Nashville Predators vs Vancouver Canucks

Vancouver may be up 3-1, but it's been a dogfight. Vancouver has a pair of one-goal wins, 2-1 and 4-3, while Nashville took Game 2, 4-1. Nashville's offense was 10th in goals scored, while the defense was 15th in goals allowed and 10th in save percentage (.907). Nashville is 29-20 on the road in the second half of the season, plus 27-15 when playing its third game in five days. Vancouver started the season hot but is just 16-15 over the last 31 contests. The Canucks are also 5-12 at home when leading in a playoff series. With Nashville 23-12 revenging a loss to an opponent, back the visitors. Play Nashville as a Max Play. 

Vancouver is up 2-1 in the series after taking Game 3 on the road, 2-1. Vancouver was 2-for-3 on the power play while killing off all five penalties it faced. They have great balance, ranked sixth during the regular season in goals scored (3.40 per game) and second in shooting percentage, while the defense was sixth in goals given up (2.70 per game), sixth in shots on goal allowed, and eighth in save percentage (.909). The Canucks are 28-13 after playing a road game. Nashville's offense was 16th in shooting percentage, while the defense was 15th in goals surrendered (3.02 per game), 23rd in shots on goal allowed, and 22nd in penalty killing. They're 3-9 at home after having lost two of three. Vancouver is 5-1 against Nashville this season outscoring them 20-13. Play Vancouver.  

The Zig-Zag Theory is in effect in this series, which is to bet on the team that lost the previous game. Vancouver won Game 1 4-2 and then lost 4-1 in Game 2. Juuse Saros had 17 saves and Casey DeSmith stopped 12 of 15 shots for the Canucks as neither team showed much on the offensive side. DeSmith will be in net again in Game 3 with a 2.88 goals-against average this season. The main factor on Tuesday was Nashville's skaters had 30 blocks. Vancouver has won four in a row after losing by at least three goals and it is 4-0 after a home loss of three or more goals. Nashville still is 1-8 its past nine first round games and 1-7 its past eight playoff games as a favorite of -110 to -150. Take the Canucks as a Max Play.

Nashville led 2-1 after two periods in Game 1, but Vancouver scored three times, including an empty-netter, and won 4-2 on Sunday. The Predators had a 22-21 edge in shots and Juuse Saros had 17 saves, but the Canucks scored two quick ones in the third period and that was the difference. Saros is 35-24-5 with a 2.86 goals-against average and will be in net again tonight and Nashville will have to keep up the pressure for the full 60 minutes after limiting the Canucks to just four shots in the first period on Sunday. The Predators are 7-1 their past eight games against Pacific Division opponents and the Canucks are 1-5 their past six games following a win. Vancouver has won just five of its past 11 games. The OVER is 7-1 in Nashville's past eight games versus the Western Conference and it is 9-1 OVER after scoring two or fewer goals its previous game. Seven of the past eight meetings have gone OVER. Take the Predators as my NHL Dog of the Month, and play this game to go OVER the total.