After a road weary Nashville team dropped a disheartening loss to San Jose in game five, the team returned to Nashville for the second time in these playoffs facing an elimination game six.
The Predators have been here before. As a matter of fact they were here just two Monday's ago against Anaheim, where they took advantage of the Ducks fragile psyche and stormed back to win two straight and take the series 4-3. That experience may serve Nashville well tonight, if they can recover enough energy to get that win.
Smashville will be out in force. There will be 17,000 plus in the stands tonight, ready to hurt the tender ears of certain members of the San Jose media… sorry if it was too loud for you guys (not sorry.)
The key tonight is energy… and how much Nashville has been able to recover since late Saturday night. As the only team in the playoffs that has had to face 14000 miles of travel and playing every other day since the playoffs began, the Predators have to summon up enough energy to force this series to a game seven. If that happens… the team will get an extra day off as game seven is Thursday night. At that point, all bets are off.
There was an interesting effect of the Sharks “domination… of the Predators in game five, the Preds were able to balance their defensive rotation… for the first game of the playoffs… Roman Josi and Shea Weber did not lead the team in ice time, Ryan Ellis and Mattias Ekholm did… and the third pairing of Anthony Bitetto and Barret Jackman got 16+ minutes. No Nashville blueliner got more than 22:52 of ice time. It’s a little thing, but I will watch the energy levels of the blue line tonight.
So assuming the Predators are able to get their energy levels up… what else do they need to do?
Get to the house – Nashville has been very effective at getting to the slot and picking up the loose change in both of their wins so far this series… that needs to happen again. When San Jose has been most effective defensively is when they have been able to keep Nashville on the perimeter… if the Sharks are successful at this, Smashville will be watching a handshake line tonight.
Speed - This is closely tied to their energy levels, but Nashville need to play with pace. Up-tempo, fast hockey. That has kept the Sharks on their heels during long stretches of this series.
Respond - San Jose head coach Peter DeBoer made his first lineup change of the playoffs, inserting Dainius Zubrus and he also juggled his lines a bit. It definitely gave the Sharks an offensive jolt and Nashville will need to counter that move, potentially putting in a more defensively oriented player in the 3C role.
A theme of these playoffs so far have been exorcising demons, and taking advantage of the opponent’s demons… a win tonight brings up all the questions of blown playoff leads for the San Jose Sharks, just like the game 6 and 7 futility in Anaheim. Did San Jose’s win over LA get rid of those questions for good? Not really… the Sharks were never really challenged in that series. This is the Sharks opportunity, they do not want to go back for a game seven… hmmm… that sounds oddly familiar.
For Nashville, game six when facing elimination has also been a wince inducing factor. Did the Predator’s game six win and subsequent taking of the Ducks series put that one to bed? Maybe… tonight be the first testing of that theory. Plaza Party starts at 5pm, doors open at 6pm. Game time is 8pm, pregame on 102.5 the Game begins at 7pm with Darren McFarland, Pete Weber and Brent Peterson on the call… CNBC has the TV Coverage. Very limited tickets remain, but come on down anyway and watch the game on the plaza at Bridgestone Arena.
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Cause for Joy – The Predators do have an appropriate “been there, done that, got the t-shirt… mentality coming into tonight’s game and Smashville will be bringing it… loud and proud… and the boys feed off that energy.
Cause for Concern – How much gas is left in the tank?
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Random Playoff Notes
- San Jose still has not found an answer for the Wilson/Fisher/Neal line. Neal is on a three game point streak, Fisher on a five game point streak and Wilson on a six game point streak with 18 points among them on their particular streaks.
- Officials for tonight’s game – Referees are Kelly Sutherland and Jean Herbert with Francois StLaurant on standby… linesmen are Scott Cherry and Jay Sharrers with Derek Nansen on standby.
- San Jose has not won a game in regulation at Bridgestone Arena since February of 2012, going 8-0-1 over that time.
- Shea Weber’s next goal in these playoffs will give him the all-time franchise lead in playoff goals and points.
- Since going 2-5 on the power play in game three, the Preds are 0-8 on the man advantage.
- The first team through to the Conference Final is Tampa Bay… they took down the Islanders 4-1 and await the winner of Pittsburgh / Washington.
- The Dallas / St. Louis series reverts to St. Louis tonight with the Stars on the brink of elimination. Game six starts at 7pm central on NBCSN.
- Welcome to the Central Division Bruce Boudreau. The Minnesota Wild hired the former Ducks head coach yesterday. He was out of work for less than a week and a half. While Boudreau will make the Wild better in the regular season, I don’t know if he helps the team in the playoffs at all.
- The dominoes are falling as after the Wild announced Boudreau, the Ottawa Senators hired Guy Boucher. Personally… I think Boucher was the right choice for Ottawa.
- Saturday night’s prime time matchup between the Penguins and Capitals drew a 2.69 overnight rating, the best NHL rating for a 1st/2nd round game since 2006.
- Changes coming to the front office in Florida according to reports coming out of Sunrise… Panther’s GM Dale Tallon is moving up to be the “Director of Hockey Operations… while a new GM (reportedly Tom Rowe) will be put in place… looks like solid succession planning in Panther-land.
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Second Round Snapshots
Lightning / Islanders – TBL Wins 4-1
Capitals / Penguins – PIT leads 3-2 – Game 6 Tomorrow @ PIT – 7 pm – NBCSN
Stars / Blues – STL leads 3-2 – Game 6 Tonight @ STL – 7 pm - NBCSN
Sharks / Predators – SJS leads 3-2 – Game 6 Tonight @ NSH – 8 pm - CNBC
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