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Answers are hard to come by

April 21, 2019, 8:59 AM ET [25 Comments]
Paul McCann
Nashville Predators Blogger •Predators Radio Network • RSSArchiveCONTACT
First off, I’d like to wish a very happy Easter to everyone…

Last night’s 5-3 loss to the Dallas Stars comes down to one simple reality… The Dallas Stars are a better team than the Nashville Predators right now.

They have worked their plan to perfection and for the first time in a long time, the Predators don’t seem to know what to do… and that goes from the coaching staff to every player on the team... well... almost every player.

A team that used to play with such detail has become careless with the puck, every goal Nashville gave up yesterday came from a giveaway, most of them egregious and from FIVE different players! You can’t point to a single player, the entire team seems to have lost their way. This isn't even a "trying to do too much" factor that was a big part of last season's second round flameout. This is a basic fundamental failure of system and execution... they go hand-in-hand.

I know, this is a bit ironic, given my last blog about the silly hot takes we saw between games 4 and 5… but last night was a different story. The giveaways were one thing, but the coaching staff doesn’t seem to have an adjustment that is anything near effective.

The other bit of irony about this series… the power play, while still putrid… isn’t the reason this team is down in the series going into game six. It still may be their undoing, but it hasn’t big a huge factor in this series.

Every member of this team needs to take a very hard look inside. This is the team that pleaded with David Poile to leave them intact after last year's playoff, and for the most part, Poile did just that. With the performance we are seeing right now, this team owes their GM a better performance for as long as this playoff run lasts.

Where there is life, there is hope Pred Nation, a theme apropos for Easter Sunday… I do expect to be back for a game seven on Wednesday night, I can’t expect anything else, but in a crazy playoff season that has seen four series won by the lower seed And both top seeds bounced for the first time in league history, you just can’t say what will happen.

Hang in there gang… the fat lady ain’t singing quite yet… but I fear she is warming up.

Game six is tomorrow, 7:30pm start time in Dallas.

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The Playoff Status section

The Eastern Conference
(1) Tampa Bay vs (WC2) Columbus – CBJ Wins 4-0 – Next Up – Winner of BOS/TOR
(2) Boston vs. (3) Toronto – TOR leads 3-2 – Game 6, today
(1) Washington vs. (WC1) Carolina – WSH leads 3-2 – Game 6, tomorrow
(2) NY Islanders vs (3) Pittsburgh – NYI Wins 4-0 – Next Up – Winner of WSH/CAR

The Western Conference
(1) Calgary vs (WC2) Colorado – COL wins 4-1 – Next Up – Winner of SJS / VGK
(2) San Jose vs (3) Vegas – VGK leads 3-2 – Game 6 – today
(1) Nashville vs. (WC1) Dallas – DAL leads 3-2 – Game 6 - tomorrow
(2) Winnipeg vs. (3) St. Louis – STL wins 4-2 – Next up – Winner of DAL/NSH

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