That was the most common word used to describe last night’s 1-0 loss to the Vancouver Canucks in game one of the Western Conference Semi-Finals.
Embarrassing.
Watching Coach Barry Trotz’s body language on the bench, in his bench interview with Brian Engblom and in his post game presser, he was even tempered, but behind the calm exterior... he was flat out pissed.
I heard the terms “compete level” a lot. How it wasn’t there… I heard the word “passenger” to describe the forwards. I heard Trotz call out the forwards as a group, a lot.
Every word used was absolutely true. But don’t head for the exits yet… after all, it’s only game one. Given that the Predators failed miserably in their first semi-final test, their forwards looking like a termite team running around for the first two periods, they still had a chance to steal last night’s game. That can’t be comforting for the Vancouver side of things, and if I were head coach of the Canucks, I’d be using that for all it is worth in practice today.
A stinker like last night’s game usually has a result indicating a drubbing of epic proportions, oh, kinda like a 6-3 mess in round one. There were two reasons for the score being only 1-0… the Canucks lack of finishing, and Pekka Rinne. He was simply amazing last night. Welcome back Pekka, we missed you, can you take a look around for the rest of the team and see if you can get them to the rink on Saturday?
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A note to the Tennessean… really? You refer to last night’s crowd at Rodgers Arena as an “announced sellout?” Really??
You imply a question about the attendance last night? Really???
Did anyone over at 1100 Broadway even tune into the game for a second? Wow… Your journalistic integrity takes another hit.
The fact is, you simply do not represent Nashville or the state of Tennessee well… no wonder your “announced” circulation continues to drop. It’s not because of “announced” alternative news sources, or the “announced” death of the newspaper or any other “announced” reason you can come up with. It’s because you don’t announce facts without bias! You editorialize everywhere, and because you do that, your business is in jeopardy. Nashvillians are too smart to fall for it.
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Random Notes
- Clipping? What the??? Terrible call on a Keith Ballard last night… I’m surprised they didn’t penalize the Canucks 15 yards and an automatic first down.
- Start times for games three and four in Smashville are announced, Tuesday’s game starts at 8pm, Thursday’s at 7:30pm. I’ll be hosting plaza parties on both days… they get going three hours prior to puck drop.
- One thing to hold on to from last night was the third period. The Preds were able to get a little pressure and almost steal that game. It’s something to build on for game two.
- The lack of physicality was also an issue last night. Nashville set the tone in game one of the Anaheim series, that tone was not set last night.
- The goal of starting a series on the road is to gain a split… that goal is still in reach.
- Power plays were weak last night… despite ten total chances, each team went 0-5.
- So much for swallowing the whistles the deeper you go in the playoffs. Eric Furlatt and Marc Joannette were calling this game like one in October. Guys… let ‘em play!
- Tonight’s playoff schedule – Tampa Bay @ Washington – Game One, 6pm CDT (Versus, TSN), Detroit @ San Jose – Game One, 9pm CDT (Versus, TSN)
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COMING UP ON THE NEXT SLAPSHOT RADIO…
Our latest podcast is posted - We are previewed the conference semi-finals with the Puck Daddy, Greg Wyshynski, we talked to Eklund and had a blogger roundtable with Ryan Porth of Red Light District and Jeremy Gover of section303.com. It’s was a lively hour.
You can get check out our podcasts at
the SlapShot Radio podcast page.
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