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A very telling comment came from a fan in the concourse following last night’s Nashville Predators 3-2 win over Minnesota. “When the Preds went on the penalty kill in the third period, no one thought we would win that game.… That fan was referring to Viktor Arvidsson’s ill-advised holding penalty at 10:34 of the third period that put the Wild’s recently lethal power play on the ice for the first time in the game right after Jason Zucker pulled Minnesota within one.
You gotta be real here… that fan was right. It was the kind of scenario that had led to disaster in the last month, and you got a sense of Nashville almost waiting for the roof to fall in… but y’know what?
It didn’t… instead, Pekka Rinne did Pekka things. The Predators survived the power play for a key, confidence building kill… then the Predators did something else they haven’t done in awhile… pushed back when Minnesota put on a rush. When the ice was clearly tilted in Minnesota’s favor for a good chunk of the third period, the Preds took the play back in their face… establishing an offensive presence and drained some valuable time from the clock to help preserve the win.
Finally, rewarded for hard work and doing the things that this team has been doing over this slump. That’s a game the Predators would lose over the past few weeks. Look… this doesn’t mean that everything is rosy in Pred Nation… there is still much work to be done with one more game left before the holiday break, especially with that one coming against the Montreal Canadiens. However, all three goals came from the top six with Forsberg, Ribeiro and Neal hitting the scoresheet, nice to see that… and did I mention Pekka being Pekka?
Yeah… Rinne was excellent… I wouldn’t quite call this one a game that he stole… but he was really good, showing confident movement and puck tracking that has been inconsistent in his game over the past few weeks.
So many good things happened… and still so much work to get done. The Preds have today off before tomorrow’s game against the Habs. Still some tickets remain for the 7pm start.
Here are your highlights… from nhl.com
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Random Notes
- All-Star Voting Update – Shea Weber is at #26 in overall vote getters and is 8th in the Central race for captain of the team. Other Preds… Roman Josi is at #48, Pekka Rinne at #58, Filip Forsberg at #89. You can vote up to 10 times a day at the NHL’s All-Star Voting Site
- Two streaks ended last night, the Preds three game losing streak and the Wild’s nine game point streak both went bye-bye.
- Shea Weber continues to be an offensive catalyst as he posted two assists last night, Forsberg tipped a Weber wrister for the first goal of the game and Ribeiro tipped a Weber slapper for the second of the game.
- Speaking of Weber, great quote post-game last night “It’s something to build off of, we’re not going to get ahead of ourselves here. We’re not world-beaters by any means. It's a good solid game for us."
- The Predators record when wearing the gold helmets is now 3-3-1.
- The Dallas Stars made a statement last night, and it was “Come and Get Me.… Their 6-2 dismantling of Montreal has continued the Stars streak of no back-to-back losses for the season and made them the first team to 50 points.
- Steven Stamkos made a statement yesterday… saying he wants to stay in Tampa.
- Six NHL games today (all start times CT) – 3pm – VAN @ FLA. 4pm – NJD @ BOS, OTT @ TBL. 6pm – CAT @ DET, WSH @ NYR, SJS @ CHI.
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