Predators Can't Finish, Fall to the Stars In OT

There is no doubt the Nashville Predators are going to make the playoffs.

The question is where will they be seeded.

Tied for first in the Central Division, and with 4 games remaining, every point is precious to the Predators.

The Predators threw away a point for the second consecutive game as they fell to the Dallas Stars 4-3 in overtime at Bridgestone Arena. The Stars scored the game winner by Cody Eakin on a penalty shot. Eakin was awarded the shot after Mattias Ekholm slashed the stick out of Eakin's hand on a breakaway.

Eakin beat Predators goaltender Pekka Rinne 5 hole for the winner.

The Predators got out to a 1-0 lead after Filip Forsberg recorded his 24th goal of the year. Forsberg gathered in a deflected Ekholm shot and quickly deposited the puck past Stars netminder Jonas Enroth.

The Stars scored the next three goals. Travis Moen wristed a shot from the slot past Rinne to tie the game at 1. Tyler Seguin gave the Stars a 2-1 lead with a power play goal. Colton Sceviour made it 3-1 early in the third period.

The Predators began a furious rally to force overtime. Ryan Ellis scored from the slot off a nice pass from Forsberg. James Neal scored on a short side snipe from the faceoff circle to tie the game with 1:56 remaining.

That set up Eakin's goal on the penalty shot. On the play, he split Ekholm and Ellis and had a breakaway, forcing Ekholm to desperately dive and slash the stick out of his hand.

Some observations:

• The Predators defense was outstanding at times, shutting down the Stars attack, and at others was incredibly leaky. Besides Eakin's breakaway in overtime, the Predators also gave up a breakaway to Tyler Seguin. Rinne got just enough of the shot to cause it to hit the post. Moen's goal came from out-muscling Ellis to get position in the low slot for a point blank shot.
• Ellis had a nice goal, but he struggled against the bigger forwards for the Stars. As mentioned, Moen used his size to get position in the low slot and Ellis was pushed around quite a bit by Valeri Nichuskin. Ellis has third pairing minutes that protects him to some degree, but when he is caught on the ice against first line players from the other team, he is vulnerable.
• Paging Colin Wilson...paging Colin Wilson. Wilson has now gone 19 games without a goal, and the Predators desperately need him to find his scoring touch again.
• Shea Weber, James Neal, and Matt Cullen returned to the line up after missing games due to injury.
• Mike Ribeiro picked up his 500th career assist on the goal by James Neal.
• Forsberg now has 61 points (24G-37A) in his rookie season. His 24 goals leads the Predators.
• Two players really stood out for me (besides the guys that scored) for the Predators: Mike Fisher and Gabriel Bourque. Both played with a high level of intensity throughout the game  and were beasts in all zones. Bourque picked up an assist and both he and Fisher were excellent on the penalty kill. These guys go to the hard areas and battle all night long.
• I just don't understand our power play. There is continued difficulty getting in the zone and no movement and creativity when (if) they get the puck in the zone. The power play is connecting at 16.6%, and only one other playoff bound team (Anaheim) is ranked below them (16.4%). This is going to be a problem for the Predators in the playoffs.
• The Predators out shot the Stars 36-24, but many of those shots were from the point with no traffic in front of Enroth. Make no mistake, Enroth made some good saves, but when the Predators were pressing and getting traffic to the net, they created quality scoring chances that gave Enroth trouble.The Predators need to do more of that to be successful.
• The Predators are 3-0-1 against the Stars and close out the season with their final game in Dallas.
• How big are the points the Predators are giving away? The Preds have 104 points; St. Louis has 103; and Chicago has 102. St. Louis and Chicago play each other tomorrow.

The Predators need points to secure home ice in the first round of the playoffs. Giving away points like they have in the last two games continues their trend in the final 25% of the season of playing mediocre hockey. The inability to match the intensity of desperate teams does not bode well for the Predators in the playoffs because that is nothing but desperate hockey.

