Playoff Notebook: Canucks Take Strong Road Record into Edmonton for Game Three

The series shifts to Edmonton as the Vancouver Canucks take their undefeated road record in the playoffs to Rogers Place on Sunday night. 

Game two saw the Canucks punch it out with an Oilers and battle their way to overtime, where the Canucks ultimately fell 4-3 on a goal from Evan Bouchard. 

Canucks captain Quinn Hughes spoke in the postgame media availability about his team doing a solid job of not getting too high or too low all season long and how that attitude will help them as the series goes along. 

In today’s playoff notebook, we hear from Nikita Zadorov and head coach Rick Tocchet, who spoke to the media on Saturday afternoon. We will give you some stats of note and then wrap it up with information on how you can watch the game at home, in Rogers Arena or out at the Abbotsford Centre. 

Let’s get to it, many of us still have some last-minute Mother’s Day shopping to get to. 

From the Coach

Tocchet spoke glowingly of his young goaltender Artūrs Šilovs. 

“That's a sign of a good goalie,” said Tocchet about Šilovs playing his game between the pipes in game two. “I don't think he was bad game one at all. I just think he was good to okay. But then in the next game, he really played well. So, I think that's a sign of a good goaltender and a sign of a guy that has taken the pressure as it comes.”

The coach talked about the 13 call-ups from Abbotsford and his message for them through these playoffs.

“It's good for them, [they] get to practice. There are some guys who are practicing today. Yogi [Svejkovský] is out there putting them [at an] NHL kind of pace. [Those] guys got to be ready. You could be in the lineup very quickly. From my experience, teams that go far, you sometimes go deep into your American League team and I'm not afraid to use a couple of those guys if we have to use them.” 

Tocchet later spoke about his team’s ability to play well on the road. 

“We've built a little bit of credibility this year with our team, but we are a good road team,” said Tocchet. “You're going to go into a situation where it's a loud building again, we went into Nashville and that was a loud building. We overcame some stuff, and I thought we played a good road game and obviously like the last game, it's the same mentality. There's not a lot that you want to change to be honest just because you’re on the road other than the fact that they're going to have last change. And when you play against two of the best players in the league, you have to manage your ice. You got to manage the puck and you got to manage the time and space against this team. So, you need all hands on deck.” 

In the Room

Nikita Zadorov began his media availability by discussing Friday night’s game now that he has had a night to sleep on it. 

“I thought we were pretty good for two periods then they had a push in the third and I think we kind of backed up. We were [doing] a lot of defending and we didn't have enough juice to jump on offence after that and it was defending again, defending... So, I felt like we kind of had our backs against the wall for the third period so that's where we got to fix for sure.” 

He spoke about the defensive zone battles being so important to put his team in a situation where they can get back on offence. 

“It's all about battles and all those details, so if you want to spend less d-zone time you’ve got to win those battles,” said Zadorov. “So, you've got to get the puck out, you've got to get on offence. So, I think that's the main focus for sure.” 

Big Z touched on his snipe from Friday night, and how it was similar but also different than the goal he scored in the Nashville series from a similar spot on the ice. 

“I was skating down on the wall, and I didn't find a pass to the slot to anybody, and I saw the little bit opening above your shoulder, so I tried to just put it up there and get a good shot on. I feel like some goalies, there's different techniques in how they play that. Against [Juuse] Saros it was a little bit more open because he's smaller. [Stuart] Skinner, I think it was just a little opening there and I hit it. Some goalies stand up by the post, there's nothing open. So, it depends on the style of the goalie playing for sure.”

By the Numbers

• Conor Garland led the Canucks with five shots on net in game two.
• The Canucks’ have won 71.9% of their faceoffs on the power play and 59.3% in the offensive zone through eight playoff games. Both are top of the league for the remaining playoff teams.
• With 3 wins when trailing after two periods in the playoffs, the Canucks are top of the league for third-period comebacks in the playoffs.
• Dakota Joshua’s 40 hits have him tied for fifth in the league through these playoffs.
• Nikita Zadorov leads the playoffs for goals from a defencemen with four.
• Through eight games, Quinn Hughes has skated 45.2 kilometres which is about the same width as Yellowstone Park’s giant caldera that created Yellowstone’s Grand Canyon about 630,000 years ago.

Sunday’s game is a 6:30 pm PT start time at Rogers Place in Edmonton. You can watch the game on Sportsnet or listen to the radio call with Brendan Batchelor on Sportsnet 650.

What is even better than those two options are watching alongside thousands of Canucks fans at one of our two arena watch parties. Each of Rogers Arena and the Abbotsford Centre are hosting watch parties and the links are there for you to click on if you would like to experience the fun alongside the best fans in the world.

See you all on Sunday!