The Nashville Predators dropped the last regular season game of the season to the St. Louis Blues by a score of 2-0. The Predators finish the regular season with 99 points on a the basis of a 44-27-11 record.
The Blues scored on a beautiful goal by T.J. Oshie off his knees and a wicked wrister from Alexander Steen after an egregious turnover by the Predators.
The Predators clearly looked like a team that played a tough game the night before as the Blues forecheck kept the Predators from generating a consistent offensive flow all night. When the Predators did get good scoring chances, Jaroslav Halak cleaned up any threats.
Pekka Rinne made some amazing saves for the Predators and kept the score from being much worse than it was.
Now the Predators wait for the weekend games to wrap up to see where they will wind up in the standings. Several games could affect their final standing. If they had won this game, they would have locked up fourth place in the West and home ice. As it is, they will now wait to see where they will be seeded.
Not much else to say about this game. The Predators are obviously going to be disappointed in the fact that they do not control their destiny as to their final standing.
That is a negative that they have to quickly put behind them. They should dwell on the positive of the brilliant run they made to the playoffs.
They should also learn from this loss about the drive and the intensity that they are going to have to bring to every game in the playoffs. They have battled to get to this point. The playoffs will be a war.
The focus is on the positives. This team survived injuries to key players that would have crippled other teams. They are not offensively gifted, yet they score enough to win. They amassed 44 wins against what some would say are improbable odds. They have a cohesive dressing room. This team is built to win, now they have to get over the mental hurdle of winning a round.
A new season starts next week. A season of dreams. A season of war.
A season to make a name for this team and silence the critics.
I think some players don't realize what it takes to win the Stanley cup. There isn't a moment off of any shift. You said it best, it is war.
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