from Damien Cox at the Toronto Star,

Now, if there’s an NHL city in Canada that should be feeling nothing but gratitude toward its hockey team, it should be Vancouver. After missing the playoffs in seven of the previous eight seasons, and finishing sixth in the eight-team Pacific Division last season, the Canucks roared to a 50-win, 109-point campaign this year and won the division....'

• A good deal of uncertainty regarding No. 1 goalie Thatcher Demko, who missed much of the final part of the season, reappeared for Game 1 against Nashville and is now out again on a “week-to-week” basis with an undisclosed injury. Head coach Rick Tocchet said it was not a reoccurrence of the same injury.

• Unhappiness with the performance of star forward Elias Pettersson, who signed an eight-year, $92.8-million (U.S.) contract with the team last month but went pointless in the first two games against Nashville. Pettersson missed an open net in the dying seconds of the first period of Game 2, then later committed an awful turnover at his own blueline that led to Nashville’s third goal.

“I put us in a bad spot with my mistake on their third goal, that can’t happen. If I score in the first it’s a 1-1 game, different outlook,” Pettersson said afterwards. “I’m always my biggest critic and I take a lot of blame for this one.”

• Some rare mistakes by captain Quinn Hughes late in Game 2. Hughes took a late tripping penalty to slow what appeared to be a surging Canucks comeback attempt. Then, with the Vancouver net empty, Hughes was outskated and outmuscled by Preds winger Kiefer Sherwood along the boards, allowing Sherwood to ease the fourth Nashville goal into the unguarded Vancouver net.

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