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Vancouver Canucks 4, Nashville Predators 2: Point Streak Ends in British Columbia

Posted on by Jonathan Garcia

The Vancouver Canucks are going to be responsible for a lot of grumpy Predators fans tomorrow.

On a night when a west coast game coincided with the springing forward of the clocks, Nashville was mired in another lackluster effort for a good half of the game. For the second-straight game, the Preds afforded the opposition a quick two-goal lead. This time it didn’t take as long to start to chisel away, but this time it wasn’t meant to be.

Nashville has one more game on this Canadian road trip, and it comes Monday against Edmonton.

Random Observations

  • Well, that’s definitely not the way we expected that game to start. Jake Virtanen hit Mike Ribeiro from behind, and Filip Forsberg dropped the gloves in defense of his teammate. While you love to see players stick up for each other, Forsberg should never do that again. Virtanen got five or six good tags in, and the Prince certainly looked way in over his head on that one.
  • Pekka Rinne was playing as well as he had been all season. Unfortunately the team in front of him didn’t feel the need to do the same. Nashville was whistled for a few penalties, which disrupted Peter Laviolette’s ability to roll all four lines. The Canucks spent almost the entirey of the period in their offensive zone and held the Preds to just four shots in the frame. After a poor effort for most of the Calgary game, that wasn’t the way to start the game.
  • Only a matter of time. Sven Baertschi opened the scoring for the Orcas after collecting a rebound on a bomb from Ben Hutton. Pretty much exactly what Vancouver was trying all night, except this time it paid off.
  • Not but two minutes later, Derek Dorsett gave his team a two goal cushion. Dorsett was wide open in front of Rinne, and Bo Horvat got him the puck from behind the cage. XXX. Maybe it’s time to reunite Ryan Ellis and Mattias Ekholm and get Barret Jackman back in the lineup.
  • For the past several years we’ve been lamenting the lack of tertiary scoring. Over the past several games, the recently constructed third line of Mike Fisher, Miikka Salomaki and Viktor Arvidson have been doing pretty much everything they’ve needed to. After scoring the game-tying goal earlier in the week, Fisher stopped the bleeding for Nashville. It was an excellent shift all around, but credit Roman Josi and Shea Weber for a sweet passing set up.
  • It looks like Nashville is settling back into December/January mode in this one. Horvat restored the two-goal lead on another crash-the-crease rebound.
  • Oh my goodness gracious. I rave about Colton Sissons a lot, mostly because he’s a much better fourth line option than what the Predators currently have. That goal to tied the game at two is a perfect example of why. Speeding toward Ryan Miller he’s able to expertly snap a feed from Josi straight into the net. Oh, and don’t discount what Austin Watson did on that play, either. Best iteration of the fourth line to date? Best iteration of the fourth line to date. Take your time resting up, Gaustad. We, uh… want to make sure you’re 100% rested.
  • The Gold Team really ramped up the pressure in the last frame, but Miller was able to answer on everything that came his way. Tonight the comeback wasn’t meant to happen, and the Predators lost their first regulation game since February 9th.
  • I’m sleepy, and tomorrow we’re all going to feel like mud zombies.

OTF’s Super Duper Stars of the Game

  • Ryan Miller: Only pierced for two goals on 37 shots.
  • Bo Horvat: One of the main catalysts for the Canucks’ offense tonight.
  • Roman Josi: Assisted on both of Nashville’s tallies, and had times in the game where he looked like he was going to singlehandedly put the Preds ahead for good./

Tweets of the Game

Boxscore – Game Summary – Event Summary – War-on-Ice – HockeyStats – Natural Stat Trick

Talking Points