After losing 2-1 in a raucous environment on Friday night the Nashville Predators hope to use home ice to their advantage on Sunday evening.
Vancouver blocked 28 shots in game three to hold off a relentless Nashville team, yet the boys in gold couldn’t get much past goalie Casey DeSmith.
“To be honest I haven’t noticed a whole lot of frustration in our group,” head coach Andrew Brunette said. “We’re pretty relentless in that category. I don’t think we feel like we get anything for free, you gotta earn it. We’ve earned some but I think we can earn a little bit more.”
While the Predators were able to muster a better offense on the fly the Canucks made their shots count. At one point four of Vancouver’s first six shots on goal came on the powerplay with two getting past goalie Juuse Saros.
“You look through all the series and you watch playoff hockey a lot of times special teams dictate series and it dictated last night,” Brunette said.
Ahead of Sunday’s game, the Predators will be without defenseman Spencer Stastney who was hit from behind at 15:03 of the first period. Nashville said he’ll be week-to-week with an upper-body injury.
Joshua's hit on Stastney was initially given a major but was then reduced to a minor penalty after review#Canucks | #Preds pic.twitter.com/jd9KoZy6Bx
— Hockey Daily 365 l NHL Highlights & News (@HockeyDaily365) April 26, 2024
Defensemen Dante Fabbro or Tyson Barrie will draw in for the injured Stastney. Fabbro has not played since the final game of the regular season while Barrie has not dressed since March 28 when Nashville played in Arizona.
“Yeah, there’s a couple of considerations. Some decisions I’ll speak with my staff about,” Brunette said.
Canucks head coach Rich Tocchet said he wasn’t pleased with his team’s effort in game three from the neutral zone and credited Brunette’s coaching for limiting breakouts down the ice.
On Saturday Brunette reflected on how much it’s been a challenge to coach against a former hall-of-game caliber player on Tocchet who turned into a dominant coach in the NHL.
“Really intelligent and hard to play against, kind of like how his team is playing right now,” Brunette said. “His mentality and style is in your face and they don’t give you space. It epitomizes who he was as a player along with being a really tough guy.”
Despite the loss the Predators room doesn’t feel that frustration has gotten to them at this point in the series.
“Frustrated that yeah the puck isn’t going in but throughout the game, we did a lot of good things,” defenseman Luke Schenn said. “You can tell frustration sets in by guys’ body language or how they react to situations. Guys are staying the course and trying to find a way.”
Asked Luke Schenn about the #Preds play in all three zones in game three. pic.twitter.com/F0A10ZsPjB
— Nick Kieser🏒 (@KieserNick) April 27, 2024
However, so far in this matchup, the Canucks lead even-strength scoring chances 64-52 then while on the powerplay Nashville hasn’t helped themselves going 1-for-13.
A late goal from rookie Luke Evangelista got the home crowd back in it with 3:12 to play in regulation, but Vancouver continued to box the Predators out and forced them to the outside passing lanes.
“Evangelista got one there at the end, kept pressuring and we just weren’t able to convert at the end. I don’t think we’re frustrated, that’s just the game sometimes coming down to special teams and last night was one of those nights,” Schenn said.
Nashville has a chance to even things up before returning to Vancouver on Monday with game five action on Tuesday night.
Follow Nick Kieser on Twitter/X: @KieserNick
Photos courtesy of Nashville Predators
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