After a couple of stinkers at home, the Nashville Predators are in the Rockies today for a holiday matinee against Central Division foe Colorado. The Av’s trail the Preds by 8 points making this a pretty large tilt in the Central Division race. A Preds win in regulation puts the Av’s 10 points back, an Avalanche win put them only 6 points back with a two of games in hand… the classic “four-point-game” scenario.
The Predators have been maddeningly inconsistent over the last few weeks. Great efforts and great play, sandwiched around awful efforts and terrible play. Wins in Montreal and Toronto, a severe beatdown of the Stanley Cup champs all show what this team is capable of. Then there are efforts like the one in Detroit, in Carolina and the last two at Bridgestone Arena.
Saturday night’s disjointed, out-of-sync effort featured another start to be forgotten. The loss of Ryan Johansen due to suspension seemed to have a real impact on the Predators… they will have to overcome that today as Johansen finished his two game suspension for his careless stick in Thursday’s loss to Winnipeg.
The Avalanche have been riding the same kind of roller coaster as the Predators. Wins in Montreal in Toronto, along with a 7-1 smoking of LA are surrounded by losses to the Rangers, Sharks, Jets, Flames and Senators so far in January. The Av’s blueline took a hit on Saturday as Erik Johnson left the game after only three shifts. He is out today with a concussion, but they also got good news with the return of the dangerous Mikko Rantanen who also left Saturday’s game with a lower body injury.
The Predators have one more game before the combination All-Star break / Bye week after today’s tilt. They finish the month of January with a game in Vegas on Wednesday night. They then get an eight day break (except for Pekka Rinne and Roman Josi) to rest, rejuvenate and get ready for the push for the playoffs.
The key for this team was laid out in very specific term by head coach Peter Laviolette in Saturday’s post game presser when talking about the team's weak starts… “That’s all attitude, that’s what you bring to the rink and what you bring to the game. It’s got to be better.” The team does show resilience, it does show a capability for comebacks, but after seeing how this team can play in small stretches... it does make you wonder how to get them to play this way on a more consistent basis. Y’know… like in four, 7 game series come springtime.
Game time is 2pm from the Pepsi Center. Pregame starts on 102.5 the Game at 1pm, on Fox Sports Tennessee it starts at 1:30pm. Puck drop is 2:08pm.
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One piece of news that I haven’t commented on yet is the change of chairmen of the Preds. Tom Cigarran has stepped aside and the role has gone to Herb Fritch. Mr. Cigarran has been one of the driving forces behind putting the business team together that has brought this franchise to where it is now. It is fair to say, that without Tom Cigarran, the Predators as a franchise would be in a much different place. Pred Nation will always owe him a debt of gratitude for his hard work and most importantly, his dedication to the city of Nashville.
Mr. Fritch has assumed the role as of January 9. His success in business has been stellar including the building of HealthSpring into a $4.6 billion company when it was acquired by Cigna. He has been integral in the success of this franchise.
Congratulations to Herb Fritch… Pred Nation wishes you much success!
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The
Where We Stand section
As play begins today, Nashville is in the second slot in the Central Division, four points behind the Winnipeg Jets, Winnipeg holds two games in hand over Nashville. The Preds lead Colorado and Dallas by eight points.
Nashville currently holds the 5 seed in the Western Conference playoff race and has a 98.4% chance of making the playoffs according to SportsClubStats.com… the “85% chance” line stands at 90 points right now.
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Random Notes
- Milwaukee Update –The Admirals are back in action Tuesday night at home against the San Antonio Rampage. They had a nice win on national TV yesterday, shutting out the Chicago Wolves in Chicago.
- Hater-aide – The Ryan Johansen haters are pretty quiet after they got a look at this team without him on Saturday night.
- The rendering for the new ice center in Bellevue are on the Preds website. It is scheduled to open this summer adding two much needed sheets of ice to the area.
- Buried in the rendering announcement was the news of the Predators hosting a 2019 rookie tournament this coming September at the new facility.
- Milestone - Peter Laviolette’s next win will be his 600th as an NHL Head Coach. He has been sitting on 599 since last Tuesday’s romp over Washington.
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