I was expecting a post long road trip letdown, but last night’s 5-4 overtime loss to the Buffalo Sabres exceeded my expectations. The Nashville Predators let Buffalo hang around when they could not convert multiple chances in the first and second periods, then took their foot off the gas when they got a two goal third period lead, allowing the Sabres to halve the lead with hard work, then tie the game late with a fortunate bounce.
OK… let’s get to the good the bad and the ugly from last night…
The Good – Forsberg’s shortie, his 6th goal in the last seven games and Viktor Arvidsson being the energizer bunny. Also Cody McLeod deserves a shout out, a goal and a fight energized the team.
The Bad - Defense and goaltending… Defensively, the team was sloppy, and Juuse Saros was not as good as we have seen previously… and that’s ok, he is young and will learn from it
The Ugly - The last six minutes of the third period… with a two goal lead, the Preds took their foot off the gas.
The team practices today before tomorrow’s game against Columbus, the last one before All-Star Weekend in LA.
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Random Notes
- Where We Stand – After last night’s play, the Nashville Predators have 54 points in 48 games played and stand 3rd in the Central Division, trailing the division leading Wild by 13 points (-1 GIH) and 2nd place Chicago by 11 points with two games in hand. Nashville leads 4th place St. Louis by one point, the Blues are in the first Wild Card slot, Calgary is in the second slot trailing the Blues by two points, St. Louis has two games in hand over the Flames.
- I love Laviolette’s postgame quote - "We should carry it with us for a little bit, take it into the next game, hopefully be irritated with the way we played.
- The IR continues to shrink as Colin Wilson returned to the lineup yesterday.
- David Poile told the gang at 102.5 the Game that he expected Roman Josi back after the All-Star break… that is very good news.
- Filip Forsberg has scored more goals than any other player in the NHL over the past 30+ days… 12 since Dec. 19.
- Carter Hutton recorded a shutout for the St. Louis Blues, with a big win over Pittsburgh 3-0.
- Four games in the NHL tonight, all times CST – 6pm – TOR @ DET. 7pm – PHI @ NYR. 8:30pm – VAN @ COL. 9pm – EDM @ ANA.
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