There they are joined by the Nashville Predators, whose October of high expectations morphed into a frustrating half-season of consistent inconsistency that’s now being hampered by a spate of injuries to their top players.
The two meet Tuesday night at Bridgestone Arena, each attempting to coddiwomple in the direction of the postseason.
“If you dwell on stuff and wake up each morning worrying about the past, that’s not going to do you any good,” Nashville center Ryan Johansen said Sunday night after a 5-2 loss in Chicago. “Obviously, it’s frustrating at the moment, but tomorrow’s a new day. Go home, hopefully find some success there and try to get on the right track.”
Home is where the Predators (17-16-7) have found little success since starting 8-1-1. They are 2-4-4 in their last 10 home contests, including a 2-1 overtime loss on Jan. 3 to Montreal. The failure to defend home ice is a prime reason why they’re just 6-8-4 since the calendar flipped to December.
A recent wave of injuries hasn’t helped matters. All-Star defenseman P.K. Subban was joined by the team’s top goal-scorer, James Neal, on injured reserve Saturday. Forwards Viktor Arvidsson and Colin Wilson also missed the loss Sunday night with injuries.
Nashville actually didn’t play badly for much of the loss against Chicago, evening the score at 2-2 early in the third period on Austin Watson’s goal before a weird Ryan Hartman hat trick — a goal off his hand and two empty-netters — settled matters.
“In the third, I thought we had the better looks and just couldn’t find a way. It could have been 3-2, 4-2, 5-2 with the posts we hit. We were buzzing,” Predators coach Peter Laviolette said.
Meanwhile, Vancouver (20-19-3) enjoyed its best stretch of hockey this season besides its own injury woes. It iced just five defensemen in Calgary on Saturday night and was briefly down to four after Nikita Tryamkin sat out some time following a heavy hit from Michael Ferland.
But the Canucks weren’t terribly upset with their defeat to the Flames, even though it extended their road struggles. In 19 games away from British Columbia, Vancouver picked up a measly 11 points, fourth from the bottom in the NHL.
“We played well,” captain Henrik Sedin said. “We just didn’t score on our chances.”
The Canucks are hopeful that Chris Tanev, who sat out Saturday night after taking a slapper to the back during Friday night’s 4-2 win over the Flames in Vancouver, will be able to play and beef up their defense corps. Tanev did make the trip to Nashville on Monday.
Tanev’s presence would be very helpful since Ben Hutton, who was scratched Saturday night after blocking a shot with his left hand on Friday evening, didn’t make the trip.
Ryan Miller is expected to make the start in net for the Canucks, while Pekka Rinne will probably get the call for Nashville.
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