Canucks back in the playoffs with a bang

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We are so back.

The Canucks brought a different level of hype to the city yesterday. They battled hard and delivered a playoff game that Vancouverites have been waiting nine years for. After locking up the Pacific Division last week, they started their Stanley Cup playoff run against the Nashville Predators last night. Beating them three times in the regular season, the Preds look to bounce back and carry their strong end to the season form into the playoffs. 

Vancouver looked dominant in the first period, but could only muster up 4 shots on goal which Nashville goalie Juuse Saros saved. The Canucks looked solid defensively but lacked the spark offensively they had for the majority of the regular season. The 1st period remained goalless for just over sixteen minutes until forward Jason Zucker fired the Predators in front with a wrist shot assisted by Mark Jankowski and Roman Josi. The goal silenced the crowd for a brief moment and took Nashville into the first intermission with a 1-0 lead. 

The Canucks turned it on early in the second period with a wrist shot from Elias Lindholm, assisted by Nikita Zadorov and Dakota Joshua in under a minute into the period. The arena absolutely erupted. The first Canucks playoff goal in Vancouver since 2015. Just like that Vancouver was back in the game. They continued to pack on some pressure for the period however with the lack of sharpness in front of the goal they couldn’t get anything past Saros for the rest of the period. The penalties caught up to the Canucks and Nashville went on to score the only power play goal of the game. Ryan O’reilly fired a wrist shot about as top right corner as you could get, just over halfway through the period and put the Preds up 2-1. Goalie Thatcher Demko looked to have been interfered with before the shot, but head coach Rick Tochett did not deem it worthy of a coaches challenge. The second period ended 2-1 Nashville.

This is when the nerves crept in for fans. The Canucks still looked unlike themselves offensively but weren’t really looking like conceding another goal either, it was a weird limbo to be in. Then a flip switched, and Vancouver scored twice in 12 seconds. Pias Suter tipped a shot from Quinn Hughes just under nine minutes into the third period, and then Dakota Joshua went top shelf 12 seconds later to steal the lead. Vancouverites went absolutely bonkers.

The Canucks finished off a strong third period with a Dakota Joshua goal on an empty net and went on to win the game 4-2. Head Coach Rick Tochett loved how loud the fans were, and Captain Quinn Hughes gave crediter where credit was due. and gave Dakota “Playoff D” Joshua the game puck.

Vancouver is gearing up for Game 2 against Nashville Tuesday, April 23rd and look to take 2-0 series lead before heading to Nashville. Game 2 puck drop is 7:00 pm at Rogers Arena.

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