The Nashville Predators have a chance toi record their second home win over the Vancouver Canucks in 11 days when the Western Conference rivals meet on Monday.
The quick rematch comes after the Predators earned a 2-1 win in Nashville on Oct. 23. Home-ice success against the Canucks hasn’t come easy for the Predators, who are only 20-19-6 (with one tie) in 46 all-time regular-season home meetings with Vancouver. They’re also 0-6 in six playoff home games.
Nashville may have benefited from facing a Canucks team ravaged by injuries in the first month of the season. The depth problems have manifested themselves in Vancouver’s 2-5-0 record over its last seven games, which includes a 5-2 loss Saturday at the Minnesota Wild.
Some relief on the health front could come Monday. Quinn Hughes, who won the 2024 Norris Trophy, has missed four games with a lower-body injury, but the star defenseman joined the Canucks in St. Paul, Minn., and could be available to face the Predators.
Vancouver’s depleted lineup has had an effort when killing penalties. The Canucks’ 71.1% (32-for-45) penalty-kill percentage ranks near the bottom of the NHL.
“I think there’s some things we need to clean up defensively,” said Canucks forward Drew O’Connor, who scored both goals against the Wild. “Help [Thatcher Demko] out a little bit more, he’s obviously been so solid for us all year….I think there’s some things on the PK we can improve upon still.”
Both the Canucks (2.54 goals per game) and Predators (2.46 goals per game) have had trouble scoring this season.
Nashville’s 4-2 win over the Calgary Flames on Saturday ended a three-game losing streak — and perhaps represented an end to its scoring woes. The Predators built an early lead with three goals within a 3:48 span in the first period, then held on for the victory despite two third-period Calgary goals.
“I liked how we closed the last 5-8 minutes of the game,” said Nashville coach Andrew Brunette. “I thought we closed it the right way. It was good for us to go through it because we haven’t really had a three-goal lead very often here, so it’s something we can get better at.”
Forward Cole Smith, who scored the game-winner on Oct. 23, won’t be in the lineup Monday. He sustained an upper-body injury in the first period against the Flames and the Predators announced on Sunday that he’ll be out for 3-6 weeks.
Filip Forsberg and Ryan O’Reilly are Nashville’s co-leaders in goals (five) and points (nine).
Since the Predators also play Minnesota on Tuesday, Juuse Saros and Justus Annunen are expected to split the back-to-back starts. Regular starter Saros could be saved to face the division opponent Wild, though Saros was sharp in stopping 21 of 22 shots against the Canucks on Oct. 23.
Demko has started eight of Vancouver’s 13 games and will likely be in net again on Monday. Demko has a .917 save percentage and a 2.41 goals against average over his eight starts.
Kiefer Sherwood is among the NHL leaders with nine goals scored this season. Conor Garland leads the Canucks in assists (eight) and points (11), but Garland has missed the last two games with an undisclosed injury and won’t play Monday.
