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Expectations for the Vancouver Canucks weren’t excessive heading into the season.
Requested in September if he anticipated the workforce to make the playoffs, president of hockey operations Jim Rutherford hedged.
“To be very to the purpose, the adjustments that we made, now we have a playoff workforce if every part goes proper,” he stated.
Issues did go proper.
On Sunday, the Canucks will host their first dwelling playoff recreation since 2015 once they kick off a first-round matchup towards the Nashville Predators.
Vancouver has been one of many large surprises of the NHL season. The workforce went 23-9-3 forward of the Christmas break and persistently hovered close to the highest of the league standings earlier than capturing the Pacific Division title with a 50-23-9 report.
“I feel if somebody instructed us the place we’d be this time (of the) 12 months in the summertime, clearly we’d take it,” stated captain Quinn Hughes. “It’s totally different if you’re constructing one thing day by day and also you’re dwelling it. However we knew we had some good items in right here and we’ve acquired a terrific employees, and administration did a extremely good job with placing items collectively.
“And it hasn’t been straightforward, however we did every part we have been speculated to do.”
Gamers arrived in Vancouver nicely forward of coaching camp final fall, buying and selling their late-summer plans for group skates.
Brock Boeser, the workforce’s longest-tenured participant, says it feels “superb” to see the onerous work lead to a playoff spot and division title.
“Clearly, we have been sick and bored with dropping,” he stated. “And that’s why we got here right here early to try to set that customary, set these expectations. I feel we had that nice begin to the 12 months and simply constructed off it. We’ve had our ups and downs, however I feel we’ve discovered loads.”
A number of of the Canucks’ prime gamers shone all through the season, placing up career-high numbers.
Hughes led all NHL defenceman with 92 factors. Boeser hit the 40-goal mark. Three Vancouver gamers have been among the many league’s top-20 scorers, together with ahead J.T. Miller with a team-high 103 factors. Even after lacking a month with a knee harm, goalie Thatcher Demko completed with a 35-14-2 report, a .918 save share and 5 shutouts.
Level totals and division titles don’t rely within the post-season, famous winger Conor Garland.
“It’s good, however as soon as Sport 1 comes round, it’ll all be meaningless,” he stated. “We give ourselves an opportunity moving into the playoffs. It actually doesn’t matter when you’re the eighth seed or the No. 1 seed, all people has an opportunity. And that’s what all people fights for all 12 months.”
Head coach Rick Tocchet preached the significance of getting a “day-to-day mindset” all through the season. That received’t change come playoffs, he stated.
“I feel for our group, we simply have to fret about Sport 1,” he stated. “You possibly can’t take a look at the large factor, ‘What if?’ or ‘You’ve acquired to win a sequence,’ all that stuff. I feel it’s harmful if you suppose that method.
“I feel, truthfully, we’ve acquired to arrange for that first interval towards Nashville and be able to play from that first shift. … I feel if you suppose large image, that’s if you get nervous.”
NHL playoff expertise is one factor a lot of Vancouver’s stars lack. The Canucks’ final playoff run got here within the Edmonton bubble in the course of the COVID-abbreviated 20219-20 season.
“That was totally different. That was robust,” stated Garland, who performed for the Arizona Coyotes on the time. “Our video games have been at like, 10 within the morning. So I used to be consuming pasta at 8 a.m. It wasn’t essentially the most enjoyable I’ve had in my life.
“This 12 months is totally different. I’ll discover out.”
Six present Canucks performed for Vancouver within the bubble, together with Boeser. Playoffs this 12 months might be utterly totally different, he stated.
“I feel we’ve simply acquired to have a look at it as our first time,” Boeser stated. “Simply with the followers and the momentum shift and all that, it’s one thing new to us and one thing I feel we’re going to need to embrace.”
The Canucks swept their season sequence towards Nashville, however all three video games occurred earlier than Christmas and the Predators have been one of many NHL’s hottest groups popping out of the all-star break. Nashville took factors from 18 straight video games throughout February and March, and completed the common season fourth in a ultra-competitive Central Division.
The late-season push doesn’t scare Canucks winger Dakota Joshua.
“I be ok with going through anyone,” he stated. “I feel this group is a assured one.”
The outcomes of the Vancouver-Nashville season sequence will assist going into the playoffs, Joshua added.
“You already know you may beat them,” he stated. “However on the finish of the day, you begin off 0-0. They have been a fairly scorching workforce right here down the stretch, so that they’re feeling most likely loads higher than the occasions we performed them in the course of the season. And it needs to be a terrific sequence.”
TALE OF THE TAPE
Common-season sequence: Vancouver 3-0
Targets per recreation: Vancouver — 3.40 (sixth); Nashville — 3.24 (tenth).
High scorers: Vancouver — J.T. Miller, 103 factors; Nashville — Filip Forsberg, 94
Beginning goaltender: Vancouver — Thatcher Demko, 35-14-2, 2.45 GAA, .918 save share; Nashville — Juuse Saros, 35-24-5, 2.86 GAA, .906 save share
Energy play share: Vancouver — 22.7 (eleventh); Nashville — 21.6 (sixteenth)
Penalty kill share: Vancouver — 79.1 (seventeenth); Nashville — 76.9 (twenty second)
The Large Stat: Vancouver went 17-12-4 after the all-star break whereas Nashville was 21-7-3.
By Gemma Karstens-Smith.
This report by The Canadian Press was first printed April 19, 2024.
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