It was just one of those nights. The Canucks weren’t going to get a break, and by the sound of the final horn, they hadn’t done anything to create a little bit of their own luck either. It was a calamity of errors.
Little over a minute in, Michael Del Zotto turned over the puck on a fairly standard in-zone retrieval, and PK Subban sent a fluttering, knuckleball of a shot over Derrick Pouliot’s shoulder and past a confused Anders Nilsson to open the scoring. Victor Arvidsson doubled the Predators lead by the end of the frame converting on the rare two-on-none shorthanded breakaway goal.
Of course, the Canucks looked to have a goal of their own in the first frame. Pouliot led a Canucks rush into the Preds zone and fed Sam Gagner high in the slot, who found Thomas Vanek in front for the deflection goal. Predators head coach Peter Laviolette challenged the goal on the grounds of offsides, though, and the review found that Vanek lifted his skate, putting himself offside, as Pouliot entered the zone. No-goal.
Then, in a 2002 flashback, Subban scored early in the second period, bouncing a slap shot that was going wide off of Nilsson’s glove and in. The Canucks responded with a power play goal two minutes later as Alexander Burmistrov batted down a Henrik Sedin pass in the slot, put it on net and sent his rebound past Predators netminder Pekka Rinne.
That was the oasis of good feelings for Canucks fans in a game that sandwiched it on both sides with misery. I’d like to tell you the Canucks rallied from that goal, but the opposite is true, really.
Filip Forsberg gained that goal back for the Preds less than a minute after the fact, and that was the start of a four-goal run for the Preds hit with an exclamation mark in the third period. Craig Smith, Kevin Fiala and Calle Jarnkrok all got in on the party. Nilsson, well, he was less than enthused.
Nilsson stopped 41 of the Predators 48 shots. Opposite Nilsson, Rinne stopped 25 of the 26 Canucks tries.

The Numbers

Quick Hits

https://twitter.com/Canucks/status/941189808239415296
  • The Canucks haven’t won a single game since they dealt Jordan Subban to the Los Angeles Kings for Nic Dowd. They’ve been outscored 16-4 in that span. Tonight his older brother PK Subban scored two of the flukiest goals I’ve ever seen. Is it the curse of Jordan? One of Canucks Twitter’s more vocal members has been championing the notion. Maybe he’s onto something?
  • Alright, let’s get back to serious business. Forgive me for trying to lighten the mood. I had to watch that game, too. It was awful. Perhaps no one suffered through it quite like Anders Nilsson though. There’s no way around it — give up seven goals, and it was an ugly night. Nilsson looked unhinged at moments. At one point, he stopped a routine shot and sent the puck flying to centre ice with his blocker hand in frustration; at another, he snapped his stick in two over his net and sent what remained in his blocker hand flying into the netting above the glass. There were a lot of fluky goals. Perhaps just as many that Nilsson should have had, though. According to Corsica.Hockey, Nashville had over four expected goals tonight. You can’t pin this one on the goaltender, but Nilsson could have been better.
  • Remember the first month of the season, when Canucks head coach Travis Green was playing Michael Del Zotto all of the minutes on a nightly basis? His play has been in steep decline since, and his ice-time has started to follow a similar trend. Tonight was another bad one for DJ MDZ. That first goal doesn’t happen if Del Zotto doesn’t turn over the puck, and really, there’s no reason for that turnover in the first place. It was just a bad play. In total, Del Zotto was on the ice for three goals against at five-on-five and was a minus-ten on on-ice shot attempt differential. Is a healthy scratch on the way? If this blue line is healthy, he might be the best option, if the Canucks feel they have to create room for Erik Gudbranson upon his return.
  • Chris Tanev left in the game in the third period, so they might not have to sit anyone for Gudbranson’s return. I didn’t see the play, and I haven’t heard anything new on Tanev’s status. We’ll keep you updated on that as new information is available to us at CanucksArmy.
  • You can’t avoid conversations about Nikolay Goldobin’s defensive game whenever discussing the need to get him into the lineup. Tonight won’t help, if you’re in the camp that needs to see development on that front. Goldobin was on the ice for three goals against at even strength, and was the Canuck caught in the frame chasing Arvidsson on the Preds shorthanded goal. Before tonight’s game, Goldobin was in the black for five-on-five goal differential. Goldobin was one of the Canucks better players by on-ice shot attempt differentials, and he has been whenever he’s been in the lineup. I’d think it best to avoid looking too much into tonight’s defensive struggles where Goldobin is concerned. There’s enough of that to go around for the entire Canucks roster that we don’t need to single out the young, budding offensive star as he tries to break into the NHL.