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Game Two and the GBU

April 29, 2017, 9:59 AM ET [12 Comments]
Paul McCann
Nashville Predators Blogger •Predators Radio Network • RSSArchiveCONTACT
Now we have ourselves a series. The Nashville Predators dropped a 3-2 decision in game two of their second round series with the St. Louis Blues. Now it would be easy to say the Preds weren’t good enough… when you don’t win, you weren’t. It would also be easy to say that the Predators were undisciplined at times… they were. However, you can look at two key stats...

23 - 2 and 5 - 0.

The Nashville Predators were assessed 23 penalty minutes… the St. Louis Blues were assessed two penalty minutes. The Preds had zero… ZERO power play opportunities… The St. Louis Choirboys had five.

My lord… the Blues did absolutely nothing wrong last night except for a tiny little interference call. Nothing! A tape of this game needs to be made available to the entire league and every coaching staff as an example of a perfectly played, incredibly clean game from the soon to be eligible for sainthood, St. Louis Blues. I mean after all… the word “saint” is even in their name. Of course they would never do anything that would warrant a penalty… never… a team of such refinement and grace holds their pinky up when gently sipping on their Gatorade on the bench and between periods the entire Blues team was out distributing alms for the poor, feeding the hungry and finding a cure for that pesky common cold.

OK… enough snark. Our friendly neighborhood officials were not the main reason the Nashville Predators lost... killing off penalties was an issue last night… but it all comes down to one thing... you gotta hold on to a third period lead, no matter what is thrown at you.

Give the Blues credit, they got what they needed last night, took advantage of their opportunities and held the Preds in check for a good deal of the game. Oh… and Jake Allen was excellent when he needed to be.

Let’s take a look at the GBU…

The Good - Ryan Ellis was very good last night, the human rocket ship was the best player on the ice for the Preds with an assist on the first goal and potting the second to go along with a +1 for the game

The Bad - The Predators defensive structure as a unit and a lack of trust in the process. You see this across the board, the team is just trying to do a little too much. This has been the case for both games now and the team is lucky to have gotten a split. Time to settle down, play their game and have a little fun.

The Ugly - Has there been a quicker trip from hero to goat than the one Vern Fiddler took? That being said… I haven’t seen a clearer case of a “crowd call” combined with “results penalty” than that sudden transformation from a two minute call to five and a game last night. I’m going to walk a fine line here, so stay with me… A couple of points…
- Vern Fiddler deserved a penalty for his hit on Colton Parayko, no question about it
- Parayko sold his injury well… very well… to the point where an angry crowd appeared to intimidate the officials into changing the call to a 5 minute major as the poor hobbled player was assisted off the ice…
That major comes with an automatic game misconduct under rule 50 in the NHL rule book. So Fiddler was gone for the game… leaving the Preds to play their second consecutive game with 11 forwards. And how is poor Colton Parayko? How many games is he expected to miss? Well... that poor young player was so brutally assaulted that he had to be helped from the ice, he was hurt so badly that he missed an entire one minute and 32 seconds of game play. Give me a break… and so I am clear here… I agree with what appeared to be the initial call from the officials last night… two for kneeing on that play was the correct call, there simply did not appear to be any intent to injure on that play…

OK... let me turn the snark off again...

The Predators have to be much better in order to win this series, they have plenty of headroom. The big question for Pred Nation? How does this team react to their first taste of between game adversity? How does their first loss in the playoffs affect them?

Think game three isn’t big? Well… according to the good folks at Elias, when teams are tied 1-1 in a best-of-7 Stanley Cup Playoffs series, the winner of Game 3 takes the series 67.3% of the time.

Game three is tomorrow, 2pm at Bridgestone Arena… get ready to blow the rook off Smashville... very limited tickets remain.

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The gauntlet has been thrown down from my fellow blogger in St. Louis, Jason Millen. We will make a small wager on this series… losing team’s blogger makes a donation to the winning team’s blogger charity of choice…

Mine will be Best Buddies of Tennessee… a charity very familiar to fans of the fang…

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Round Two

Eastern Conference

NYR vs OTT – OTT leads 1-0 - Game two is today in Ottawa

WSH vs PIT – PIT leads 1-0 - Game two is tonight in Washington

Western Conference

STL vs. NSH – Series tied 1-1 - Game three is tomorrow in Nashville

ANA vs. EDM – EDM leads 2-0 - Game three is tomorrow in Anaheim

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Playoff Random Notes

- Mike Milbury called PK Subban a clown on national television last night for… HORRORS! … having a little fun on the ice in pregame. Ummm… Mr. Milbury, your lack of knowledge of the teams you are covering is stunning… he does that in EVERY warmup of the year. Something you would know about if you did just a little bit of research before shooting your mouth off. I realize that Philly, PIttsburgh and Chicago arent; playing in this series, so it may take a little work... but how about learning a little bit about the markets and the teams you are covering now … K pumpkin?

- Heaven forbid that hockey players actually show a bit of personality… but noooooo… we gotta try and stomp it down at every opportunity… it’s not a new phenomenon… just ask Brett Hull or Jeremy Roenick.

- Give Vladimir Tarasenko full props, he brought it last night… the Blues managed to generate some real traffic in front of Rinne and they were rewarded for their efforts.

- Attention Oilers fans... take some advice from Pred Nation. Don’t get too comfy after taking a 2-0 lead from Anaheim on the road… been there, done that and still went seven.

- Former UAH netminder Cam Talbot is really making a name for himself in this run the Oilers are on… he has been outstanding.

- Road teams are now 2-4 so far as only Ottawa and now St. Louis have held serve at home so far in the second round.

- Two game in the NHL Stanley Cup Playoffs today – 2pm – NYR @ OTT (NBC). 7pm – PIT @ WSH (NBC)

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