It is a critical game four tonight in Chicago as the Nashville Predators attempt to tie their first round series with the Blackhawks and wrest home ice advantage from the Hawks back to Music City. A win tonight makes the series a three game dash with the Predators hosting two of them inside the friendly confines of Bridgestone Arena. The time is now for the Predators who should be in desperation mode tonight.
Scott Darling will be in net for the Blackhawks again, the owner of a stellar .975 save percentage and a 0.94 goals against. The former Milwaukee Admiral has come out of nowhere to be a dominant force in this series, displacing a former Stanley Cup winner and the starter for the Hawks, Corey Crawford and almost single handedly giving Chicago a 2-1 lead in the series. Darling has played Nashville three times so far this season and won all three and has looked almost unbeatable. Is this a netminder that has gotten inside the Preds heads? Maybe...
The hell of this series is that the Predators have played well… Not many bounces or calls have gone their way, but they have played well and these things tend to even out as a series progresses. The Preds need to continue to do what they have been doing, outshooting the Hawks and winning faceoffs. They are solidly winning these measures. What else do they need to do? Get more traffic in front of Darling, he’s a big goalie, which makes it a little more difficult to obstruct his vision. The other thing, keep lifting the puck. Darling has been really solid on low shots, but has been beaten high.
Nashville is winning this series 5 on 5, so staying out of the box will be a crucial factor if they are to tie this series tonight. Games 1 and 3 were won on the power play for Chicago, their skill level really shows on the man advantage. The Preds won game two on speed. Chicago wants to slow the game down a bit as they cannot match the Preds stride for stride. It is Nashville greatest advantage, which brings us to Nashville’s other advantage… experience in net.
If there is a time for Pekka Rinne to find his game and leverage his experience over Chicago’s starter, tonight is it. His ,898 save percentage and 2.91 GAA on the series are very un-Pekka-like. He has shown flashes of the Rinne Pred Nation is used to seeing, now it’s time to put one together for the entire 60 if this team is to come back home tied.
Game time is 8:30pm CDT. Coverage on Fox Sports Tennessee, 102.5 the Game and the Predators Radio Network.
Here’s the preview of tonight’s game from nhl.com
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Random Notes
- Mike Fisher skated and took some shooting practice yesterday with the team, then skated more after practice with Strength and Conditioning Coach David Good, no word on his status tonight.
- Several players took “maintenance days” yesterday including Mike Ribeiro and Viktor Stalberg.
- Craig Smith has been on fire for the last two games, posting multi-point efforts in both and taking over the team playoff scoring lead and tying the league scoring lead with CHI’s Jonathan Toews.
- Pred Nation is hoping this series doesn't turn out like the Detroit series in 2008 when the Preds chased Dominik Hasek only to be beaten in the last few games and the series by Chris Osgood.
- The MTS Centre was nuts last night… Winnipeg welcomed playoff hockey back in style, too bad the Ducks ruined the party with an overtime win to take a 3-0 lead in the series.
- Dustin Byfuglien strikes again… a completely idiotic hit on Corey Perry after a goal… someone just doesn’t get it, another stupid head shot? Time to throw the book at him.
- The Winnipeg Jets are now 0-7 in playoff games and appear to be shaking apart. Anaheim is way too much for them and now has the chance to sweep them out and continue the playoff futility for this franchise.
- The Pittsburgh situation is growing weirder with a columnist inserting himself in the controversy. Usually this stuff happens after a series loss, not during a series where the Pens are doing better than anyone ever expected. Maybe the columnist should keep what happened to himself, it might be a better show of professionalism.
- Minnesota took a 2-1 lead of St. Louis last night on the strength of Devan Dubnyk’s first playoff shutout. Dubnyk has turned into a rock star and the Blues may be in real trouble.
- I bet Todd McLellan’s phone has been blowing up… nothing like not addressing the problem in San Jose because I will bet a paycheck that it wasn’t behind the bench.
- Tomorrow night has the first two potential series clinchers…
- I continue to wonder if Alex Burrows has a picture of a high ranking NHL official in a compromising position…
Four games tonight with national coverage options…
- Tampa Bay @ Detroit – Series tied 1-1 – 6pm CDT faceoff – NBCSN, SN
- Washington @ New York Islanders – NYI leads 2-1 – 6:30pm CDT faceoff – USA Network, SN360
- Nashville @ Chicago – CHI leads 2-1 – 8:30pm CDT faceoff – NBCSN, SN
- Vancouver @ Calgary – CGY leads 2-1 – 9pm CDT faceoff – USA Network, CBC
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