Canucks 1 – Predators 0 | His name is Arthurs Silovs

On the one hand, a 29-year-old goalkeeper participating in his 23rd^e career playoffs. On the other, a young 23 year old Cerberus who was only 12^e departure in the National League.

Juuse Saros and Arturs Silovs offered an exciting goalkeeper duel on Friday in Nashville. The two men were the rock of their team, but in the end youth had the upper hand, just barely, over experience: rookie Silovs was perfect and allowed the Vancouver Canucks to win by a score of 1-0 to eliminate the Predators.

Silovs, who had the difficult task of defending the Canucks net for a third straight game, blocked all 28 pucks that came his way.

The young Latvian, it should be remembered, is a choice of 6^e tour on the Canucks in 2019. If his name rings a bell, it’s that he played 10 games with the Trois-Rivières Lions, in the ECHL, in 2022. You read that right.

Two years later, he led Rick Tocchet’s squad to the second round of the Stanley Cup playoffs…

What he is currently accomplishing is all the more impressive given that he normally would not have played a single game had it not been for the injury to Thatcher Demko at the start of the series, who was the team’s third goaltender. It was Casey DeSmith who first replaced Demko in two games, until he was injured. Silovs was recalled as a backup in Game 4, then Tocchet preferred him over DeSmith for the next two games.

Some doubted the coach’s decision on Friday morning, but Silovs confounded the skeptics. Here he is looking for a new contract that is certainly more lucrative than his current deal, which is expiring.

Slow start

Nothing in the first half indicated that the goalkeepers would be the heroes of this match.

In the first 18 minutes, only two Canucks shots got to Saros. The Predators players blocked 13 pucks in this first period alone, leaving very little room for the visitors to maneuver offensively.

On the other side of the ice, the Predators weren’t much more convincing offensively, although they were more aggressive. The young Silovs, always calm in front of his net, quickly distinguished himself, particularly by taking out his stick to spear Gustav Nyquist who was practically alone in front of him.

If the second period was more hectic, it was in the third period that we were finally treated to proper playoff hockey. As if the two formations were waiting to run out of time before waking up.

“We’re playing good hockey, but we haven’t played our best hockey yet,” Rick Tocchet told the media at the venue in Nashville on Friday morning.

If the Canucks didn’t play their best hockey in the third period, they played something close to it. Again and again they encountered Saros. Nothing worked until there was only 1:39 left on the clock. Thanks to his work along the boards, Elias Pettersson passed to Brock Boeser behind the goal, who passed it back to Pius Suter in front of the goal. Saros, left to himself, could do nothing about it.

The Predators goalkeeper still made 28 saves in the match, as many as the opponent.

A Canadian duel

The Canucks therefore face Connor McDavid and the Edmonton Oilers, whom they have defeated four times in four meetings this season, in the second round. We will therefore have the right to an all-Canadian duel.

Let’s hope Rick Tocchet’s men have learned some lessons from this first round. Especially the importance of finding a way to cast online. Before Friday’s game, they had only thrown 92 times; this is the second-lowest shot total in the first five games of a series since 1960…

For the rest of the spring dance, they will largely need their best offensive elements. Here we are particularly thinking of Elias Pettersson.

The 25-year-old forward has 34 goals and 89 points this season, but was not a shadow of himself against the Predators. Again on Friday, before he contributed to the winning goal, we saw little of him, who clearly lacks confidence at the moment.

Where the Canucks clearly don’t have to worry is in front of the net. Although we agree that a return of Thatcher Demko would do no harm.