It would certainly be good to see the Predators finish their last 3 regular season games clicking on all cylinders.

Right now, they are sputtering.

My three stars:

1. Jonas Enroth

2. Filip Forsberg

3. Cody Eakin 

Predators Stopped By the Stars in a Shootout

The Nashville Predators are in desperation mode. Not yet mathematically eliminated from the playoffs, the Predators have to win out and get some help from teams in front of them.

Their first step in the process was to capture a win at the American Airlines Center against the Dallas Stars.

The Predators did not start well, looking sluggish to open the game and giving up a goal to Alex Goligoski at 2:23 of the first period. A defensive breakdown allowed Goligoski an open shot, and he took advantage of the miscue to blow a shot past Pekka Rinne.

Gabriel Bourque tied the game with a blast from the slot at 1:22 of the second period as he blasted a shot from the slot past Kari Lehtonen.

The Stars took a 2-1 lead at 8:18 of the second period as another defensive breakdown led to a Stars 2 on 1 break, and Jamie Benn capitalized.

Bourque tallied his second of the game at 10:24 of the third period as Paul Gaustad won a puck battle in the corner and snapped a pass to Bourque in the slot. Once again, Bourque stepped in a shot a beat Lehtonen to tie the game.

The Predators had to kill 1:38 of a two man advantage with Shea Weber and Victor Bartley in the box and did a great job on the penalty kill.

The remainder of regulation and overtime were scoreless, and so the Predators faced another shootout. In 10 shootouts this season, the Predators were 2-8.

And once again, the shootout was the nemesis for the Predators, as they lost in four rounds by a 2-1 margin. Roman Josi scored for the Predators, while Vernon fiddler and Tyler Seguin scored for the Stars.


Some observations:

• After a blowout in their last meeting, the Predators played a much better game against the talented Stars. However, they took nearly 9 minutes to register their first shot on goal in the contest. The Predators have to have better starts in they are going to win against talented teams.

• Gabriel Bourque has skated with good jump lately. he has always played hard, but has seemed to have an extra gear in recent games. While this hasn't been the season Bourque or Predator fans have wanted, his late resurgence hopefully bodes well for the upcoming season. This was Bourque's first two goal game in is career.

• The Predators penalty kill while the Stars had a two man advantage was all heart. Rinne and the defense in front of him refused to fold in the face of the Stars attack.

• The Predators out shot the Stars in regulation 26-23. Lehtonen and Rinne both made some good saves during the course of the game. I liked the way the Predators attacked the net after their slow start. Lehtonen kept the Stars in the game with his strong play.

• The line of Calle Jarnkrok, Craig Smith, and Gabriel Bourque was broken up in the third period with Paul Gaustad moving into Jarnkrok's center position. Jarnkrok had 11:39 of ice time tonight and with the exception of Rich Clune (8:26) had the lowest amount of ice time among the Predators forwards.

Tough loss for the Predators, one that will eliminate them from the playoff race.

The compete level was there, but they couldn't capture the win. Now we will see how this team competes in the last three games of the season.

My three stars:

1. Gabriel Bourque

2.Jamie Benn

3. Alex Goligoski

Predators Show Heart, Come Back to Beat the Bruins 4-3 in OT

Sometimes a team wins a game when they are short on talent but long on heart and grit. That was the case tonight in the Bridgestone Arena as the Nashville Predators defeated the Boston Bruins in overtime 4-3. For the Predators, this was their first overtime win of the season, and it was two critical points for the Predators, who are fighting for a playoff spot.

With the win, the Predators record is 36-25-10, good for 82 points and currently 9th in the Western Conference, one point out of the 8th position.

The game was billed as a matchup between the two best goalies in the NHL in Boston's Tim Thomas and Nashville's Pekka Rinne. However, Boston chose to go with backup Tuukka Rask against the Predators.

The game did not start well for the Predators, as Boston scored on their first shot of the game. Tyler Seguin beat Rinne high glove side just 1:50 into the game to stake the Bruins to a 1-0 lead.

