Why ‘average’ Game 4 makes Canucks coach less nervous about Game 5

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The Vancouver Canucks have felt like a team that’s stayed even keeled all season.

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They’ve never seemed too excited or too disappointed. They’ve always appeared to stay on task.

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They can come off like a veteran team in familiar territory, even though they had made a 26-point jump in the standings from the previous season, and they were hanging with the NHL front-runners for the first time in the better part of a decade.

Monday was more of the same in that regard. Yes, they’re up 3-1 on the Nashville Predators in the first round playoff heading into Game 5 Tuesday at Rogers Arena, but they weren’t sugar-coating their performance in the least.

Vancouver won Game 4 Sunday in Nashville 4-3 in overtime, getting two goals with the goalie on the bench in favor of a sixth attacker in the final 2:49 of regulation to force the extra session. The Canucks secured the victory with an Elias Lindholm marker 1:02 into that sudden-death fourth frame.

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“From experience, Game 5s are hard, close out games,” Canucks coach Rick Tocchet said Monday morning in a media availability at Rogers Arena. “I feel more comfortable going into tomorrow’s game because we had an average game — let’s face it. If we had played really, really well, I’d probably be a little bit more nervous tomorrow. I don’t feel nervous. I think we’ll be ready tomorrow to play a lot better than we did last game. And I think that’s a good thing.

“Guys were happy afterwards. We won and everybody was high fiving. Five minutes later, they’re back to earth. That’s what I love about this team.”

Defenseman Tyler Myers added: “It was great to get the win. Definitely some things to look at. I think we stole one last night but it goes to show how resilient our group is. It was great that we stuck with it.”

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It’s often said that teams take on the personality of their coach. Credit Tocchet, then, for how steady this group seems to be and how they don’t ever look like they’re getting ahead of themselves. Credit the veteran core group of players for leading the buy-in to Tocchet’s messaging. And credit general manager Patrik Allvin for reading what the roster needed and finding ways to bring in those players.

Allvin’s mentality is aligned, too, going off what Tocchet was saying Monday. Tocchet explained that when he let Allvin know that third stringer Arturs Silovs was going to start in goal in Game 4 because of injuries to both starter Thatcher Demko and backup Casey DeSmith, Allvin responded with: “OK … where are we going for dinner?”

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“When your general manager says that to you as a coach, it gives you confidence. It wasn’t, ‘Oh what else could go wrong?’ He doesn’t give that attitude,” Tocchet said.

“He has a big ‘next man up’ mentality. That’s one of his mantras. He doesn’t want to hear ‘Oh, poor us.’ He hates that.”

Brock Boeser cut Nashville’s lead to 3-2 with a goal with Silovs on the bench at 17:11 of the third period. Tocchet pulled Silovs again for an extra skater, and Nashville wound up with possession. Colton Sissons came down the left wing wall and backhanded a shot from the left faceoff circle that hit the far post and ricocheted out at 18:10.

A few millimeters over and it would have ricocheted in, and Nashville seemingly would have been on its way to a win and a 2-2 tie in the series. Instead, Boeser scored at 19:52, and Lindholm completed the comeback in OT.

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Nashville forward Filip Forsberg was asked by the media afterwards about how many times he was going to see the puck bounce off the post. He replied: “Not any more than I already have. It’s unfortunate, but there’s nothing you can do about it.”

Predators coach Andrew Brunette added: “That’s a hard play. I mean, you’re on your backhand. You try to make a play, it didn’t go in.”

This is Vancouver’s first trip to the playoffs since the 2020 COVID-19 bubble year in Edmonton. This is the first time they’ve been able to host playoff games since 2015, and they’re looking for their first playoff round win since 2011, which was when they went to the Stanley Cup Finals against the Boston Bruins.

@SteveEwen

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