The Nashville Predators put on a defensive show as not only Pekka Rinne but the entire defense shutdown and shutout the high powered Chicago Blackhawks offense. 13,585 watched at the Sommet Center as the Predators put up their 2nd victory in as many nights with a 2-0 win over the Hawks.
Felder’s FANTASTIC Five:
1. The ImPEKKAble Rinne Returns - Some nights you just see everything coming your way. Tonight was one of those nights for Peks. A great game by the Preds netminder that saw the same brilliance of last season return. Head to the Goalie Grade section and Quotes for more about Rinne's perfect performance.
2. Bringing The Scoring From the Depth - For the second night in a row the game winner goes to a Preds player you won't find on a top line anywhere. Tonight, the hard working Joel Ward was rewarded for his battles in the crease, and to seal the game, Jerred Smithson scores a shorthanded goal once again. Maybe the biggest difference now from the losing streak is that the Preds are getting scoring from places other than the top line. I preached about that before the season and during the rough start. Validation is nice and I'm hoping the Preds have learnt their lesson.
3. The Man Advantage is Getting A Bit Better - Yet another night in which the man advantage scores. Now, the positive side of this is that this unit is making improvements and more importantly getting shots on goal. The negative side is that in this game they relied on the PP to win. Of the 28 Predator shots on goal, 18 came on the man advantage. The final stats of the night for this unit were 1 goal on 6 opportunities with 10:31 of Power Play Time.
4. Defensive Lock Down - While Rinne clearly saw all the shots he faced, it should be noted that the Preds D-men put in some solid work to stifle the flying Chicago O. 17 blocked shots certainly stand out with Dan Hamhuis and Ryan Suter both totaling team high 3 blocked shots apiece. Also, the lane management and awareness of back door plays was much better than I had seen in previous games.
5. Making Your Presence Felt - I really enjoyed watching the physical nature of tonight's game. Maybe the highlight of the game for me was watching Shea Weber tattoo Hawks in the Preds defensive zone. He must be a force to play against on the ice because he looks like a beast from up where I am sitting. Overall, the Preds logged 21 hits in this game compared to Chicago's 15. There were some highlight reel hits from both sides and in low scoring games it can be real fun to watch those hits fly.
Other Notes:
* Tonight’s scratches were Martin Erat and Alexander Sulzer. Arnott and Tootoo remain on IR. Erat was scratched due to a "lower body" injury he sustained last night. That said, I've been told it was really due to poor effort, but Barry Trotz held firm to the lower body report in his post-game presser… even if he did seem uncomfortable answering those questions. I've also been told that Erat was seen limping a bit after the game so we have conflicting reports. You decide for yourself why you think he was scratched.
* 1ST PERIOD
* 16:27 to go and Sully feeds Dumont a nice pass just barely onside. Dumont gets a mini breakaway, dekes, and tries to beat Huet on the backhand. No goal but a nice early chance created by the vets.
* 2:04 to go and the Preds will get 37 seconds of 5 on 3. Barry Trotz holds these moments as true test of who will win and lose each game. Niklas Hjalmarsson (say that just two times fast) and Dave Bolland are in the box for tripping and slashing penalties respectively.
* END OF THE 1ST PERIOD – NSH: 0 CHI: 0Positives - Some solid D from the Preds. They did lead the shots on goal 10-6. Playing disciplined. Negatives - Didn't cash in on the man advantages or 5 on 3, so it's back to below double digits for that unit. Won 42% of faceoffs.
* 2ND PERIOD
* 6:10 to go and the Preds finally register a shot on goal this period. It did take a man advantage to achieve this however. That's some strong D by the Blackhawks and some inept offense by Nashville.
* POWER PLAY GOAL for NASHVILLE - 5:07 to go. Joel Ward puts a tip-in goal past Huet on the open glove side. Francis Bouillon took the puck along the boards deep and made a really nice tape to tape pass through the crease to set up Wardo for his first goal of the season. Nice to see a plan come to fruition on that as Ward did a nice job of camping in the crease. Ward (1) from Bouillon (1) and Dumont (6). Preds now take a 1-0 lead.
* END OF THE 2ND PERIOD – NSH: CHI:Positives - A man advantage goal thanks to the hard working Cube and Wardo. Really solid goaltending from Rinne thus far. PK is playing very well. Negatives - 5 shots on goal that period.
* 3RD PERIOD
* 11:03 to go and Rinne comes up big again. What a night he is having. Preds would easily be done in this one without a stellar effort from Peks.
* 1:47 to go and Hornqvist gets called for goaltender interference. Looking at the replay, I'd have to say that Huet could've been called for diving to be honest. Duncan Keith slightly pushed Hornqvist into Huet, and then Hornqvist slightly ran into the goalie. ALl in all, the fans had every right to be upset by that call. The Blackhawks also used their timeout here with a 6 on 4 coming up at the faceoff.
* SHORTHANDED EMPTY NET GOAL for NASHVILLE - 3.9 seconds to go. Smithers does it again. This time he seals the Preds win by taking the loose puck at the blueline, slowing and measuring his shot, and then icing the cake. That's goal #3 for Smithers this year.
* FINAL SCORE – NSH - 2 CHI - 0.
