Canucks beat Predators to earn right to play Oilers in Round 2

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Locked in a 0-0 stalemate, the Vancouver Canucks and Nashville Predators seemed destined for overtime before the game suddenly turned Vancouver’s way. Pius Suter scored in the 59th minute of the game, then rookie goalkeeper Arturs Silovs and a desperate group of penalty killers prevented a 6-on-4 power play that produced several big chances in the final seconds of regulation. For the Preds, the final seconds of their season.

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With the 1-0 win in Music City, the Canucks closed out a 6-game series, earning the right to play the Edmonton Oilers in Round 2. Early indications suggest it will begin Tuesday night in Vancouver, although that It has not been confirmed yet. .

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It was an exciting end to what had not been an exciting series between the Western Conference’s most distant rivals, in which the two clubs averaged just 45 shots per game and the home team won only once (Vancouver in Game 1). . In fact, the Canucks took just 121 shots in the 6 games, just 20 per game. But that doesn’t matter, they did enough to win the series in their first postseason appearance since the bubble in Edmonton in 2020. Congratulations to the Canucks and their fans.

Enough of the niceties.

A bit of a mixed result for Oilers fans, most of whom were surely hoping for at least a Game 7 and/or several overtime periods, but that’s what it is. A Nashville win would have meant home field advantage but with long flights, while Vancouver’s success means the Oil will start in enemy territory but with shorter trips and revenge in their hearts.

Edmonton and Vancouver have been division rivals for the past 42 seasons, but this will be just the third time they have met in the playoffs and the first in 32 years. The Oilers prevailed 3 games to 0 in 1986 and 4 games to 2 in 1992. Joe Murphy is Edmonton’s all-time leading scorer in the playoffs against the Canucks with 5 goals and 11 points, all recorded in 1992, when the Oilers They concluded the last of their 8 Smythe Division crowns, all within a 10-year span.

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Latest history tells us that this is the third year in a row that the Oilers will begin the second round on the road against the Pacific Division regular season champions, after first dispatching the LA Kings in the 2v3 series each time. Previously Calgary Flames in 2022 (Edmonton at 5) and Vegas Golden Knights in 2023 (Vegas at 6). Now it’s the Vancouver Canucks in 2024, outcome TBD.

Van City finished 5 points ahead of Edmonton during the regular season, entirely thanks to their 8-point dominance in the season series. Timing was everything, as the teams met three times during the first month of play and then not until the final Saturday of the campaign. In that first month, the Canucks were hot, the Oilers were not, and it showed on the scoreboard with margins of 8-1, 4-3, 6-2. Then, on that final weekend, the Oilers less Connor McDavid They came up short, 3-1 to an empty net.

Let it be 21 goals to 7 combined in a one-sided season series that from this moment on officially means nothing. I’m pretty sure Vancouver isn’t three times as good as Edmonton. Are they better, period? That’s what the next few weeks will be about.

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The underlying statistics of those 4 games certainly confirm that the teams were much closer than those scores indicated; in fact, it was the Oilers who had the better play everywhere but on the scoreboard. Oil produced 56% of shots on goal and a similar percentage of expected goals, but only 25% of actual goals. Edmonton had 60% of the high danger shots, but only 14% of the goals scored on those shots with 2 high danger goals for and 12 against. This is because Vancouver did a much better job of converting their shots into goals, with a shot percentage close to 19% to Edmonton’s measly 5% across the 4 games. The regular season PDO monsters absolutely owned that category in the season series, posting a ridiculous 1.140 at .860.

No. 1 goalie Thatcher Demko backed the two lopsided wins on the Left Coast, and backup Casey DeSmith backed the pair of close wins in Edmonton. But the Oilers could very well start facing No. 3 man Silovs. The Latvian did his job against Nashville after Demko and DeSmith were injured, allowing just 5 goals in the last 3 games and none in the finale.

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Silovs, 23, a sixth-round draft pick of the Canucks in 2019, spent most of the season with their AHL affiliate in Abbotsford (16-11-6, 2.74, .907), but got the call to back DeSmith. after Demko was injured in March. Then came back-to-back injuries in Games 1 and 3 of the playoffs that put him in the spotlight.

Demko, recently named a Vezina Trophy finalist, travels with the team but is considered week-to-week with a knee injury. DeSmith is closer to being ready, but don’t be surprised if coach Rick Tocchet decides to stick with the hot hand.

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The rest of the Canucks are better known to fans in these parts. Versatile forward JT Miller had another excellent season with 103 points to lead the team. Mobile rearguard Quinn Hughes racked up a club-high 92 points at +38 as he was named a Norris Trophy finalist, likely the favorite. Elias Pettersson and Brock Boeser joined Miller in the 30-goal club, Nils Hoglander and Conor Garland reached 20, while five others surpassed 10 goals. That’s not including mid-season acquisition Elias Lindholm, who scored 9 goals for Calgary and then 6 more for Vancouver. No less than a dozen Vancouverites were +10 or higher.

A deep club that, however, will be in deep against an Oilers team that barely resembles the one that stumbled out last October. We are yet to see a match between the two that shows both clubs at their best. Surely that is about to change.

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