The Vancouver Canucks will play the Nashville Predators in the Western Conference First Round of the Stanley Cup Playoffs.
The Canucks (50-22-9), who will finish first in the Pacific Division, will have home-ice advantage in the best-of-7 series. The Predators (47-30-5) will finish as the first wild card in the West.
The playoffs begin Saturday.
The Canucks won all three games against the Predators in the regular season. They won 3-2 in Nashville on Oct. 24, 5-2 in Vancouver on Oct. 31, and 5-2 at Nashville on Dec. 19.
This season, the Canucks were led by forwards J.T. Miller, who had an NHL career-high 103 points (37 goals, 66 assists), Elias Pettersson (89 points; 34 goals, 55 assists) and Brock Boeser, who had an NHL career-high 73 points (40 goals, 33 assists). Quinn Hughes led all NHL defensemen with a career-high 91 points (17 goals, 74 assists).
Thatcher Demko was 35-13-2 with a 2.44 goals-against average, .918 save percentage and five shutouts in 50 games, and Casey DeSmith was 12-9-6 with a 2.89 GAA, .896 save percentage and one shutout in 29 games (27 starts). Arturs Silovs went 3-0-1 with a 2.47 GAA and .881 save percentage in four games.
Against the Predators, the Canucks were led by Hughes, who had six assists in the three games. Pettersson had five points (four goals, one assist), and forward Ilya Mikheyev had four points (one goal, three assists).
Demko was 2-0-0 with a 2.00 GAA and .915 save percentage. DeSmith made 26 saves in the 5-2 win on Dec. 19.
The Predators were led this season by forward Filip Forsberg, who had an NHL career-high 94 points (48 goals, 46 assists). Defenseman Roman Josi had 85 points (23 goals, 62 assists), forward Gustav Nyquist had an NHL career-high 75 points (23 goals, 52 assists) and forward Ryan O'Reilly had 69 points (26 goals, 43 assists).
Juuse Saros went 35-24-5 with a 2.86 GAA, .906 save percentage and three shutouts in 64 games, and Kevin Lankinen was 11-6-0 with a 2.82 GAA, .908 save percentage and one shutout in 24 games (17 starts). Yaroslav Askarov was 1-0-0 with a 1.47 GAA and .943 save percentage in two games (one start).
Against the Canucks, the Predators were led by forward Colton Sissons, who scored two goals. Forward Tommy Novak (two assists) was the only other player to get more than one point in the three games.
Saros went 0-2-0 with a 4.81 GAA and .833 save percentage in two games. Lankinen was 0-1-0 with a 3.07 GAA and .892 save percentage in two games (one start).
Vancouver and Nashville have played once before in the playoffs, with the Canucks winning in six games in the 2011 Western Conference Semifinals.
The Canucks and Predators have never won the Stanley Cup. Vancouver has advanced to the Final three times, most recently in 2011, when it lost in seven games to the Boston Bruins. Nashville advanced to its only Final in 2017, when it lost in six games to the Pittsburgh Penguins.
