It took until the second to last night of the 2023-24 regular season, but we finally know that the Nashville Predators will take on the Vancouver Canucks in the first round of the 2024 Stanley Cup Playoffs.
At first glance this may look like a terrible first round draw for the Predators considering they lost 3-0 in the season series while being outscored 13-6. But it also feels like these teams, especially the Predators, are very different since their last meeting in December.
Its the first trip to the playoffs for the Canucks since 2020 when they lost in the second round. It's also just their second playoff appearance since 2015.
And for the Predators, they had a string of eight-straight playoff appearances snapped last season, but Head Coach Andrew Brunette took over and surprisingly got the Predators back into the dance.
The Predators and Canucks have met only one other time in the playoffs, a 2011 Conference Semi-Finals meeting that went six games with Pekka Rinne in net.
The @Canucks and @PredsNHL will go head-to-head in the 2024 First Round - an opening-round matchup confirmed by the Stars clinching first place in the Western Conference standings.#NHLStats: https://t.co/5AoUnAvfbG pic.twitter.com/YG6a4pobAj
— NHL Public Relations (@PR_NHL) April 18, 2024
It's picking your poison on who you would rather face in the first round because it's the Stanley Cup Playoffs. There are no "easy" opponents. All of them are dangerous and can get hot at the right time and end up hoisting the Stanley Cup. But if we're talking about just the "better" draw for the Predators, the Canucks were the most favorable they could've asked for.
Let's see who I think has the edge in these four key categories for Predators at Canucks. Game 1 is 10 PM ET on Sunday at Vancouver.