Canucks vs. Predators: Artūrs Šilovs knows to just be ready

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For all the hoopla surrounding Artūrs Šilovs’ pedigree — guiding his country to its best-ever finish at the world championships last year — and for his cool-as-a-cucumber demeanour — Canucks coach Rick Tocchet said he barely knows the goalie, he’s so quiet — the 23-year-old Latvian is rooted in self-awareness.

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“I don’t try to overthink because I think it mess with everything,” Silovs told Postmedia News recently.

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Don’t get ahead of yourself. Don’t ascribe too much big-picture meaning to any one opportunity.

“You don’t want to think too far in the future. Like, the future is gonna come and then you’re just like take it day by day, day, day, day. And then when the time has come, then you’re like ready if you don’t overthink.”

Just be ready to play. That’s all.

The opponent doesn’t really matter to him. He obviously takes note of who the opposition’s best shooters are, but the focus is on himself. On what he can do.

One game you could be playing a wayward, out-of-the-playoffs squad in Anaheim or Arizona, the next you could be facing off against a playoff-bound squad like Vegas.

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Or heck, a team that’s literally in the playoffs, like the Nashville Predators.

Deep, deep down inside, you can imagine that he felt a burst of excitement on Saturday evening, after Tocchet told him that Casey DeSmith wouldn’t be able to play in Sunday’s Game 4 in Nashville, that the crease was his.

But he’s played in big games before. There was no nervousness, no real hint of emotion one way or another, Tocchet said of Šilovs’ reaction.

“He’s been there before,” Tocchet noted.

He wasn’t surprised that the 23-year-old was so calm about it all. He was a star for Latvia at the worlds after all.

“He had the whole country on his back.”

Šilovs does know that his just-be-ready mantra serves a bigger purpose. He wants to be in the NHL. He wants to be with the team that drafted him.

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But he also knows that teams are watching, always watching.

There are lots of goalies who look like they’ve NHL quality, but it’s the goalies who have a little more to them than just technique that thrive. Teams are looking for goalies who are going to be ready when crunch time hits.

“Look at Adin Hill last year,” Šilovs said. “He was in San Jose. A team having a tough season. But then he went to Vegas. And they won the Cup.

“He was ready.”

Tocchet said Šilovs stepping in and knowing all this is a testament to the importance that the organization has placed on goaltending. There’s a long stream of goaltenders that director of goaltending Ian Clark has helped deliver to Vancouver.

“You got to give credit to the organization, Ian Clark and staff, having guys ready to go,” the coach said.

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Conor Garland saw Šilovs first-hand at his best last year: Garland played for the U.S. at the worlds and faced Šilovs and the Latvians in the bronze-medal game in Riga, which the hosts won 4-3.

“He killed us,” Garland recalled Monday. “I saw how talented he was. How agile. He’s an athlete. You see it when he’s in the net and he just competes. It’s fun to play for him.

“Guy’s a gamer,” he added. “He’s calm. Couldn’t even tell it was his first (playoff) game.”

He was ready, as always.

After Sunday’s performance, Tocchet could only grin about his goalie revealing himself a little.

“You heard him: He said he was ready to shine. You know, that was kind of fun to hear him say that.”

HOUR BY HOUR: Tocchet said DeSmith suffered his undisclosed injury at some point during Friday’s Game 3 in Nashville. DeSmith practised on Saturday, so it was a surprise that he wasn’t able to play Sunday. Tocchet said DeSmith was an hour-to-hour thing and wasn’t sure if he would be able to play Tuesday for Game 5. He also wouldn’t commit to DeSmith as his starter if the goalie does become healthy enough to play. The only thing he did say with conviction was that he doesn’t want to have to force Nikita Tolopilo, the team’s No. 4 goalie, in to action. “Trust me, I don’t want to put him in,” he joked.

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