed in. Feel comfortable being uncomfortable,” he said.
“I think we’ve got a great leadership group that has been through some things, and we’ve got some young guys that haven’t,” Brunette continued. “That’s why I kind of mentioned that in Game 1, it was good for us to see that wasn’t enough.
“Maybe it’s enough in the regular season, but this is a different animal. I think some of the young guys or some of the inexperienced guys will get better as we go, but I think today was a good eye-opener (of) how hard it is and how much you have to be willing to sacrifice to move on here.”
Two years ago, Saros was on his way to being named a Vezina Trophy finalist when he was sidelined by a lower-body injury during the Predators’ third-last game of the regular season.
They ended up one point behind the Dallas Stars in the Western Conference wild-card race and drew the Colorado Avalanche. Within a week, their season was done — outscored 21-9 in a four-game sweep that started Colorado’s journey to the Stanley Cup.
There has been plenty of turnover in Nashville since then, but Saros is still the main man between the pipes. On Tuesday, he earned his fourth playoff win in 19 career appearances.
And after missing 14 games near the end of the season with a knee injury, Demko is now officially listed as week-to-week. Vancouver coach Rick Tocchet said Tuesday the current injury is something new. But it’s a big blow to a division champion that was expecting to be able to lean on its starter — who started to build his reputation as one of the best in the NHL when he very capably stepped in for injured Jacob Markstrom during Vancouver’s second-round playoff series against the Vegas Golden Knights in the 2020 bubble.
Vancouver defenseman Tyler Myers also missed Tuesday’s game, sidelined with the flu. He was replaced by Noah Juulsen, making his NHL playoff debut at age 27.
That’s just one game of experience less than DeSmith, the 32-year-old whose only other post-season appearance came in Game 1 of the 2022 first-round series between the Pittsburgh Penguins and New York Rangers.
With Tristan Jarry sidelined for Pittsburgh, DeSmith lasted nearly four-and-a-half periods before suffering a core muscle injury that knocked him out of the rest of the playoffs — and brought in Louis Domingue as the closer, who famously admitted that he wouldn’t have eaten that spicy pork and broccoli dish after the first overtime if he’d thought he was going to see game action.
Louis Domingue said he ate some spicy pork and broccoli in between overtimes because he never expected to play 🥦🥩#StanleyCup #Penguins pic.twitter.com/Ak9ip2Bbkz
— Tim and Friends (@timandfriends) May 4, 2022
So even though DeSmith didn’t get the win on Tuesday, at least he finished the game.
Now, it looks like he’ll be travelling to Nashville with Arturs Silovs backing him up. The Canucks look to weather the storm, re-claim the upper hand in the series and, ultimately, stay alive long enough for Demko to return to playoff action.
Game 3 goes on Friday at Bridgestone Arena.
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Related: Opinion: Thatcher Demko’s Injury Could Be Devastating for the Vancouver Canucks
Related: ‘Zero Panic’: The Moment Wasn’t Too Big for the Vancouver Canucks in Game 1
Related: NHL Playoffs First-Round Schedule: Dates, Times, Where to Watch
News Summary:
- Predators Find Higher Level, Pounce on Demko-less Canucks After Game 1 'Eyeopener'
- Check all news and articles from the latest NHL updates.