One heckuva comeback, finished off in frustration. The Nashville Predators scored two goals in the final 3:52 of last night’s game in St. Louis to tie it up and get the OT point… but once again dropped a decision in overtime, losing 4-3 to the Blues. Six times this season the Preds have gone to the bonus hockey period and six times the team has left frustrated. It is one of those little things you worry about biting you come April.
A bit of a surprise when Carter Hutton led the team out for warmups, it certainly wasn’t clear who would start for the Preds through most of the day. It is hard to quibble with the quality of play last night, divisional battles are always tough and St. Louis is a very good hockey team. Nashville took advantage of a Blues team that tried to sit on a one goal lead (man… that sounds familiar) and put on an excellent press to get the point.
So, five games into the six game stretch that I spoke about being critical for the Nashville Predators to turn around their mid-November/early-December swoon, their record on that stretch is 3-1-1, gathering seven out of the possible ten points available. That is my definition of a turnaround.
Tomorrow night is a huge test, finally, a game with the Dallas Stars. Should be an interesting way to end 2015. Game time is 7:30pm.
Here are the highlights from last night from nhl.com…
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Random Notes
- All-Star Voting Update – Shea Weber continues at #27 in overall vote getters and is 8th in the Central race for captain of the team. Other Preds… Roman Josi is at #49, Pekka Rinne at #59. You can vote up to 10 times a day at the NHL’s All-Star Voting Site
- Colin Wilson’s game tying goal came in his 400th NHL game last night.
- Carter Hutton got his first assist on Shea Weber’s goal in the third period.
- The Calgary Flames home win streak was brken by Anaheim last night.
- The Columbus Blue Jackets put a beat down on Dallas last night.
- Team USA is in action today in the World Juniors. They take on Switzerland at noon on the NHL Network. So far the team is 1-1-0 in the tournament.
- Five games on the NHL schedule tonight (all start times CT) – 6pm – TOR @ PIT, BUF @ WSH. 6:30pm – NJD @ OTT. 7pm – NYR @ TBL. 9:30pm – PHI @ SJS.
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