VANCOUVER -- The Nashville Predators may be the lower seed in their Western Conference First Round series against the Vancouver Canucks, but there is no doubt they have the advantage when it comes to postseason experience.
Nashville, which is the first wild card from the West, enters Game 1 at Rogers Arena on Sunday (10 p.m. ET; ESPN, SN, SN360, CBC, TVAS, BSSO) with 817 career playoff games among players on its roster. The Canucks, who won the Pacific Division for the first time since 2013, have a combined 468 playoff games.
“It's something to lean on, obviously,” said center Ryan O'Reilly, who won the Stanley Cup and the Conn Smythe Trophy as playoff MVP with the St. Louis Blues in 2019. “It doesn't mean you're going to succeed, but it can help, and we've got so many good veterans here, guys that have made runs, guys that have won. It's a great mix of all that. That's key moving forward. We know what to do in these situations and how to prepare for them.”
Defenseman Ryan McDonagh leads the Predators with 185 playoff games, including winning the Stanley Cup in back-to-back seasons with the Tampa Bay Lightning in 2020 and 2021. Roman Josi, who plays next to McDonagh on the blue line, is next with 85 games in the playoffs, followed by O’Reilly and linemate Filip Forsberg (75 each).
Nashville has four players who will be making their NHL playoff debut in Vancouver on Sunday: forwards Tommy Novak, Luke Evangelista and Cole Smith, and defenseman Spencer Stastney.
O’Reilly believes that is where the more experienced players can help provide guidance throughout the playoffs.
“Pull someone aside if you see maybe emotions are getting to them,” O’Reilly said. “It's all those little things that as they arise, you kind of lean on your experience.”
Nashville coach Andrew Brunette expects it to be loud in Vancouver, especially early in Game 1, considering the city hasn’t hosted playoff hockey since 2015. However, he wants his younger players to embrace the emotion that comes with that.
“We have tremendous leadership and some guys that have been on long runs and we're going to lean on them heavily to help out and I think for those kids, just looking back to my playoff games, just enjoy it,” Brunette said. “It's the best time of year to play. You're in a Canadian hotbed of hockey, what more can you ask?”
It will be the first time in that type of playoff atmosphere for a lot of Canucks, too.
Vancouver is led in playoff experience by defenseman Ian Cole (116 games) and forward J.T. Miller (78 games), but no other player has played more than 50. Captain Quinn Hughes (17), forwards Elias Pettersson (17) and Brock Boeser (17), and goalie Thatcher Demko (four) all have playoff experience, but it came during the COVID 19-shortened 2019-20 season, when all their games were played without fans inside Rogers Place in Edmonton.
“If you haven't been through it, it's hard,” Miller said when asked if veterans could help prepare younger players. “Unexpected things happen and it's hard not to be very high on a high and be very low on a low, and it's something you kind of gain with experience. We're going to say all the right things and guys that have been there need to really help lead the way.”
Canucks coach Rick Tocchet may be making lineup changes for Game 1, in part because of playoff experience. He cited it when asked about new lines at practice on Saturday, which included forward Phillip Di Giuseppe, who has played three playoff games, taking the place of Vasily Podkolzin, who is one of four Canucks players without postseason experience. Podkolzin may have to wait to make his playoff debut.
“Sometimes you might go with experience early on,” Tocchet said.
Cole, who won the Cup in consecutive seasons with the Pittsburgh Penguins in 2016 and 2017, believes the work Vancouver did to get back to the playoffs for just the second time in the past nine seasons will pay off once they start, regardless of experience.
“The things we built all translate,” Cole said. “We need to be able to handle pressure and we need to be really mature about it and those are themes we talked about all year, being mature, handling pressure, feeling momentum swings, trying to get it back. So, all these things that we’ve tried to grow and build over the course of the year will certainly play roles, massive roles, for sure.”
