The Vancouver Canucks and the Nashville Predators meet Friday in Game 4 Western Conference NHL Playoffs action at the Bridgestone Arena. Here’s a Vancouver Canucks vs Nashville Predators prediction.
Game Three Recap: Canucks Restore Series Lead
The Vancouver Canucks pulled back out in front in the series, taking a 2-1 lead in the series after a 2-1 win in the Music City last time out. J.T. Miller opened the scoring for the Canucks on the power play with the lone goal of the opening frame before Brock Boeser doubled Vancouver’s lead with a power play goal of his own less than five minutes into the second period. The Predators would outshoot the Canucks 30-12 in the game including 14-3 in the 3rd period and got back within one thanks to Luke Evangelista’s goal, but that’s as close as the Preds would get as Vancouver held on for the win. Casey DeSmith got the win for Vancouver after stopping 29 of 30 shots faced in the winning effort while Juuse Saros took the loss, allowing 2 goals on 12 shots faced in the defeat.
Vancouver Canucks Player Stats
J.T. Miller leads the Canucks in scoring with 103 points including 37 goals and 66 assists while Elias Pettersson has 89 points with 34 goals and 55 assists. Quinn Hughes has 92 points with a team-high 75 assists and Brock Boeser has 73 points with a team-high 40 goals and 33 assists. Thatcher Demko’s gone 35-14-2 with a 2.45 GAA and a .918 save percentage in goal for Vancouver while Casey DeSmith is 12-9-6 with a 2.89 GAA and an .896 save percentage this season.
Nashville Predators Player Stats
Filip Forsberg leads the Predators in scoring with 94 points including a team-high 48 goals and 46 assists while Ryan O’Reilly has 69 points with 26 goals of his own and 43 assists. Gustav Nyquist has 75 points with 52 assists while Roman Josi has 85 points of his own with a team-leading 62 assists. Juuse Saros has made 63 starts in goal for Nashville this season, going 35-24-5 with a 2.86 GAA and a .906 save percentage while Kevin Lankinen is 11-6 with a 2.93 GAA and a .908 save percentage this season.
Vancouver Canucks vs Nashville Predators prediction
I’m on the under here. I just don’t envision a high-scoring game here, as I think Nashville will try to dictate the style of play here and keep it more physical, defensive and lower-scoring. I also look at this game and how much it means to both teams, with Vancouver having a chance to go home up 3-1 and Nashville trying to avoid the 3-1 deficit and make this a best-of-3 series, and I think it creates a low-scoring, defensive, first-to-3, prototypical playoff hockey matchup in game four. Give me the under.