Vancouver played pretty well Friday night at Rogers Arena, but ultimately couldn’t beat Nashville’s netminder Juuse Saros.
The problem is if you don’t score first, the grinding lifestyle is a very, very hard way to live.
Especially when your opponent has Juuse Saros in net.
The Canucks played pretty well Friday night at Rogers Arena, but ultimately couldn’t beat Saros and after falling behind on a Steve Stamkos cannon in the second period, they just never found a way to claw back.
The Predators went into a shell and Saros dealt with the rest. Nashville got a pair of empty netters to close the night.
How vital has Saros been this season for the Predators? This was his ninth win of the season — and four have been by shutout.
The Stamkos finish
Give a legend like Stamkos an opening and he’ll burn you every time.
Guillaume Brisebois pinched at the blueline but lost two puck battles and the Predators were able to burst away on a 3-2 rush.
Brisebois scrambled back and covered off the middle but Stamkos set up in his usual spot and hammered a shot past Kevin Lankinen, who was otherwise excellent, showing well against his old team.
Blue Blueger
Joshua never actually hit the goalie, but knocked Nashville defenceman Nick Blankenberg into the netminder, preventing Saros from sliding back across the net to try to stop Blueger’s shot.
Blueger pleaded a case with the referee, but it was in vain.
Then in the third period after a clean faceoff win, the play was blown dead and the faceoff was reset.
Blueger cast an demonstrably annoyed look.
It’s not often you win a faceoff as well as he did.
Shoot!!
Kiefer Sherwood was credited with a mountain of shots, though it felt like at least three went high and wide.
Still the feisty winger was leading the way for the suddenly shot-happy Canucks.
Shot-happy through the first half of the game anyway, as they had 20 shots midway through the second period.
Short-shift
Message received by Miller? For the past couple games, Miller has kept his shifts exceedingly short. Thursday in Seattle he averaged 33 seconds per shift.
Friday he was back up to 41 seconds.