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Game Night in the Desert - Game Two

April 29, 2012, 12:41 PM ET [172 Comments]
Paul McCann
Nashville Predators Blogger •Predators Radio Network • RSSArchiveCONTACT
It’s a Game Night in the desert as the Nashville Predators look to gain a split in the first two games of the Western Conference Semi-Finals against the Phoenix Coyotes a t Jobing.com Arena. The role reversal that the Predators are in is evident. They sounded a lot like the Red Wings going into game four in the WCQF’s. Little things to fix… bury their chances… played a good game but every early mistake ended up in the opponents net.

Sound familiar?

In my mind, there are three keys to coming home with a split. Allow me to use a few f-words…

Fast – It is important that the Predators get off to a fast start, no layoff to impact the game tonight. It does seem that the first goal continues to be a huge advantage. Fast also refers to team speed, an advantage that needs to be better leveraged.

Faceoffs – Especially early in the game… Phoenix dominated in the faceoff circle in the first two periods on Friday night. Puck possession is huge to both of these teams and Nashville needs a more equitable division of zone time to win this game.

Finish – Opportunities were there on Friday night, and the Predators did finish on three of them. That seemed to be lost in the postgame analysis, some even saying that the Predators needed to shoot more. I have a hard time advocating more shots when they launched 40+ on net, not including blocks. However, there were more finishing opportunities that could’ve been taken advantage of throughout the game.

Fast, faceoff, finish… those three f-words will keep Pred Nation from using other unprintable f-words during tonight’s game. This crucial game two gets going at 7pm on NBC Sports Network, you can catch the local broadcast with the Voice of the Predators Pete Weber and three time Stanley Cup winner Terry Crisp on the Predators Radio Network flagship, 102.5 the Game. Pregame, live from Phoenix, with Willy Daunic and Tom Callahan gets going at 6pm.

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Ron’s Diabetic Assist Dog Update

As 11am this morning, pledges stand at $4,200. You guys are really doing great on this, we are 53% to goal… please keep spreading the word. Social media is driving this effort, and the generosity has been amazing!

Click on the link to contribute.

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Playoff Look

East
NYR vs. WSH – Rangers lead 1-0 - Next game is Monday
PHI vs. NJD – Series starts today

West
STL vs. LAK – Kings lead 1-0 – Next game is Monday
PHX vs. NSH – Coyotes lead 1-0 – Next game is tonight

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Random Notes…

- If it’s the playoffs… count on another article from the Tennessean trying to drag down the excitement being generated by this team. The front page of today’s paper has another misleading, deliberately timed story on the finances of the Predators. Does anyone else wonder why you see the same story at the same time from the same sources every playoff season?

- Does anyone else find it interesting how the one member of the Sports Authority quoted in the above mentioned article is the one member who barely deems it necessary to show up at the meetings? Check the attendance records… and make sure you go back a couple of years to get the complete picture.

- One more question about this… did you notice the opinion focus of the paper has shifted? Now it is about “profit” and not if the team will survive, they know it will, now they shift the spin to profit to serve the agenda of the same tired agenda-driven sources they quote.

- One more series gets going, Philadelphia and New Jersey drop it at 2pm on NBC.

- Big props to the Kings last night, coming into the very unfriendly confines of the Scottrade Center and coming away with a win. They would be wise to keep in mind that San Jose did the same…

- The Rangers delivered a workmanlike win yesterday as well. Not much flash, just good ole fashioned hard work. John Tortorella’s influence on this team is very evident in this playoff run.

- If you haven’t done it yet, you do need to check out the Puck Daddy Eulogies for teams that went down in the first round… warning… these are written like a roast and will offend.

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On the next SlapShot Radio

Our latest podcast is posted… due to scheduling of the round two series we will not have a show this coming Wednesday.

Click here to download or listen to our current or previous podcasts.

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