Vancouver Canucks F Markus Granlund Opens Scoring vs. Preds

The Vancouver Canucks needed a good start to this road trip, and Markus Granlund supplied it by giving them an early lead against Nashville.

Everyone agrees: this road trip will make or break the Vancouver Canucks playoff hopes.

With that kind of pressure, it was important to get to a good start against the Nashville Predators. Instead, the were outshot 5-0 in the first few minutes.

Luckily for them, their first shot of the game turned out to be a goal. The goal-scorer, Markus Granlund, is the Canucks Player of the Game:

Markus Granlund

C, Vancouver Canucks

Granlund managed to get his team on the board first with a goal off a scrambled faceoff:

One shot, one goal. Efficient! pic.twitter.com/5oNd3Xt6bG

— Vancouver Canucks (@Canucks) February 8, 2017

That’s the Finnish forward’s 13th goal, which ties him for third on the team in that category. Granlund took four shots in total, second only to Loui Eriksson.

He also finished fourth among Vancouver skaters with a corsi-for of 66-percent. Only Ben Hutton, Daniel Sedin and Henrik Sedin had better shot attempt numbers tonight.

Unfortunately, Granlund’s impressive showing was not enough to propel his team to victory. He and the Vancouver Canucks will try to secure their seventh road win on Thursday in Columbus.