Vancouver Canucks 5, Nashville Predators 3: Missed Opportunity

The Nashville Predators had a chance to close out one a record-tying month in franchise history, but needed to take care of the visiting Vancouver Canucks in order to do so.

A 5-3 loss kept the Preds in third place in the Central Division, behind idle St. Louis and Winnipeg.

Nashville outshot Vancouver in the first period and had several quality scoring chances, but were unable to get one by Anders Nilsson in the opening 20 minutes.

Business picked up quickly in the second period. After killing a Filip Forsberg penalty, Craig Smith circled in the zone and beat Nilsson five-hole to open the score.

The lead was very, very short-lived, however, as Brock Boeser’s bullet tied the game up just 12 seconds later.

Forsberg gave the Preds the lead again with a power-play goal at 4:31 of the second period.

Loui Eriksson tapped home a rebound after Rinne appeared to have the right post covered to tie the game with a little more than five minutes to play in the second period.

Nick Bonino put Nashville back in front, scoring from behind the end line late in the second, though the goal was reviewed before being confirmed.

Daniel Sedin tallied his 1,000th career point on his game-tying power play goal midway through the third. It was, however, a shot Rinne needed to stop, and it came after P.K. Subban was in the box for delay of game.

Boeser’s second goal of the night gave Vancouver a 4-3 lead and put the Preds in catch-up mode, something they haven’t had to do at home in the third period very often this season.

Eriksson’s empty-netter iced it with 56.2 seconds to play.

Random Observations

• Freddy’s back. I know it isn’t Halloween, but still.
• Aberg and McLeod scratched. Pontus needs to find his game. In past years, Vancouver would have been a reason to play McLeod, but no more.
• Yikes. Arvy driven heavily into the boards by Edler on the first shift. Definitely grabbed at his right knee coming off the ice.
• Well, he’s back on the ice for his next shift, at least.
• Good stop by Pekka on perhaps the slowest 2-on-1 in history. Vancouver’s age is catching up.
• Seriously, though, Rinne’s on it so far. Needs the guys in front of him to quit playing around and get more of a push, though.
• I used to shoot on a net in my dad’s garage while listening to Jock Jams on cassette. Yes, that ages me. But I got a little nostalgic during the TV timeout in the first period when Game Ops reeled off “Pump Up the Jam.”
• Preds getting several good scoring chances in what has otherwise been a meh first period.
• Not a good penalty by Fil that late in the period.
• Craig Smith. Nifty move on Nilsson to give the Preds the lead early in the second.
• Aaaaand it’s gone. Boeser with an absolute snipe, picked his corner and tied it up. Twelve seconds. Twelve blasted seconds later.
• Speaking of snipes, dang, Fil.
• Definitely not a meh power-play this time. A couple of A+ chances – one off the post and another somehow stopped by Nilsson.
• Rinne seems to give up goals like that one by Eriksson a bit too often.
• Great stickwork by Bonino on the goal. The only question left is, how??? Nah, don’t care. That was something.
• Some crazy scrambles early in the third period.
• Rinne’s gotta stop that shot. Also, Subban’s gotta keep the puck in play. Puck over glass is stupid, but everyone should know to not risk it now.
• Boeser again. Kid’s gonna be a good one.
• That third pairing needs some switching, a jolt of energy, or an offer to become Tennessee’s next head coach in order to get them going, because this just isn’t great right now.

OTF’s Super Duper Stars of the Game

1. Smith. Talk about redemption this year. He was buzzing all over the place and got rewarded for it. It’s been good to see for him.

2. Forsberg. Power play at home, he’s cashing in.

3. Bonino. That goal from his knees was a thing of art.

Postgame reaction

Subban on the third-period letdown:

“We played pretty good through two periods, but then we stopped getting the puck in behind them. Their goaltender made some good saves. We had our chances, we just didn’t bury them.”

Bonino on whether the third period was more of a defensive lapse or a lack of offensive execution:

“A little bit of both, but that’s the way it goes sometimes. We’ll look at it tomorrow and try to get better.”

Roman Josi on the third period:

“We gave them too many odd-man rushes ... We had a couple of chances early and couldn’t capitalize on them. We just gave them too many chances, really good chances.”

Josi on Vancouver rookie Brock Boeser:

“He was good. He’s a really skilled player and he has a good shot. It’s the first time we’ve played him, but he’s a really good player.”

Tweets of the Night

Game Extras

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