SlapShot Radio’s photographer was out and about last night, snapping pictures of the color and the action from around Bridgestone Arena. Here are today’s Sunday Shots…
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From Nashville Predators vs Pittsburgh Penguins October 25, 2014

Courtesy DLM/SlapShot Radio See the whole album at SlapShot Radio .com

The power outage at Bridgestone Arena finally came back to bite the Nashville Predators. The lights may have stayed on, the ice may have stayed frozen, but the power play remains powerless. You can’t just blame the power play for last night’s 3-0 loss to the Pittsburgh Penguins… save a good sized bucket of blame for the penalty kill, and while you are at it, a another one for an undisciplined five minute time frame that put the game away for the Penguins in the third period.

Not the best way to head off on a six game road trip, but let’s face… no one is going 80-0-2 on a season, but the opening 5-0-2 run the Predators went on covered a few developmental opportunities on this team…

Power Play – The power play of converting at a 7.7% rate, good for 26th in the league. That 7.7% rate reflects two goals in 26 opportunities with one shorthanded goal surrendered. That is not the power play of serious playoff contenders. This is one of those “chemistry” issues that have been worked on in practice fairly consistently, but not showing the results of that hard work… yet.

Penalty Kill - The penalty kill was exposed by some exquisite talent last night, the Penguins power play is the NHL gold standard right now with 10 goals in 25 opportunities for a filthy 35.7% conversion rate. However, the Predators PK is killing off penalties at an anemic 76.9%, good for 24th in the league and unacceptable for a playoff contender in the West.

Discipline - This may be an early callout, but this team lost their discipline in the third period last night. That led to consecutive power play opportunities that the Penguins converted to take a 3-0 lead and effectively salted the game away. The Predators began the third period clearly frustrated and took the kind of penalties that a skilled team like Pittsburgh will kill you with. That is exactly what happened.

There is no panic button to be pushed here, there is simply work to be done… most of it on special teams,,, but to be fair, integrating a new system with plenty of new players is a dicey proposition. The chemistry is coming together 5 on 5 and it is not unusual to take a bit longer on for it to develop on special teams. The annual CMA road trip is just what the doctor ordered for this team… it always seems to be so at this point in the season. The team can concentrate solely on hockey, bond as a team with fewer distractions from everyday life at home.

The Predators are off today… practice tomorrow then hit the road for Edmonton for a Wednesday night showdown at a place that Nashville has traditionally struggled, no matter how the Oilers are doing.

And here are your highlights from last night…

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Random Notes

- You can see how “in demand” tickets for Predator games are becoming. Tickets on the secondary market were expensive for the second game in a row. Stub Hub had Pred tickets for last night’s game going for over $200 each. Not bad for a couple of October home games.

- Give the Predators credit, they certainly put on the customary third period push, but Marc-Andre Fluery was up to the challenge and earned his third star status.

- In his rather short post-game presser, head coach Peter Laviolette was clearly unhappy with the offensive zone penalties his team is taking.

- The baby Preds have started the season 6-0-0 after Milwaukee’s win over Lake Erie last night.

- Hats off to the Ottawa game ops crew… what an awesome tribute last night.

- And now the drama returns to San Jose… awful loss to Buffalo last night for the Sharks fourth consecutive loss… and the fans may be voting with their wallets… yesterday’s game snapped the Sharks sellout streak at 205 games.

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