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Baby Preds / Team USA Both Have Rough Weekends

September 19, 2016, 7:58 AM ET [0 Comments]
Paul McCann
Nashville Predators Blogger •Predators Radio Network • RSSArchiveCONTACT

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Well… at least the Titans managed to pull off a win. The Baby Preds have run into trouble in Florida and Team USA was a disaster area in their respective debuts over the weekend. Let’s start with Team USA who didn't show up and was almost run out of the building in the World Cup of Hockey lid lifter on Saturday afternoon to an under-manned Team Europe 3-0.

Give Europe its props, Jaroslav Halak was a wall and the Europeans used their speed to full advantage in the win. USA Hockey better hope that this team doesn’t have to play Team North America or they might as well not show up as this team was not constructed to handle speed, but seems to be specifically built to match up with Team Canada. Dean Lombardi and John Tortorella better hope so as they now face a must win situation tomorrow night against the very team they were built to beat. Team USA loses and their tournament, for all intents and purposes, is over.

You look at the lineup and find that if you stop Patrick Kane’s line, you then wonder where the offense will come from because grit doesn’t score you any goals. The power play has been completely ineffective, and the frustration level is high after being stoned Saturday.

Face off against Canada is 7pm CDT tomorrow, coverage on (this is not a typo) ESPN.

Turning to the Baby Preds, their trip to Florida has gone south faster than a snowbird in December, dropping their first game 6-3 to Florida’s rookies and their second 4-1 to Tampa’s. Highlights were few and far between in the first two games, but improvement was noted between game one and two, especially from Kevin Fiala and Vladislav Kamenev.

The rookies don't have a game today, they take on Washington tomorrow to close out the tournament. The games are streaming on the Florida Panther’s You Tube channel.

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Random Notes

- Countdown to hockey… 12 days to Preds first home preseason game… 25 days to Predators season opener.

- The Preds have gotten goals from Trevor Murphy, Kevin Fiala, Tylor Spink and Anthony Richard so far in the Florida tourney.

- Today is the Annual Peterson For Parkinsons/Nashville Predators Foundation Golf Tournament. Petey’s Preds Party is tomorrow at Bridgestone Arena.

- The CGI Boards during the World Cup are kinda distracting. Maybe if they were a bit more static vs some of the movement on the ads…

- The Predators so far have been held off the scoresheet in the World Cup. Pekka Rinne got little support and made 39 saves on 43 SOG as Team North America destroyed Finland 4-1. Filip Forsberg and Mattias Ekholm were solid in Sweden’s win over Russia.

- Today’s World Cup of Hockey schedule – 2pm faceoff - Europe vs. Czech Republic, coverage on ESPN2. 7pm faceoff – Russia vs. TNA, coverage on ESPN2.

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