Face-off: 2000 ET, 01/02/2022
Venue: Bridgestone Arena
Vancouver enjoyed a nice win in Chicago last night but backing up on the road against a strong home team like Nashville is a tough task.
The Canucks did prevail 3-1 at Bridgestone Arena last month but it was the Predators who had played the previous day on that occasion.
With five days to prepare for this clash, we’re on the hosts to win in regular time at 1.78 in our Nashville Predators vs Vancouver Canucks predictions.
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Nashville Predators Odds
Nashville won four of their other five home matches in January and ended the month with a 4-2 success at Seattle and a 3-2 overtime loss at Edmonton.
That latest result was a good one for our followers, as we had three winning tips in our match preview, including an 11.5 correct score pay-out.
The Predators are currently second in the Central Division and the Western Conference, 12 points ahead of Vancouver, with both having played 45 times.
Head coach John Hynes is hoping to head into the All-Star break on a high and said: “We’ve done some good things to this point.
“We really tried to pinpoint these things and present them to the guys in areas where we can continue to grow, continue to get better.”
Top scorer Roman Josi and goalie Juuse Saros have received All-Star recognition, while several other influential figures are in good form.
Eeli Tolvanen is ready to return from Covid protocols and defenseman Dante Fabbro has recovered from an upper-body injury.
Looking at the NHL odds, we like 6.5 for Nashville to prevail by exactly two goals here.
Vancouver Canucks Odds
Vancouver continue to recover from a slow start to the season and the improvement shown under Bruce Boudreau is a tribute to the veteran coach.
The Canucks went 7-0-1 for him in December and 5-4-3 last month, only losing out to some highly-rated opponents.
On a current four-match road trip, they have beaten Winnipeg 5-1 and Chicago 3-1 either side of a 1-0 overtime defeat at Calgary.
Jaroslav Halak came off the Covid list to make 20 saves versus the Blackhawks and hailed a well-drilled defence following his first start since December 30.
“The guys played pretty good in front of me and we didn’t give them a lot, especially in the third,” said the Slovakian.
“They got that first goal, but I still think we played pretty good defensive hockey in the third. Really a great effort.”
Halak is unlikely to turn out again but number one netminder Thatcher Demko is always reliable.
Keeping things tight at the back has been the key to their success since Boudreau replaced Travis Green and another resilient rearguard effort can be expected here.
However, finding the energy to cause problems up front may be hard, so we’re adding 18.0 for a 3-1 home win to our NHL predictions.
Additional stats
Last result:
Edmonton 3-2 NASHVILLE (OT)
Chicago 1-3 VANCOUVER
Head-to-head: Nashville 1-3 Vancouver, Vancouver 2-3 Nashville
