The Nashville Predators came away from Game 3 of their Western Conference first-round series against the Vancouver Canucks mostly pleased with their efforts, despite the 2-1 loss to fall behind by the same result in the series.
They outshot Vancouver 30-12 and finished with a 71-33 advantage in shot attempts.
That said, they know there is still plenty of room for improvement when they host the Canucks in Game 4 on Sunday as they look for the split.
“It was a fun hockey game,” Predators coach Andrew Brunette said. “It’s hard to leave this game feeling awful about it. Now, in saying that, similar to (Vancouver in Game 2), in the third period. We were pushing and they were sitting back. So, you can’t get carried away into thinking your game is rock solid, either.”
Special teams were a factor in Friday’s game. The Canucks scored both of their goals on the power play and finished the night 2-for-3 with the man advantage. The Predators failed to convert on five power-play opportunities.
Nashville is 1-for-13 on the power play in the series.
“I think we’re moving a little slow,” forward Filip Forsberg said. “I think, obviously, we had one look that was good (on Friday) and then we created a lot of chances and got a couple shots. But they’ve got some big fellas back there blocking a lot of shots, and I think we’ve got to try to move it a lot quicker and have a little better execution.”
Forsberg was held off the scoresheet in Game 3. He has three points (one goal, two assists) in the series, tying him with forward Jason Zucker for the team lead.
The Predators will be without defenseman Spencer Stastney, who is week-to-week with an upper-body injury. He did not return after leaving the game in the second period Friday.
Vancouver, for its part, will be looking for a better effort offensively.
Forward J.T. Miller accounted for six of the Canucks’ 12 shots on goal. No other skater on the team had more than one.
“It was a one-and-done night for us. Probably as a team, we didn’t sustain many shifts,” Miller said. “I had a ton of shots (Friday) but that was it.”
Vancouver blocked 28 shots in the game and got a stellar performance from Casey DeSmith, who earned his first career playoff win. It was DeSmith’s second straight start and third all-time in the playoffs with starter Thatcher Demko injured in the series opener.
“Even if he has a tough night or things don’t go his way, he comes in spends hours with (director of goaltending Ian Clark) on the ice, never complains,” coach Rick Tocchet said. “I mean, his demeanor is just great for that role, and I think he was just locked in.”
The Canucks were 17th in the NHL on the penalty kill in the regular season with a 79.1 percent success rate. Entering Saturday’s schedule, they were second in the league in the postseason, killing off 92.3 percent of Nashville’s power-play opportunities.
“They take so much pride in that area of the rink,” Miller said. “It’s just nice to see after the last couple of years of how much our penalty kill kind of failed and let us down sometimes.”
–Field Level Media
