Well… so much for “trap” games. The Nashville Predators made a small statement last night… if only to themselves. The 5-2 win over an Arizona team that has had their number this season snapped a three game home losing streak, kept the Desert Dogs from sweeping the season series and featured a… wait for it…
A power play goal.
No… I’m serious… a power play goal! Killing a painful 0 for 34 streak stretching back to January 9th. It was the first power play goal of 2019 at home.
I have to give credit to @bvalentine615, who won the internet last night with this Tweet…
OK… enough about that… the Predators came out well and ramped up the effort as the night went on, dominating the 2nd and 3rd periods, tying the game just 3 minutes into the second period on Craig Smith’s lunch bucket goal, his 15th of the season, then Filip Forsberg tallied on the power play almost 5 minutes later to take the lead, then six minutes after that, Ryan Ellis picked up the garbage and poked home a loose puck for his 6th of the year, sending the team to the second intermission with a 3-1 lead.
Say this for the Coyotes, they don’t quit. Derek Stepan tightened the game up with a goal 4 minutes into the third, but Calle Jarnkrok effectively sealed it with his 10th of the year almost ten minutes later, Roman Josi put the icing on the cake with an empty netter.
I like how this team reacts to sub-optimal results. They were not happy about Saturday’s loss and took it out on a team that played the night before when it would have been easy to look forward to the rematch with Dallas on Thursday. A good solid win for the Preds to propel them into the Dallas game… a game that was definitely on the teams mind as evidenced by their post-game comments.
Good secondary scoring led to good things last night… with the imminent return of Kyle Turris to the lineup, Pred Nation will get a chance to see if the 13-3 start the Preds posted with a full compliment of players was an illusion, or the true nature of this team.
Dallas is in Thursday night, very limited tickets remain.
Here’s last night highlights
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The
Where We Stand section
Nashville maintains the second slot in the Central Division, three points behind the Winnipeg Jets, Winnipeg holds two game in hand over Nashville. The Preds lead Dallas by eight points, Minnesota by eleven points and… wait… where did THEY come from? The St. Louis Blues, on a 7-2-1 run in their last ten has supplanted Colorado for 5th in the Central, trailing the Preds by 15 points.
Also in the “Don’t Look Now” category… the Chicago Blackhawks, who many left for dead, including this writer, are now only a single point behind Colorado and only three points out of a Wild Card slot. Granted they have five teams to leap frog, but…
Nashville currently holds the 4 seed in the Western Conference playoff race and has a 99.6% chance of making the playoffs according to SportsClubStats.com… the “85% chance” line stands at 90 points right now.
Impact Games Tonight – None.
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Random Notes
- Milwaukee Update –The Admirals are back in action tonight against Texas.
- Shooting Gallery – The Preds posted 47 shots last night, second most of the season.
- Family Matters – Last night’s Coyotes goaltender was Calvin Pickard, younger brother of Chet, former Predators prospect.
- New Ice – The Predators have posted a digital “fly-through” of the new ice center being built in Bellevue. Looks really nice… you can check it out on the Preds website.
- Record Breaker – Congratulations to Alex Ovechkin who surpassed Sergei Fedorov as the most prolific Russian-born scorer in NHL history.
- Trouble in Paradise? – After news broke of Austin Matthews signing his 5 year extension yesterday, attention immediately went to the effort to re-sign Mitch Marnier. That one may get rough. The Leafs are going to have issues with cap space.
- Lockout Protection? - Interesting how Matthews new $58 million+ deal is 93% signing bonus. The 21 year old will make almost $32 million in the next two seasons. Wow. The other positive for Matthews… this deal only eats up one year of unrestricted free agency… if he continues to play the way he has… this contract could look small in 2024.
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