Funny how a couple of wins can change your outlook. The Nashville Predators soundly beat the New York Rangers 5-3 last night, chasing one of the best goaltenders in the game and winning their third game in their last four. In an oddly familiar scenario, the Predators watched as the wheels came off for the Blueshirts in the third period as Nashville poured on four goals (with a fifth one waived off) and drove a rather interesting hissy fit from Henrik Lundvist on the ice. Usually a very cool customer, Lundqvist was clearly upset at the close proximity traffic and had a rare public show of frustration.
That’s a clearly frustrated team on Broadway… and this time, I ain’t talking Preds.
The Predators found an edge last night and they played it for all it was worth. After a dominating first period where they out hustled, out played, out shot and (for once) outscored their opponent, they still only held a tenuous one goal lead heading into the room. Lundqvist was the only reason this game wasn’t a blowout in the first, but the constant pressure finally buckled the all-world goaltender as he gave up three goals in a little less than six minutes and to be fair… he was not getting much help from the vaunted Rangers defense. A fact that clearly incensed Rangers head coach Alain Vigneault who had a hard time hiding his frustration in the post game presser.
It is certainly nice to see the offense start to heat it up, ten different Preds posted points last night as the Preds closed out their holiday home stand with a 3-1-0 record and a radically different attitude from where the team was when it started.
Here are the highlights from last night from nhl.com…
No time to enjoy that one as the Predators lit out after the game to St. Louis for the second half of a back-to-back. The Blues have owned the Predator so far this season, posting a 4-0 shutout back in November and a 2-1 win two weeks ago.
When these two met a couple of weeks ago, the Blues and Preds were in the same spot. Both teams hadn’t won back to back games in weeks, both teams were dealing with key injuries and both teams were chasing the Dallas Stars.
Well, both teams seemed to have righted the ship. The Preds have won three of their last four, the Blues have won four of their last five. The Preds saw Mike Fisher return after missing 11 games, the Blues may see the return of Kyle Brodziak either tonight of Thursday and Patrik Berglund has been cleared for contact and his return appears to be imminent.
The next hurdle for the Preds is to fix their road record which could be described as “meh… at best at 6-7-1. Nashville is on the road for eleven of their next fourteen games leading up to the All-Star Game in Nashville at the end of January. Of those 11 road games, six are inside the division and ten are inside the conference. A key stretch to be sure.
I honestly have no idea if Pekka Rinne goes back-to-back or Carter Hutton gets the nod. I would expect Jake Allen in net for the Blues.
If the Predators want to get back in the division race for the second of third seed (because let’s face it… Dallas is running away with the division) they need to win games like this. Coverage is on the Predators Radio Network, flagship station is 102.5 the Game and the NBC Sports Network.
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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
- Mike Fisher return clearly invigorated both Colin Wilson and Viktor Arvidsson, that line did some very nice things last night.
- Filip Forsberg got his 10th of the season last night and now has a five game point streak. He is now only six points short of 100 for his young career.
- The power play woke up last night as well as the Predators converted on both of their opportunities going 2-2.
- No… you are not seeing things… the Florida Panthers did actually lead the Atlantic Division until the Canadiens broke their losing streak last night. The Cats trail the Habs by one point, but have two games in hand.
- It is nice to wake up this week to live hockey on NHL Network as they cover the World Juniors.
- Ten games on the NHL schedule tonight (all start times CT) – 6pm – OTT @ BOS, NYI @ TOR, CAR @ NJD, DAL @ CBJ. 6:30pm – MTL @ FLA. 7pm – NSH @ STL, DET @ WPG. 8pm – ANA @ CGY, LAK @ EDM, CHI @ ARI.
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