Sergei Kostitsyn would break his personal scoring drought at 7:53 of the first with a wrist shot from inside the face off circle that would beat Rask for his 17th goal of the season. Good to see Kostitsyn find the net again, as the Predators are going to need contributions from the speedy forward.

Tyler Seguin would factor into another big play in the first period, as Patric Hornqvist was called for elbowing Seguin at at 17:30 of the first period. Although it appeared that Hornqvist made contact with Seguin's shoulder first, Seguin was injured (he received 7 stitches to his ear), and as a result, Hornqvist received a 5 minute major and a game misconduct for the hit.

The Predators had to kill the major over the remainder of the first period and the start of the second, and they were fortunate that the penalty was spread over the two periods as it gave the penalty killers time to recover during the intermission. The Predators were successful in killing the major penalty and their effort not only energized the crowd but the team as well.

Pekka Rinne made an outstanding save on Michael Ryder, who came out of the box after serving a penalty for interference and broke in behind the defense. Rinne stoned Ryder with a fantastic glove save to keep the Bruins off the board.

The Predators built on the momentum of the save and the energy of the crowd and Colin Wilson capitalized at 10:39 of the second period with a wicked wrister that beat Rask to his blocker side. Wilson squeezed the shot in between Rask's blocker and the post for his 15th goal of the season. Once again, a player that had endured a personal goal scoring drought had broken through with a tally. For the Predators to have success in their remaining games, they are going to have to have contributions from all the forwards, and Wilson is one of those that will be counted on to find the net.

David Krejci would tie the game at 13:33 as he fired a rebound of a Nathan Horton shot into an open net. Rinne made the initial save on the Horton shot, but kicked the rebound out and Krejci beat Shea Weber to the rebound and fired it past an out of position Rinne.

Tied at 2 going into the third period, it was obvious that the out manned Predators could play with the talented Bruins. The question was would they be able to reach down and capture a win they desperately needed?

The Bruins recaptured the lead at 1:50 of the third period as Patrice Bergeron notched his 22nd goal of the season as he beat Rinne to the glove side.

The hole was there. How would the Predators respond?

Martin Erat was called for high sticking at 8:46 of the third, and once again the stellar penalty kill of the Predators went to work, and once again, they held the Bruins off the board. Erat came out of the box, and much like Michael Ryder did in the second period, took a stretch pass behind the defense and broke in on Rask. Rask made the initial save and a save on a follow up by Sergei Kostitsyn. David Legwand was also following the play, and with Rask out of position after the second save, buried the third attempt for the game tying goal at 10:56.

Neither team was able to find the net for the remainder of the third period, and it was off to overtime, a period that had not been kind to the Predators this season.

In the extra period, Steven Kampfer was called for tackling Mike Fisher, who was hustling on the cycle in the Bruins zone. The Predators would have the man advantage for the remainder of the overtime period.

The Predators would make the Bruins pay for their transgression at 3:37 of overtime. Ryan Suter slid the puck to Shea Weber, who was creeping in from the blueline. Weber unleashed his cannon shot from 10 feet inside the blueline, and Rask never saw the rocket until it was in the back of the net.

With the home crowd in a frenzy, the Predators celebrated their first overtime victory of the season, a win that came against the team with the best road record in the NHL. More importantly, they captured a precious two points that they had to have to stay in the playoff race.

This would have been an easy game to tank for the Predators. Injuries have ravaged the line up and you lose a forward to a game misconduct in the first period. The talent level of the Bruins was better and they had a healthy squad. They one thing you cannot quantify, however, is heart.

And tonight, the heart of the Predators was bigger.

This is the kind of game the Predators are going to have to play the rest of the season- gritty hockey, hockey that is not fancy but hard working hockey. Hockey with heart.

Play with the heart that you displayed tonight and you will be rewarded.

My three stars:

1. Shea Weber

2. Colin Wilson

3. Tyler Seguin