Instant Reaction: Arturs Silovs seals off the Predators in a 4–3 Canucks shootout win
1 year ago
Welcome back to Instant Reaction — the series here at CanucksArmy where we give you our instant reaction to the game, and more importantly, ask our readers to do the same in the comments section below!
At least the Vancouver Canucks made a 7:30 p.m. start worth everyone’s while.
The Canucks’ 4-3 shootout victory over the Nashville Predators was a textbook gutsy performance put together by the team’s likeliest suspects and one new challenger.
Elias Pettersson got things going with quite possibly the best shot of his NHL career to get his 30th goal of the season. Cal Foote, son of Canucks’ assistant coach Adam, learned a valuable lesson to not give EP40 that kind of time and space.
(Pettersson later ended the proceedings with a slick shootout winner through the wickets of Juuse Saros. Much to the relief of everyone who has a 5:30 a.m. alarm, the skills competition lasted only three rounds).
The Russian boys looked especially noticeable early on, exemplified by Vasily Podkolzin’s smart puck movement that led to his deflection goal in the first period.
Vitali Kravtsov was playing like a man on a mission in the limited ice time he got, and Andrei Kuzmenko had several good chances.
But the real star of the show was Arturs Silovs.
Nashville threw everything and the kitchen sink at the young Latvian, who stood tall with a 29-save performance through regulation and overtime before stonewalling all three Preds in the shootout.
No save was better than this one on Matt Duchene in the second period. As a wise man once said, “watch how Silovs moves.”
Silovs already oozes a level of confidence in his game that you wouldn’t expect to see in a goalie with only five NHL games under his belt. That kind of attitude will be what separates him from the rest of the netminding pack in seasons to come.
The Canucks did prevent a complete disaster on the tanking front by allowing the Predators to tie the game, preventing any gains in the RW or ROW categories. But the team put in a consistent level of effort for a full sixty minutes — an aspect that’s been severely lacking throughout this season — and that in itself is worth hanging your hat on …
… especially since the tank is likely about to run completely out of steam when the Anaheim Ducks come to town on Wednesday.
What’s your instant reaction to tonight’s game? Let us know in the comments section below!
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