VANCOUVER — Having won the hard way in Nashville, the Vancouver Canucks lost the hard way at home.
And now they’re making another hard trip three-quarters of the way across the continent that no one in Vancouver wanted.
With the chance to close out the Nashville Predators and win a Stanley Cup playoff series on home ice for the first time since 2011, the Canucks blew a third-period lead Tuesday in Game 5 and lost 2-1, forcing Game 6 and that long trudge back to Tennessee.
The late reversal came one game after the Canucks stunned the Predators by scoring twice with their goalie on the bench and then winning 4-3 in overtime on Sunday to take a 3-1 lead in the National Hockey League’s opening playoff round.
Winning is hard. Losing can feel even harder.
“Listen, you need to prepare like you’re going to play seven games every single series,” Canuck defenceman Ian Cole said. “If you play less than that, great. If you finish early, great. But be prepared to play seven.
“Whether we want to get on the plane or not? That’s just kind of a prima-donna attitude. That’s bulls—. Just go and win the freakin’ game. Of course, no one wants to fly back across the country, but this is the matchup that we have. If we need to win in six games, you win in six games. If we win in seven games, we win in seven games. We just need to win the series. That’s all that matters. We win this series, we move on and then we’ve got to win the next series. Like, that’s all that matters. Whether we do that here, whether we do it Nashville, whether we do that in five games or six games or seven games, it doesn’t matter. Just win the series.”
In his 10th straight playoff appearance (with seven different teams) and with a pair of Stanley Cup rings, the 35-year-old defenceman knows what he is talking about.
In May, winning is the only thing that matters. If you asked the Canucks 10 days ago if they’d take a quadruple overtime win in Game 7 to advance past the Predators and into the playoffs’ second round — and the road games would be in Nairobi instead of Nashville — they’ve said “yes, thanks” before you could apply the question mark.
The Canucks have still got the series lead and up to two more chances to win one game, and have yet to produce their best form or a shot total that outnumbers their roster.
But with two goalies injured and other players like star defenceman Quinn Hughes taking a beating, there were obvious advantages to winning Game 5 and getting some rest and recovery time.
It looked like they would win when Canuck defenceman Nikita Zadorov beat Predator goalie Juuse Saros from a terrible angle to break the scoreless tie at 3:11 of the third period.
But Roman Josi tied it for Nashville in a power-play pileup at 7:15 when he was stopped by Arturs Silovs on a quick breakaway, only to see the puck trickle behind the goalie and then into the net as Silovs tried to lie on it while Predator Gustav Nyquist crashed the crease.
Although the puck went in off Silovs, there was a legitimate question about Nyquist’s role in contacting the goaltender – as there was about the preceding boarding penalty to Canuck Dakota Joshua, who crunched Luke Evangelista in the numbers as the Predator turned his back and tried to duck the check of the Vancouver winger.
There was no controversy about the winning goal, as Alex Carrier cleanly beat Silovs with a blocker-side slapshot from the blue line at 12:46.
“I feel like, it’s the NHL playoffs (and) every person on the ice should be sharp, not just the players,” Zadorov said of the penalty call on Joshua. “I don’t know what Dakota is supposed to do? He’s backchecking, finishing the guy. (Evangelista has) been dodging hits for five games straight. You’ve got to protect yourself. I’m trying to find the words so I don’t get fined $25,000. Obviously, the players are responsible for what they do on the ice. But also there’s a few other people on the ice.”
Joshua said he thought Evangelista turned his back to him just before contact.
“I’ll have to watch it again, but I thought so,” Joshua said. “Not a good feeling to be in there (in the penalty box) when they score, but that’s hockey. Just the ups and downs of the series. Can’t hang your heads. This one sucks, but they went through it, too, (in Game 4) and came back here and got a win. So there’s no reason we can’t go back and do the same in Nashville.”
The Canucks travel Wednesday and are expected to practise Thursday in Nashville ahead of Game 6 the next night.
“It’s hard to close in this league,” Zadorov said. “Nashville’s a good team. They push back, they stick with it. I feel like we stole it last game in they’re building (and) they stole this game here. So I mean, it’s on us to go out there and play our best hockey.”
Outshot 22-20 on Tuesday, the Canucks have put only 91 pucks on the Predators net through five games despite Saros looking vulnerable.
Brock Boeser, the hat-trick hero of Game 4, had the best chance to tie the game late in third period but was stopped from the low slot by Saros’ left pad. Canuck Pius Suter hit the post on a point-blank chance early in the period.
“I think there’s shifts where we’re good, and then we just, you know, kind of play into their hands for a couple of shifts,” Canuck centre Elias Lindholm said. “We have one good shift and then we’re a little sloppy for a couple shifts. We’ve got to put 60 minutes together, and so far we haven’t done that.
“Obviously, everyone would like to win this game. But we knew it was going to be hard. Playoffs is hard, and it’s only going to get harder. To close it out is the hardest game by far, and we’re still learning. It sucks to not close it out here in front of our fans. But we’re still in a good spot; we’re up 3-2 going back to Nashville. But obviously, it sucks to not be able to give this to the fans.”
Nine Canucks began this series without any genuine Stanley Cup playoff experience.
“We’ve talked about this so many times,” Cole said of managing emotions. “We’re not going to win every game, as much as we’d like to. Obviously, this one’s pretty disappointing. We’ve got a lead in the third period that we don’t complete. That’s frustrating. But right now at this moment, all we can focus on is winning the next game, winning Game 6.”
