VANCOUVER — When Elias Lindholm scored just over a minute into overtime in Game 4 to seal the victory for the Vancouver Canucks, there were emphatic celebrations at both ends of the ice.
Arturs Silovs, the Canucks’ third-string goalie playing his first career playoff game, was swarmed with just as many teammates as Lindholm on Sunday afternoon in Nashville — and for good reason. He made 27 of 30 stops to help the Canucks steal a win in a game that, perhaps, they didn’t deserve, but the shot count only tells part of the story.
If Silovs was nervous about being thrust into arguably the most high-stakes game of his National Hockey League career as backup-turned-starter Casey DeSmith recovers from a minor injury, you wouldn’t have known. He looked exactly like the calm, cool and collected netminder who helped Latvia to their first-ever medal at the 2023 IIHF World Hockey Championship. The 23-year-old weathered the second- and third-period storm when the Nashville Predators out-shot the Canucks 10-6 and 11-6.
Put into an unbelievable situation, Silovs came out unscathed. But if you ask his coach and teammates, none of this should come as a surprise.
“He’s a gamer,” Canucks forward Conor Garland said. “He’s calm, you couldn’t even tell it was his first game. Really excited for him, played well. I saw him this summer, he killed us at Worlds. I saw how talented he was, how agile. He’s an athlete — you see it when he’s in net, he just competes. He’s fun to play for.”
Silovs was informed he would be starting the pivotal Game 4 on Saturday when the Canucks decided to be extra cautious dealing with a minor injury to DeSmith. In the regular season, Silovs started just four games for the Canucks and had three wins under his belt.
No matter, though, for the young Latvian goaltender, who told head coach Rick Tocchet that he was “ready to shine” in Game 4.
“He’s a quiet kid, but he’s got some swagger to him,” Tocchet said. “He’s just ready.”
It’s a strange situation for the Canucks between the pipes, having started three different goaltenders across four games in the series. They’ve all found success, though, and the bench boss attributes that to a “next man up” mentality the team has shown throughout the season.
“It’s bizarre, but, you know, when we were going with Arty, and the guys heard it… I don’t see anybody walking away going ‘Oh my god, what’s going on around here?’” Tocchet said of the Canucks’ goaltending situation. “I just think, OK. Let’s go.
“[GM Patrik Allvin’s] big thing, when I signed here, he has a big ‘next man up’ mentality. That’s one of his big mantras. He doesn’t want to hear, ‘Oh poor us’. He hates that. When we told him we were going with Arty, he was like ‘OK. Where are we going for dinner?’ When your general manager says that to your coach, it really gives you confidence.”
There was a time in the not-so-distant past when an injury to Thatcher Demko and a reliance on backup and third-string goaltenders to win games would have effectively been a death sentence for the Canucks. Tocchet, however, in one of the many ways he’s completely turned the team around this season, has instilled such a solid defensive system that they don’t need to rely on a Vezina Trophy-calibre performance from their goalie to get a win.
In fact, their game plan doesn’t really change, regardless if it’s Demko, DeSmith or Silovs between the pipes.
“It goes to show that we’re going to have success when we fall back on our system,” defenceman Tyler Myers said. “Our team defence has been good. Definitely always things to look at that we can get better at, but we’ve had great goaltending from three different guys and when you combine that with the way we’re playing within our system, good things tend to happen.”
“We’ve defended really well all year,” Garland added. “I think when we were scoring goals at such a high rate at the start of the year, maybe our defence got overlooked. And then when the goals dried up, we were still winning games, we could see how good our D was.”
The Canucks haven’t necessarily needed their goaltenders to put on extraordinary performances, but they’ve got them anyways.
“It’s a good sign of a good team when you can roll deep like that and every guy comes in and competes,” said Garland.
“They’e earned it.”
Tocchet wouldn’t confirm who would start Game 5, but after his performance on Saturday, Silovs may have also earned the opportunity to backstop the Canucks to their first playoff series victory on home ice since 2011.
