It’s official. The Vancouver Canucks will take on the Nashville Predators in the first round of the 2024 Stanley Cup Playoffs.
The Canucks can no longer catch the Dallas Stars in the Western Conference standings after Dallas defeated the St. Louis Blues in a shootout on Wednesday.
As the lower-seeded Western Conference division champion, the Canucks will take on the first wild card team to open the playoffs — in this case, Nashville.
The Canucks and Predators are expected to kick off their Western Conference quarterfinal playoff series on Sunday, April 21. The first two games of the series will be held at Rogers Arena in Vancouver.
The Canucks will wrap up their 2023–24 regular season slate of games when they take on the Winnipeg Jets at Canada Life Centre in Winnipeg on Thursday at 5:00 p.m. PT.
Nashville and Vancouver met in the playoffs for the first (and, to this point, only) time back in 2011, with the Canucks defeating the Predators in six games to advance to the Western Conference Final. Vancouver ultimately made it all the way to that year’s Stanley Cup Final, falling to the Boston Bruins in seven games.
The Predators won the 2023–24 season series against the Canucks two games to one. All three games between the two teams went to shootouts, with the Canucks winning the final game by a 4-3 score in Vancouver on March 6.
Led by the core of Quinn Hughes, Elias Pettersson, Thatcher Demko, Brock Boeser, and J.T. Miller, the Canucks have become one of the best stories in the NHL this season. They’re currently at 50-22-9 through 81 games and have won their first Pacific Division championship since 2013.
The Predators have been similarly surprising after selling off much of their core prior to this season. Led by franchise cornerstones Filip Forsberg and Roman Josi, plus standout showings from newcomers Gustav Nyquist and Ryan O’Reilly, the Predators surged into a playoff spot down the stretch and should be a tough out in the first round.
The Canucks added Elias Lindholm and Nikita Zadorov during the season in anticipation of a potential playoff run. Nashville acquired Jason Zucker and Anthony Beauvillier ahead of the deadline while also sending Yakov Trenin to the Colorado Avalanche.
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