Goaltending depth has Vancouver Canucks one win away from advancing in the playoffs

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If someone had said the Vancouver Canucks would lead their first-round playoff series against the Nashville Predators 3-1 and that goaltending was largely the reason why, few would have given the statement a second thought.

Yet no one could have imagined how the Canucks’ goaltending story would play out. It has certainly become one of the major storylines of these playoffs.

Of course, goaltending was expected to be a major talking point for Vancouver. The team had its star netminder and Vézina Trophy finalist, Thatcher Demko, in the crease for the start of the series. Demko had missed a long stretch of games in the final weeks of the regular season as a result of a knee injury. He played well in the series opener, coming up with one of the most spectacular saves of the playoffs.

Then, just like that, he was out. Another knee injury but not the same one he tweaked on March 9. Great mystery now surrounds the question of whether he’ll return in these playoffs or not.

May not matter.

After Demko got hurt, the net was turned over to his backup Casey DeSmith, who had played well in the role throughout the regular season. DeSmith was in goal for the team’s Game 2 loss to the Preds at home in Vancouver, but then played spectacularly at times in the team’s bounce-back win in Game 3 in Nashville.

Then he got injured.

Enter Arturs Silovs, from the team’s American Hockey League squad in Abbotsford, B.C. It would be up to him to try and help Vancouver apply a vice-grip to the series and return home with a 3-1 series lead. And he did just that, turning away every shot he had a reasonable chance to save. At no time did the moment ever seem too big for him. When he was asked what he thought when he heard he was going to be playing because of an undisclosed injury to DeSmith, Silovs told reporters: “Time to shine.”

According to Sportsnet Stats, only twice before in the playoffs has a team had three goalies win games in a series; Vancouver in 2004 and Chicago in 1972.

Now, as much as the goaltending situation will become a cool part of Canucks lore, the fact is the team in front of these netminders has, for vast stretches of this series, been badly outplayed by the Preds. This series could easily be 3-1 the other way. The Canucks had no business winning Game 4 but here we are.

Nashville has been the faster, more physical team throughout the first four games. It doesn’t seem to have any floaters or guys who look out of place in a fierce, angry, no-holds-barred environment. For the Canucks, the play of Elias Pettersson continues to be an issue. He’s picked up some assists but mostly looks lost. With his lithe frame and quiet, soft-spoken demeanour, he does not come across as someone who enjoys this type of hockey. (See Mitch Marner).

There was a moment in Game 4, in which Pettersson got caught up in the celebratory group hug that followed Nashville’s first goal. One of the players gave the Canucks centre a cheap-shot cross-check that sent him to the ice. He then meekly got up and skated away. It was sort of humiliating. It was reminiscent of the time Brad Marchand used one of the Sedin twins as a punching bag during the Stanley Cup final in 2011 and met absolutely no resistance, from anyone.

Then there is Quinn Hughes. It’s clear that Nashville has decided to target him and why not? A player who has the puck on his stick as much as Hughes should be. Hughes made a brilliant move along the boards to avoid a Nashville defender that allowed him to help set up the tying goal with just more than six seconds left in Sunday’s game. So, the genius is still there. But you can also tell the constant hits are taking a toll. He’s not freewheeling with the puck like he can. He’s seemed in pain on the bench a few times. It will be something to monitor.

J.T. Miller and Brock Boeser have easily been Vancouver’s most integral players. Boeser’s hat trick on Sunday was him playing at his very best. Once a guy who preferred getting his goals from the outside, in areas where it didn’t hurt as much to score, he now gets most of his goals in those greasy areas around the front of the net where you often pay a punishing price for your success. His linemate Miller has been a beast. In every way that Pettersson doesn’t look like someone built for the playoffs, Miller is the opposite and seems to thrive on the extra intensity.

The odds would say that Vancouver is going to win this series. Three-one deficits are just hard to come back from in the playoffs. Yet, it’s difficult to think of much you can criticize about Nashville’s play to this point. It has pretty much outplayed Vancouver the entire series. The 71 Vancouver shots against Nashville is the fewest in NHL history through the first four games in an opening-round series.

Nashville needs to keep doing what it’s doing and hope for some breaks. Vancouver needs to start playing like the team that dominated the regular season. But, as it is finding out, that’s harder to do in the playoffs.