Let me be the first to wish you a Happy Festivus!
Columbus has to be happy they are no longer in the Central Division as the Nashville Predators have handed the Jackets their only two losses over their last 11 games… and last night wasn’t even close. The Preds took a 5-1 victory that featured two scoring spurts, one in the second when Nashville potted two in 1:38… and again in the third when they posted three goals in 2:14… and that was all she wrote. Two goals from Craig Smith and one each from Colin Wilson, Seth Jones (his first of the season) and Mike Fisher did the damage and with the win, the Predators retake second in the Central and trail Chicago by two points with two games in hand.
Here are the highlights from nhl.com…
The Predators took off right after the game for the second half of the back-to-back tonight in Boston, completing the season series with the Bruins after last Tuesday’s shootout victory in Smashville. Both teams finishing up the pre-Christmas break portion of the season.
Boston continues to struggle and finds themselves on the outside looking in to the Eastern Conference playoff picture. Sixth in the Atlantic behind Florida and Toronto and two points out of the wild card. This Is not the place the Bruins expected to be, but they are coming off a come from behind overtime win over the Sabres and are definitely showing signs of life after a dismal December that featured seven losses and only 2 wins.
For Nashville, the question is, who’s in net? Do you go with the hot hand and play Pekka Rinne back-to-back knowing there is a three day rest coming? We will get hints in a few hours when the day of game skate happens… game time is 6pm central with coverage on Fox Sports Tennessee and 102.5 the Game… pregame on both begins at 5:30pm.
Here’s the preview, from NHL.com
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Random Notes
- The Predators got lucky 1:16 in when a goal was waived off… a very tough break that Columbus could not seem to recover from
- Eagles soared once again as Seth Jones potted his first of the year last night… nice to see his hard work pay off on the board.
- Big props to Viktor Bartley, he has filled in well on the third D pair and showed he belongs in this league. He sprung Colin Wilson for the first goal last night on an outstanding pass.
- Memo to Donald (The Grinch) Fehr… Shut the hell up! We get it… you are just defending your union… but please… did you have to bring up your belief that another lockout is coming in 2022 right before Christmas??? It may be… but why ruin our holidays with that…
- Another Florida shootout… this one only went seven rounds but WOW… what a sick winner from Aleksander Barkov! Don't look now, but Florida is only one point out of a Wild Card in the East
- Wow… Johnny Hawkey strikes again… the Flames Johnny Gaudreau struck for the natural Hattie, leading the Flames to a comeback overtime victory over LA.
- If you have any trouble going to sleep tonight… just put on the Arizona/Edmonton game… that should do the trick.
- Eleven games tonight in the NHL – Preds @ Bruins, Hurricanes at Devils, Habs @ NYI, Caps @ NYR, Flyers @ Wild, Leafs @ Stars, Sabres @ Red Wings, Penguins @ Lightning, Coyotes @ Oilers, Blues @ Avalanche, Jets @ Blackhawks.
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