The most anticipated hockey game in Vancouver since June 15th, 2011, is nearly upon us, as the Vancouver Canucks, in the most unlikely of fashions, stole both games in Nashville and came home one game away from the second round of the playoffs.

Vancouver has not won a playoff round on home ice since Kevin Bieksa’s infamous goal off the stanchion to send the Canucks to the finals in 2011.

Today’s expected goaltender matchups for our highlighted game:

The Vancouver Canucks’ Arturs Silovs (3-0-1) vs. The Nashville Predators’ Juuse Saros (35-24-5).

With Elias Pettersson’s recent struggles, JT Miller has taken the bull by the horns and has excelled, Miller was all over the ice for the Canucks in Nashville channeling his inner Ryan Kesler “beast mode” as he scored or assisted on five of Vancouver’s six goals on the road trip. In game three Miller had half of the Canucks total shots, registering six out of Vancouver’s 12.

I like Miller to show killer instinct tonight and to continue the trend of being all over the ice for the Canucks, take this play at a full unit.

One of the most surprising things from reading game fours box score is noticing the Canucks captain Hughes was held off the scoresheet. Hughes made instrumental plays on both Vancouver’s tying goal and overtime winner. Captain Canuck has tallied four assists in four games this series and I like this trend to continue at home, would even sprinkle on Hughes’ to get a power-play point tonight but we will not be tracking that.

Take Hughes to get an assist at .8 units.

Vancouver’s power-play showed major signs of life in game three going 2-3 after swapping Connor Garland for Elias Lindholm on the top unit. Although the Canucks didn’t score with a power-play in game four, they scored two goals 6 on 5. Returning home for game five, I like the team to feed off the crowd and to make Nashville pay with the man advantage.

As mentioned above, I really like Hughes to get a power-play point tonight and love the value on Elias Lindholm to get one, too, so much so that we’ll throw in a bonus bet.

Elias Lindholm to score a power-play point at +450. My $3.12 bet would return $17.60.

All in all on this play were risking one unit on the Canucks to score on the PP and .25 units on Lindholm to score a power-play point.

Sam Reinhart over 2.5 shots at -175. My $12.50 bet would return $19.64 – HIT

Nikita Kucherov to score anytime at +140. My $10 bet would return $24  -MISSED

Andrei Vasilevsky to make over 28.5 saves at -130. My $12.50 bet would return $22.11 – hit

Hit the two straights and missed on Kucherov, not the worst start. We are up $6.75 after our first night of the playoffs.