For the first time in franchise history, the Nashville Predators hold a 2 games to none lead in a playoff series. Awesome, wow… that and four bucks will get you a latte at Starbucks. The two game lead is great, but now it gets really hard. The Anaheim Ducks showed the lengths they were willing to go to in game two, another excellent road game from the Preds that led to a 3-2 victory over the heavily favored Ducks.
The Ducks came out steaming in the first period, hitting, shooting, doing all the things that made them successful in winning the Pacific division, taking the game and the fight to the Predators… and were stonewalled by an outstanding performance from Pekka Rinne. After a breakaway goal from Andrew Cogliano gave Anaheim the lead, the Predators did what they did in Game 1. Shift-by-shift they slowly and methodically took the momentum back, culminating in a last minute goal from Mattias Ekholm, banging home a snappy backhander to tie the game and clearly beginning a run of frustration for the Ducks that cost them the game.
Anaheim came out strong again in the second and were again denied by stout defense and the Finnish Wall… the questions about Rinne are answered with authority, he has been excellent thus far in the series and his play is clearly frustrating the Ducks…
Then, as you just knew they would, Anaheim resorted to their DNA… the second period was a classic example of a team running around and as Ducks head coach Bruce Boureau put it “we were just stupid out there.… Stupid indeed, as Craig Smith scored his first of the series on a “thread the needle… feed from Filip Forsberg to put the Preds up and ratchet up the stupidity … toward the end of the second period, the Predators made the Ducks pay for their undisciplined play in the best way possible…
The Captain rose up and was simply not to be denied as he uncorked a series of blasts, three of them to be exact, the first two were stopped, the third bullet found the mark for a power play goal, beating Ducks netminder John Gibson with one that the youngster is still looking for.
And then the Predators locked it down… limiting the Ducks to 5 shots in the third period… two of them coming in the final 3 minutes, one of them deflecting off a Nashville defenseman to change directions at the last second to draw the Ducks to within one. Anaheim didn’t really seriously threaten with Gibson pulled over the last ninety seconds and Nashville came away with the win and a Southern California sweep.
Nothing is achieved yet… but you have to love how the Predators are playing this series. Their discipline and focus are the reasons they are up 2-0. I like how they are reacting… there is retribution, but the retribution is smart, not obvious and highly effective. The repeated runs on Pekka Rinne are being laughed off (fascinating how the Anaheim press is focusing on James Neal) The Predators are threatening to take up residence inside Anaheim’s head… it’s a good position to be in two games into this series with a chance to put the Ducks in the kind of a hole that is very, very hard to crawl out of. The series now reverts to Nashville for games three and four… limited tickets remain.
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Causes for Joy – Besides the 2-0 lead… Two things really stick out, the Predators are beating the Ducks at their own game, frustrating the hell out of them, knowing that frustration is something that leads Anaheim to take silly penalties… and the Predators physical game. Nashville is initiating, not retaliating (right away) and it is being highly effective.
Causes for concern – Two things stick out here as well… The Predators are getting killed in the faceoff circle. Their Face Off Win % last night was 36% and only Mike Fisher was above 50%, not good at all. The second, giveaways… way too many last night that Rinne managed to erase, but this needs a bit of work.
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Random Playoff Notes
- The Preds are scheduled to return to Smashville this afternoon… I bet a few folks come out to welcome them home!
- Corey Perry, Ryan Kesler and Ryan Getzlaf were all held scoreless last night… a big key to the win.
- Something to keep in mind…
Teams that take 2-0 lead on the road in best-of-7 #StanleyCup Playoffs series hold an all-time series record of 65-18 (78.3%). @EliasSports
— NHL Public Relations (@PR_NHL) April 18, 2016
- Plenty of speculation that Boudreau is going to change goaltenders… it’s very difficult to blame John Gibson for either loss, especially with the way the team is acting in front of him. It does make me wonder, with the difficulty Anaheim is having maintaining their composure, do you want to put in a fiery goaltender like Fredrik Andersen? Hmmm…
- Key quote from Bruce Boudreau’s post game presser… “we didn’t get any power plays because we’re doing stupid stuff, and they’re smiling and having a good old time; not the referees, Nashville, they’re not going to give us a break. Quite frankly, we don’t deserve a break if we’re going to be yelling at them and being stupid all night long."
- My heavens, can the hockey media whine any more? A Twitter battle broke out last night over the media stepping on the team logo in the locker room… ummm… it’s called simple respect… you are going into someone’s workplace, respect it. It doesn’t matter if you think it is “stupid… … SMH.
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Series Snapshot
- Predators / Ducks – NSH leads 2-0 – Next game – 4/19 @ NSH – 8:30pm – Fox Sports TN
- Panthers / Islanders – NYI leads 2-1 – Next game – 4/20 @ NYI – 7pm CT – USA Network
- Lightning / Red Wings – TBL leads 2-1 – Next game – 4/19 @ DET – 6pm CT - NBCSN
- Capitals / Flyers – WSH leads 2-0 – Next game – Tonight @ PHI – 6pm CT - NBCSN
- Penguins / Rangers – Series tied 1-1 – Next game – 4/19 @ NYR – 6pm CT – USA Network
- Stars / Wild – DAL leads 2-0 – Next game – Tonight @ MIN – 7:30pm CT - CNBC
- Blues / Blackhawks – STL leads 2-1 – Next game – 4/19 @ CHI – 8:30pm CT - NBCSN
- Kings / Sharks – SJS leads 2-0 – Next game – Tonight @ SJS – 9:30pm CT - NBCSN
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