The playoff roller coaster just continues to ride the hills and valleys, the only positive thing that can be taken from Saturday’s game one repeat is that the Predators always respond well after a loss. The record speaks for itself.
The interesting part of this series is that neither team has ever controlled it. Neither team has managed to put two wins in a row together. You could point to puck luck as the team who got the bounces seems to have gotten the wins. Perhaps it’s a function of how well these two teams are matched up… but… put all that aside and the fact is this… only one team HAS to win two straight to win this series.
Tonight’s game six in Winnipeg should be a doozy. History could be made tonight, this is rarefied air for the Jets, they have never won a second round series… not only in this iteration of the Jets… but in the last one as well. For Nashville… this is a chance to do what three of the last four Cup winners have done, come back from a 2-3 deficit in a series. It’s the kind of adversity that they did not face last season on their run to the Stanley Cup Final.
The key for tonight has to be staying focused on the right thing… one win. Don’t even think about game seven because without a win tonight, game seven doesn’t happen. Considering how unimportant home ice has been in this series as either team has only won a single home game so far, the location of game seven is rendered unimportant. All that matters for the next 18 hours or so is game six… tonight. The Predators are looking to do what the Jets did to them… Winnipeg repeated their game one in game five. They survived being dominated in the first period… caught a bounce… caught another… a bad penalty… another goal… game over. Nashville needs a repeat of game four.
The lineup questions will hound head coach Peter Laviolette as he has been heavily criticized in the media for his lineup choices after game five… almost as much as he was criticized before game four. A coach has got to go with his gut, and you wonder where it will take him today.
The other interesting stat to watch is ice time for the defensemen. Game five saw a few more minutes for the third D pair… probably a factor of the game being out of hand early in the third period, but I did like the pairing of Matt Irwin and Yannick Weber… Weber even chipping in a goal. I just wonder if it’s time to either get that third pair up to 12-15 minutes so it’s a little easier on the top four, who have looked gassed at times… or… perhaps, shake up the pairings a bit, spreading the four horsemen over all the pairings.
While Nashville dominated in the face off circle Saturday night, they had trouble keeping possession… 21 giveaways… the most since game two, and that one went double overtime. The Preds MUST be better with the puck, anything over 10 giveaways gives a decided advantage to the Jets.
The Vegas Golden Knights await the winner of this series… Game six has the potential to be epic… it is also going to be a late one so brew up the coffee as the puck won’t go down until around 8:45pm. Coverage on 102.5 the Game starts at 6pm with Preds Insiders, pregame takes over at 7:30pm. Game coverage starts at 8:30 on the Preds Radio Network and NBCSN.
A lot of pundits had this one going seven… let’s see if they are right.
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The Playoff Tracker … a daily update of the Stanley Cup Playoffs brought to you by Mark Lonsway - THE real estate professional for hockey fans!
Two are done... two can be done tonight as both finalists from last season face elimination.
Eastern Conference
Tampa Bay Lightning vs Boston Bruins – TBL wins 4-1 – Awaits winner of WSH/PIT
Washington Capitals vs. Pittsburgh Penguins – WSH leads 3-2 - Game six is tonight in PIT
Western Conference
Nashville Predators vs. Winnipeg Jets – WPG leads 3-2 - Game six is tonight in WPG
Vegas Golden Knights vs. San Jose Sharks – VGK wins 4-2 – Awaits winner of NSH/WPG
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Random Notes
- Thank you to the gang at Hockey Night in Canada, they covered the opening lineups of Saturday’s game five… you can see it if you have NHL.TV and watch the away feed. What an honor to be on HNIC!
- The Black Aces are short four players as the Preds reassigned Brandon Bollig, Emil Pettersson, Tyler Gaudet and Frederic Allard back to Milwaukee.
- Congratulations to Preds GM David Poile who was inducted into the Washington DC Sports Hall of Fame over the weekend in recognition of his 15 years as GM of the Washington Capitals.
- My lord… can we please stop with the “PK Guarantees” headlines… the word didn’t come out of the man’s mouth… he said and I quote… "We're going to wake up in the morning, and that page is going to be turned. We're gonna go to Winnipeg. We're gonna win a game. We're going to come back here. It's that simple." What do you expect the man to say? “we’re screwed, we can’t win and we will come home losers” Get a grip…
- The Vegas train keeps on rolling… they are in the conference final and waiting for the winner of the Preds/Jets battle…
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