Everyone loves playoff scoring, at least when it’s their team doing it. We take a look at the players who might be difference makers for Nashville and Vancouver up front.
Nashville Predators Forwards
This has been an exhilaratingly high-octane Preds team. Filip Forsberg fell two goals short of fifty on the season despite an ice-cold streak to start the season, while Gustav Nyquist had a career year at the age of 34. Ryan O’Reilly has been a great addition on a power play that’s finally, consistently gotten its scoring in reliable ways.
It’s not just the top line, though. The Preds have gotten depth scoring from players like Tommy Novak, Colton Sissons, and Luke Evangelista. Evangelista in particular has looked like he’s been owed more than he’s gotten, with a number of late-season games where he was doing his best to follow in Forsberg and Roman Josi’s footsteps and put the team on his back to get some goals on the board.
And it isn’t even just the reliable depth scorers. Players like Cole Smith, Kiefer Sherwood, and Mark Jankowski also finished the season strong with some determined and savvy play. Sherwood, who’s played fewer minutes, is actually way up there in points/60–that is, he’s excelled in the opportunity he’s been given–but more to the point is that the Preds have depth that can and will make the other team work.
Vancouver Canucks Forwards
Vancouver has been great for JT Miller, who cracked the hundred-point mark for the first time in his career this season. The Canucks have three players who’ve notched at least thirty goals–Miller with 37, Brock Boeser with 40, and Elias Pettersson with 34. They also have two more twenty-goal scorers in Nils Höglander and Conor Garland.
Höglander and Garland are threats who shouldn’t be slept on, despite their lower goal totals on the season; they lead the Canucks in individual expected goals at 5v5, with Miller coming in just behind. Boeser and Pettersson have been lethal on the Canucks’ very effective power play, and certainly haven’t been any slouch at playing 5v5, but the team has more than just them.
The Canucks rested Miller and defenders Ian Cole and Filip Hronek for Thursday’s game against the Jets, but interestingly they announced on Wednesday that Boeser would not be playing in that game. It’s entirely possible that they’d just already decided there was no point in risking him in a meaningless game, but it’s also possible that it was an unplanned absence that might have lingering effects this series.
Scoring Edge
On paper, I have to give this one to Vancouver. While the Preds absolutely have the potential to surprise us, and several players who are overdue to get rewarded for good play with some goals (like Evangelista and Cody Glass), the Canucks are the ones with the track record of success and more well-rounded depth scoring this season.
This has the potential to be an exhilarating series with great offensive performances by both teams, and I think either way we’ll see some great play.
Statistics from naturalstattrick.com. Additional background from hockeyviz.com.