Well… it appears Santa may have brought Pred Nation the present they were looking for. The return of the team that went 19-3-2 over November and the first couple of weeks of December… and maybe a little bonus… discipline! The Nashville Predators played the almost perfect road game last night in St. Louis, posting a 2-1 win that put the team back in the top spot of the Central Division, with games in hand over the two teams chasing them.
Credit where due, St. Louis came out on fire, peppering Pekka Rinne with 10 shots in the first team minutes before the rest of the Preds kinda woke up and decided to get in the game. Craig Smith’s tip in of a Roman Josi blast got the team going, the Predators got their defensive game together, limiting the Blues to 3 shots for the rest of the period and 17 for the last two periods.
Calle Jarnkrok tallied his 10th of the season about 16 minutes into the second for what would be the eventual game winner converting a sweet setup from Filip Forsberg. Rinne continued to slam the door on the Blues until Vladimir Sobotka made things interesting with about 6 minutes to go…
Check out the highlights….
The Preds take off for St. Paul today for Friday’s start of a home and home back-to-back with the Minnesota Wild.
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Random Notes
- Nice article in today’s Tennessean from Adam Vingan on Eeli Tolvanen and the potential for him to be in Nashville this season.
- The Preds only gave St. Louis two power play opportunities last night… maked improvement for the most penalized team in the league.
- One of the more solid games defensively from Nashville last night… limited giveaways and solid positioning.
- Eeli Watch – Eeli Tolvanen is participating in World Juniors, Team Finland is in action today, taking on Denmark.
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