When the Nashville Predators dropped Game 1 in Vancouver on Sunday night, people–understandably–brought out the history. The Preds have yet to win a series after losing Game 1; they’re 0-12 (0-13 if you count the best-of-five qualifying round during the bubble in 2020). Winning Game 1 matters because, well, you have a series lead. Often, the better team wins a hockey game… Source ..read more

“It’s better to be lucky than good.” It’s a pretty straightforward saying. While talent and skill go a long way, you often need a bit more than just that to make it happen. Every champion in any sport has some good bounces along the way, often while being very good (if not great)–it’s just the nature of things. That is especially the case for hockey, a game with a hard… Source ..read more

We’ve got postgame analysis and a look at the Game 1 question coming up later this morning! In the meantime, these links: Utah owner Ryan Smith divulges name and uniform plansUtah’s NHL team will use a March Madness-style bracket to determine a name and share some uniform similarities with the NBA’s Jazz. Some of these names are better than others. Make good choices, Utah. Source ..read more

The big narrative heading into this game was, of course, Vancouver goalie Thatcher Demko’s injury. He was replaced in net by Casey DeSmith, and Nashville was able to take advantage of that to steal a much-needed road win. Anthony Beauvillier got the scoring started early, tipping a Filip Forsberg shot past DeSmith at 1:14. The Canucks responded well, forcing Juuse Saros to make a few big… Source ..read more

While Game 1 wasn’t exactly what Nashville hoped, there were a few positives despite the third-period cluster. I thought Ryan O’Reilly looked excellent, and there were a lot of scoring threats from guys like Luke Evangelista, Tommy Novak, Gustav Nyquist, and Filip Forsberg. Truthfully, the game was not out of hand until the third period. That’s been Nashville’s doom all season, however. Source ..read more

Hopefully the Preds’ playoff chances restore themselves with timing and thoroughness as perfect as Mark Stone’s spleen. Amid boos, Stone leads Knights to win in returnAny questions about how Mark Stone would handle his first game in three months were quickly answered Monday night. I’m glad he’s healthy again, and I don’t dispute he was injured in the first place, but this is not a… Source ..read more

Editor’s note: OTF welcomes Alex H to our 2024 postseason coverage! She taught me a lot of what I know about hockey, and I’m delighted to have her on board helping cover this series. A former Vancouver Canucks player of some renown described Game One as “being fought in a phone booth” on the ESPN broadcast during the second intermission. He, of course, has the advantage in terms of… Source ..read more

Game 1: Predators 2, Canucks 4Despite holding a pair of early leads, the Preds were largely outplayed tonight and struggled to respond once the Canucks got established. ICYMI: Could have been better. Stay tuned for some analysis coming up shortly! How Barry Trotz led the Predators back to the playoffs as GMAfter being a hockey coach for most of his adult life, Barry Trotz returned to… Source ..read more

Despite holding a pair of early leads, the Preds were largely outplayed tonight and struggled to respond once the Canucks got established. Some great play by the Canucks’ defense and skilled play by their offense sealed the Preds’ fate. Here’s a look at how it went down. Vancouver got out to a strong early start, but the Preds made a temporary recovery and got some offense of their own going. Source ..read more

Yep, that’s a Taylor Swift reference. Nashville has Taylor Swift, Carrie Underwood, Keith Urban, and Nicole Kidman. Vancouver has late puck drops and … yeah. [Ed.: Sarah McLachlan and Carly Rae Jepsen, if we’re going to get technical, but the late puck drops still give Nashville the W on this front.] It’s been over a decade since these two teams last squared off in the postseason. There’… Source ..read more