With their four-game winning streak finished, the Nashville Predators look to get back in the win column when they visit the Vancouver Canucks on Friday.

After a 3-2 overtime victory over the Calgary Flames on Tuesday extended Nashville’s streak to four games, the Predators had a quick turn-around in Edmonton the next night, dropping a 5-2 result to the Oilers.

Back-to-back road games against two of the NHL’s better teams is a tough draw for anyone, though head coach John Hynes was pleased with the Predators’ performance. If anything, Hynes felt his club was perhaps unlucky to score only twice.

“I thought when they had some of the good looks that they got, they wound up scoring. We had lots of good looks, too, but tonight the puck didn’t get in the net for us,” Hynes said. “I thought we competed hard. I thought we made some clear improvements to our game that we didn’t like from last night in Calgary.”

Matt Duchene continued his recent good form with a goal and an assist against Edmonton. The forward has eight points (three goals, five assists) over his last five games, after beginning the season with just one goal over Nashville’s first five contests.

The Predators will complete the Canadian half of their six-game road trip in Vancouver, with the Canucks finally coming off a victory on their home ice.

Vancouver’s first three home games all resulted in losses, yet the Canucks turned the tide with a 3-2 overtime win against the New York Rangers on Tuesday. There was plenty of drama in the win, as the Canucks trailed 2-0 through 41 minutes before cuing the comeback. J.T. Miller scored both Vancouver’s first goal and then the winner 2:22 into overtime.

The come-from-behind victory was “a test of the will and camaraderie in the room,” goaltender Thatcher Demko said.

“Obviously pucks haven’t been going in for us very easily the last couple of games, but I thought we played really hard tonight regardless,” Demko said. “It’s easy to kind of stray away from that when things aren’t going your way, but it was actually quite the opposite in the third (period). I thought guys (were) picking each other up and working hard for each other, and it ended up paying off.”

Demko’s 23 saves marked his lowest total of the season, yet the goalie stole the show with an incredible sequence late in the third period. With the game tied and the Rangers on a power play, Demko lost both his blocker and his stick after a collision in front of the net, yet still made three great saves against Artemi Panarin.

It has been an impressive season overall for Demko, who has a 2.48 goals-against average and .923 save percentage in eight starts.

Nashville goalie Juuse Saros has been equally strong, with a 2.39 GAA and .922 save percentage over his eight starts. Saros will likely be in net Friday, as rookie Connor Ingram started against Edmonton and David Rittich is practicing with the team but has yet to play after returning from COVID-19 protocol.

Predators defenseman Mark Borowiecki missed Wednesday’s game and is day-to-day with an upper-body injury.

Vancouver’s special teams units have been weak links over the last three games. The Canucks are scoreless on their last 12 power-play attempts, while opponents have five goals in their last 12 chances against the Vancouver penalty kill.

–Field Level Media