My Three Stars:
1. Pekka Rinne - Stopped all 22 shots that went his way. Made a handful of outstanding saves to keep the Preds in this game.
2. Joel Ward - 1 goal, 2 shots on goal, 1 hit, 1 takeaway, 2 blocked shots, and won the only faceoff he took.
3. Cristobal Huet - 26 saves on 27 shots against. Kept this game close multiple times when the Preds applied sustained pressure.
Goalie Grade:A+ – The starting goaltender tonight was Pekka Rinne. When he's ImPekkable he can't be beat. Excellent game for Rinne as we saw him return to last seasons form.
Quotes:
Brandon Felder - "It was certainly a good 24 hours for you and the team."
Jerred Smithson - "Yeah.., the team, that's what it's about right now. We've kind of struggled to this point the last couple of games. We had some good efforts here. Back to back games are always hard but I thought the boys played with some good energy and capitalized when we needed to."
Felder - "Talk about the penalty kill unit tonight. You faced a tough task with the Hawks PP unit."
Smithson - "Yeah, they're dangerous. Our plan all year is to keep them (shifts) short and to rotate. We got some great penalty killers but tonight it seemed like they really hemmed us in there pretty good. It was a great job there by Pekka and the D-men. Some great blocks by Joel Ward and some of the boys. You know all you can do is try to make them make the hardest play and I thought we did a pretty good job of that tonight."
Felder - "On your goal you really measured that one up to make sure didn't you?"
Smithson - "Well yeah, it was kinda rolling there through the neutral zone and I knew I had a little bit of time, but I didn't know how much time was left on the clock. So I just tried to settle it down and make sure I hit the middle of the net."
*
Felder - "Do you feel like you were just seeing the puck better these past nights? Is it just one of those zones goalies get in?"
Pekka Rinne - "Yeah I think so. Those are the confidence things and when you feel more confident you see the puck, have more patience, you don't go down so fast and the game slows down kind of. It's easier to see the puck and follow the puck then."
Felder - "Talk about the final minutes there and the great work by the penalty killers and yourself."
Rinne - "Oh great work, yeah. They had a few chances but I didn't think they had too many shots on goal. They always try those back door plays and they didn't really shoot the puck. Our guys did a really good job of taking their sticks away and just letting me see the puck and the passes. That helped because when I see the passes I can get there in time (to make the save)."
*
Felder - "Do you feel like you are finally back to the playing form you had before your injury earlier this season?"
Joel Ward - "Yeah I think so. I tried to keep it simple from the start, just trying to do my things; getting puck battles, making plays, trying to block shots, and kill penalties. I think once I just keep working hard the offensive side will come. I think for the first little bit I was a little rusty out there but again I think if I just stick to my game plan the offensive things will start to come."
Felder - "Barry always talks about the crease being the dirty area. Talk about the dangers of trying to camp out there."
Ward - "It's definitely a tough area, especially in front. You know your going to get a few whacks but you got to pay the price especially in this league to score. I know myself and a few others are not going to score the prettiest goals so the only way to get the puck past the goalie is to go to the front of the net and look for rebounds and make things happen. I was fortunate to get one tonight."
*
Felder - "The penalty killing unit seems to be finding it's stride finally."
Barry Trotz - "Well, yeah, I think we are getting settled in there a little bit. Guys are starting to get used to it. We didn't kill a lot of penalties early and then they started hitting on almost every one and got us on our heels a little bit. We are starting to get a little bit of a mojo there hopefully. It's a lot of guys and a lot of effort and a lot of blocked shots and those are the things you have to do."
Felder - "Would maybe one of the biggest difference between the previous games and now winning the last 3 out of 4 be you are getting some depth scoring from guys you don't usually count on?"
Trotz - "Yeah. Well it's a couple of things. Power play we are getting some production there. Last night Santorelli gets a goal, tonight it's Smithson and he had a goal last night. When you are getting it from a little more unlikely sources that helps, especially when right now the games are tight. Every night I don't think there is a lot of scoring, but we have to play a hard working game and get some power play goals and crash the net and do the things that we are doing."
Final Thoughts:
This was the first quality win of the season for the Preds in my books. They beat a team that made the playoffs last year. The cherry on top was the outstanding goaltending performance. There isn't much to complain about in this one, and the complaining I could do I'll save for another night.
The Predators next game is Saturday night at home vs the Dallas Stars. Normal faceoff time of 7 pm CST. One interesting note to pass along about that night is this from the Preds themselves:
"Halloween in Smashville
Ghouls, ghosts and Terry Crisp look-a-likes will
TAKE OVER Smashville for the October 31st game against the Dallas Stars. Dress in your favorite costume or like our very own Terry Crisp for a chance to win a prize in our 107.5 The River Costume Contest! Plus, kids can trick-or treat on the Sommet Center concourse during pre-game."
A Terry Crisp look-a-like contest? That you can't miss. But, I will be missing it as my childhood love is coming to town this Saturday night. It's not every day I get to see a Georgia Tech football game in person, but this Halloween night I'm hoping to see a bunch of Ramblin Wreck touchdown treats as they face Vandy.
So until next time, have a Happy Halloween and take care.
Questions, comments, and criticisms can be sent to [email protected] if you wish to contact me personally.
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