For the second time in the last two weeks, the Vancouver Canucks will close out a road trip in Nashville with a battle against the Predators.
Monday’s game comes with a 5:30 p.m. PT start time, and the Canucks are looking to end the road trip on a winning note.
Drew O’Connor picked up a pair of goals in Saturday’s game. It was O’Connor’s third multi-goal game of his career and the first as a Canuck.
“It was good,” said Head Coach Adam Foote about O’Connor finding the back of the net a couple of times. “It was nice to see, he was a little snake bitten, and he’s been hard on himself, so it was nice to see him finally get it going.”
O’Connor now has four points in his last two outings. It’s the first time in his career that he’s had back-to-back multi-point games.
Quick Hits on the Competition
- The Preds come into Monday’s game with a 5-6-2 record on the season.
- They are 4-3-1 on home ice this season.
- Juuse Saros has started 11 of their 13 games this season and has a 5-4-2 record with a .905% save percentage and a 2.79 goals-against average.
- Filip Forsberg and Ryan O’Reilly share the team lead in goals (5) and points (9).
- Forsberg has scored all five of his goals at even strength, while O’Reilly has scored both a shorthanded and power play goal this year.
- O’Reilly is one of the league’s top players when it comes to faceoffs. He currently sits with a 59.2% win-rate in the dot.
- Nashville’s penalty kill ranks sixth in the league and is killing off 88.4% of their penalties this season.
- On the power play, they rank 30th in the league and are clicking at 12.5% on the year.
The Story: Fil-ling In
Filip Hronek has stepped up in the absence of Quinn Hughes over the past four games. Hronek has averaged 27:04 of ice time per game through the Canucks’ last four outings and has only been on the ice for one goal against at five-on-five in those four games.
For the season, Hronek has been on the ice for team-leading 12 goals at five-on-five, while he has been on the ice for just five goals against in his total of 238:28 of five-on-five ice time.
Marcus Pettersson has been Hronek’s most consistent partner through Hughes’ absence. Pettersson and Hronek have played 32:33 together in the last four games, but Elias Pettersson (D-Petey) is close behind, playing 31:55 with Hronek in the same time frame.
Hughes returned to practice with the team for the first time on Sunday.
