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The Vancouver Canucks need their best players to be at their best if they hope to get out of the first-round of the 2024 Stanley Cup Playoffs — and that’s especially true without the services of star goaltender Thatcher Demko . That includes Elias Pettersson, who struggled mightily down the stretch in the regular-season and was held off the scoresheet in the first two home playoff games at Rogers Arena in nearly a decade.
The Canucks lost 4-1 to the Nashville Predators in Game 2 of their Western Conference first-round series on Tuesday night despite dominating their opponents in shot attempts. One of the catalysts was an 0-for-4 powerplay for the home team, which included a near inexcusable miss from Pettersson with just seconds left in the opening frame.
Elias Pettersson misses an open net on the power play#Canucks | #Preds
: Sportsnet | NHL pic.twitter.com/EwYUqdkcKH
— CanucksArmy (@CanucksArmy) April 24, 2024
No. 40 took responsibility for the defeat afterwards.
“I’m always my biggest critic, and I take a lot of blame for this one,” he explained, per NHL.com.
“I put us in a bad spot with my mistake on their third goal, [that] can’t happen. If I score in the first period, and it’s a 1-1 game, maybe it’s a different outlook. I just knew I had an open net, and I think the puck stood on high edge, but either way, I’ve got to score.”
The loss wasn’t Pettersson’s fault, but the 25-year-old star needs to elevate his game in the postseason — and that hasn’t happened yet.
“He’s a young kid,” Nucks head coach Rick Tocchet reiterated after the loss. “This is his first taste of pressure … this is good for him … He’s got to dust himself off and be ready for Game 3. He’s got to be very decisive with the puck. I want to see him shoot the puck … but I think he’ll be fine.”
With the loss, the Pacific Division-winning Canucks give up home-ice advantage as the series shifts to Bridgestone Arena in Nashville for Games 3 and 4 this weekend.
Canucks lose Thatcher Demko, home-ice advantage
Vancouver is going to have a much harder time of things without Thatcher Demko, who suffered an injury in Game 1 and is now considered week-to-week. He likely won’t be an option at all throughout the best-of-7 series, leaving Casey DeSmith to step up in his absence.
And DeSmith, like Pettersson, struggled at Rogers Arena on Tuesday. He allowed three goals on just 15 shots, including the opening goal from former Canucks forward Anthony Beauvillier just over a minute into the contest.
Although he settled down after allowing two goals in quick succession in the second period, Vancouver was unable to solve Juuse Saros besides a Nikita Zadorov snipe in the second period. And the climb to win the series gets a lot steeper without Demko between the pipes.
“We had some chances, some looks on the [power play], some empty nets we didn’t capitalize on,” Tocchet said about the game as a whole, per NHL.com’s Kevin Woodley. “Maybe we got a little frustrated but we threw a lot of rubber around that area. We’ve got to keep doing that. I think the game plan is there, we’ve just got to start executing.”
The Canucks will look to do just that — and take home-ice advantage back — in Game 3 on Friday night in Smashville.
More must-reads:
- NHL announces finalists for 2024 Lady Byng Trophy
- Pius Suter's late goal sends Canucks to second round
- The 'MLB Rookies of the Year' quiz
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