If you are looking for signs of heart and grit in the Nashville Predators, look no further than last night’s 2-1 win over the Boston Bruins. Gritty, scrappy, gutsy… all good words to describe last night’s game with Boston. The Bruins brought the body early and often and Nashville shook off the efforts and fought back when needed, including a “Welcome to Smashville… moment for waiver wire pickup Derek Grant, who dropped the gloves with Adam McQuaid in the second period to send a message that the Preds weren’t going to lay down.
Grant ended up the worse for wear from the scrap, leaving the game right after but the message was effectively sent. The message may have been sent, but not before a late, dirty hit from the Bruins Anton Blidh sent Roman Josi to the locker room with an upper body injury, no status on the Preds defenseman as of this writing. Combine that with some timely scoring from Austin Watson, who tallied in his third straight game, a rise up out of your seat kind of goal from Filip Forsberg and some outstanding goaltending from Juuse Saros and it was the recipe for a win.
Oh yeah… that Forsberg goal. I can’t describe it… you can only marvel…
Now the team heads out of town for the second five game road trip of the season and a chance to leverage this win streak into a roll. A desperately needed one as news breaks this morning of a trade with Colorado, one that makes sense considering the physical nature of last night’s contest. The Predators acquired Cody McLeod from the Avalanche for Admirals forward Felix Girard. Since Cody Bass was sent down, the enforcer role has been largely absent from the Preds, McLeod effectively fills it.
So… the walking wounded soldier on… we should get updates about Derek Grant and Roman Josi sometime in the next 18 hours or so… Pred Nation is holding its collective breath on Josi… We should also find out about PK Subban and James Neal who have been doing some skating as well.
Next up is an afternoon tilt in Colorado tomorrow at 2pm CT.
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Don’t forget, SlapShot Radio is on tomorrow morning at 8am with Steve Wrigley filling in for Pete Weber. We’re live at 8am on 102.5 the Game… listen online at thegamenashville.com
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Random Notes
- Where We Stand – After last night’s play, the Nashville Predators have 45 points in 42 games played and stand 4th in the Central Division, trailing, 3rd place St. Louis by two points. Nashville is one point out of a Wild Card spot. The Predators are three points behind with two games in hand over the first wild card team Calgary and are one point behind the 2nd Wild Card team, Los Angeles. The Predators are tied in points with Vancouver, but have two games in hand.
- Austin Watson took a little while to develop his game… but the 2010 1st rounder has put it all together this season. He has developed his physical game and recently discovered his scoring touch. Shows that patience and persistence can pay off.
- Interesting piece of the McLeod trade, Pierre LeBrun is reporting that the Av’s are retaining 40% of McLeod’s salary for next season as part of the trade.
- NHL Network billed it as an epic goaltender battle… so much for that… Carey Price gave up a touchdown and the PAT last night to Minnesota.
- Nine games in the NHL tonight, all times CST – 6pm – VAN @ PHI. 6:30pm – PIT @ OTT, BUF @ TBL. 7pm – BOS @ NSH, MTL @ MIN. 7:30pm – DET @ DAL. 8pm – NJD @ EDM, ANA @ COL. 9:30pm – STL @ LAK.
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------------------------------------- SSR’s season nine is on, our next show is tomorrowy at 8am on 102.5 the Game. SlapShot Radio is the longest running hockey show in the mid-south and Pete Weber and I bring you the best in hockey talk all season long. Steve Wrigley will be sitting in and we will drop the puck on trading season with Eklund and get an update on the Baby Preds as the Voice of the Milwaukee Admirals, Aaron Sims joins us.
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