The Vancouver Canucks finally know who they will be facing in the first round of the 2024 Playoffs. With the Dallas Stars winning 2-1 in a shootout over the St. Louis Blues on Wednesday, they avoid the boring Los Angeles Kings and defending Stanley Cup champion Vegas Golden Knights and will draw the Nashville Predators when their long-awaited return to the postseason begins tonight. Here are three burning questions heading into their first meeting with the Preds since the 2011 Playoffs when Ryan Kesler was a one-man wrecking crew with five goals and 11 points.
Who Will Be This Year’s Ryan Kesler?
During the 2011 Playoffs, Kesler caught fire against the Predators and was a monster in almost every game with two multi-goal efforts and four multipoint games over Games 3, 4, 5 and 6. He was unstoppable as the Predators didn’t know how to shut down the 41-goal scorer from the regular season. The rest of the roster was a bit snakebitten over the series, but Kesler put the team on his back and led them to a six-game victory.
Related: 2024 Stanley Cup Playoffs Round 1 Hub
Kesler still follows the Canucks and is invested in how this series and playoff run goes. In a recent interview, he identified JT Miller as a player that could follow in his footsteps and dominate the Predators like he did almost 15 years ago.
“I know I’m compared a lot to JT Miller and even though I think he’s a better player than I was, he’s going to be a big piece to the puzzle. You know, they’re going to need him to be at the top of his game…”
Miller has many of the same qualities as Kesler: they both wear their emotions on their sleeves, can play a finesse and power forward style – sometimes on the same shift – and win face-offs with aplomb. I wouldn’t be surprised if he did the same thing in this series and be a reason why the Canucks make it to the second round for the first time since 2011.
Kesler also highlighted Conor Garland as someone that could make a difference against the Predators. He and his linemates Dakota Joshua and Elias Lindholm will be key in this series as they will likely go against the Preds’ top trio of Filip Forsberg, Gustav Nyquist and Ryan O’Reilly. Garland has shown his competitive spirit and worker bee mentality all season long as he scored 20 goals for the first time in a Canucks uniform and was as consistent as they come game in and game out. He and Joshua could also be…
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