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The Vancouver Canucks have travelled more than 3,000 kilometres for Game 3 of their first-round playoff series against the Nashville Predators.
The journey across North America has brought them to Music City, where they’ll want to steal at least one game after splitting the first two battles in Vancouver.
The Rogers Arena crowd was loud in their support of the Canucks during the first two games and now the team will need to embrace the opposite role as the series changes locations.
“Love it. I love getting booed,” Rick Tocchet said with a grin about being on the road yesterday. “Nashville has got great fans, they don’t throw stuff at you, but I do love the fact that sometimes it’s nice to be the villain. I think it brings out the best in certain guys so use it to your advantage.”
The Predators have gone on some deep playoff runs over recent years and their fans have a reputation for being rowdy. The team limited ticket sales to fans from out of town and has already set up the famous Smashville Canucks car, which will be destroyed over the coming days.
The #Canucks Smashville car is intact for now.
I’ll do a before and after once #Preds fans have their way with it. pic.twitter.com/EXTGSt4wXz
— Noah Strang (@noahstrang_) April 25, 2024
“I don’t know that you do anything different,” said forward Teddy Blueger about preparing for the Nashville crowd. “I mean, it’s going to be loud, they’re going to be on top of you, they’ve had some big playoff games here before.”
“We expect it to be rowdy and loud, it can be challenging at times but I think we kind of got to embrace that and stick together and do a good job supporting one another.”
The fact the Predators stole one game in Vancouver means that the Canucks no longer have home-ice advantage. They’ll need to win at least one on the road to win the series.
“No, not concerned at all,” said Tocchet about giving up that advantage. “I think it’s important that we’re a good road team. I think we’re very confident going on the road. We know how to travel well. It’s a long flight but we’re used to this. There’s a lot of things that we’re used to so just keep things normal around here and be ready for Game 3.”
Game 3 of this series takes place Friday at 4:30 pm PT. The Canucks won both of the regular season games played in Nashville this season.