The Dallas Stars may not have overwhelmed the Preds with shots on goal, but they did have enough go in to steal two points in Bridgestone Arena. 15,501 looked on in disbelief as the Stars reeled off two goals in just 30 seconds at the start of the 3rd period. From there, the Nashville Predators never mounted much of a comeback and the Stars leave Music City with a 3-1 win.
Felder’s FRUSTRATED Five:
I'm keeping these kind of brief tonight because it wasn't a terrible performance by Nashville
1. That Elusive Scoring Touch - You overwhelm a team in the SOG department then you need to be sure that you will put a few in. The Preds had one of their classic periods with heavy SOG's but nothing to show for it. Dallas was able to wait things out and then strike right out of the gate in the 3rd. Had the Preds converted on one of their handful of odd man rushes we are talking about a different result. Now is not the time of the season to struggle finding the back of the net.
2. Rushed Passes - This was the theme tonight in my book. Too many forced plays and rushed passes that ended up giving the Stars an easy road in the second half of the game.
3. Man Advantage - 0-5 tonight and had a chance in the 2nd period to grab momentum and possibly the game. Not many chances generated considering this special teams unit had just 4 SOG in 6:22 of PP TOI.
4. Turnovers - 14 giveaways in this one and the game really was given away with a turnover as well. Both the 2nd and 3rd goal by Dallas was started with a Pred being careless with the puck.
5. Lack of Urgency - Despite the wide SOG advantage, I didn't get a killer sense from the Preds this evening. Here they had a prime opportunity to put away a team near the bottom of the conference and pad their own spot in the Western Conference playoff standings. With that said, it just didn't seem that the Preds had that much urgency for large stretches in this game. A wasted opportunity in my book.
Other Notes:
* Tonight’s healthy scratch was Wade Belak. Jason Arnott, Denis Grebeshkov, and Joel Ward are out due to injury. For Dallas, Fabian Brunnstrom, Mike Modano, and Brian Sutherby make up their scratch list. On IR, the Stars have Tom Wandell as the lone listed name.
* 1ST PERIOD
* You could tell that these teams haven't seen each other since October. That entire period seemed like a feeling out process. Preds had the better chances and offensive pressure though.
* END OF THE 1ST PERIOD – NSH: 0 DAL: 0 Positives - Nashville leads SOG 14-5. Hammer and Horny leading the way for the Preds that period with 5 and 4 shots on goal respectively. Dominating faceoffs with a 68%. Negatives - When you dominate the offensive zone like that you have to come away with a goal. It's one of those things were if you don't duplicate the effort in the next period it can come back and bite you.
* 2ND PERIOD
* GOAL for DALLAS - 11:50 to go. Trevor Daley buries an easy rebound for the games first goal. This was a scramble in front play in which it appeared Rinne had things under control, but his momentum worked against him this time. Brad Richards wheeled around from behind the net and put the puck towards the top of the crease. Ryan Suter was battling on the stick side and the puck actually hit his skate and settled right there on the doorstep of the blue paint. Rinne saw this and dove over to cover the puck, but the momentum and Steve Ott battling Preds in the crease somehow pushed the puck out into the middle of the slot. Daley was able to easily capitalize from there on the empty net. Daley (6) from Richards (60) and Loui Eriksson (38). Dallas takes the 1-0 lead on just their 7th shot on goal.
* 8:05 to go. Dallas breaks in on a 3 on 2 with Weber and Suter covering. The Beast poke checks the puck before a shot can come off in the slot, but the scramble does produce a snap shot by Steve Ott in the crease. His shot hits the crossbar, but falls glove side where Loui Eriksson is driving the net. A quick rebound shot by Eriksson is on net, but Rinne makes the diving glove stop somehow. Absolute robbery there. How close was it? Well, the play was reviewed and confirmed as a no goal. That said, another one of those plays that proves the "game of inches" theory for hockey.
* GOAL for NASHVILLE - 3:58 to go. The Beast strikes again with a Cannon shot. Steve Sullivan lays off a backhander from the middle of the point to Webs along the boards on Kari Lehtonen's glove side. Shea Weber tees up his cannon shot and burns one in from the short angle. Lehtonen was left waving at that one. Weber was on the outside edge of the faceoff circle and made that goal look easy. Weber (14) from Sullivan (31) and Suter (31). We are now tied at 1 apiece.
* END OF THE 2ND PERIOD – NSH: 1 DAL: 1 Positives - Preds continue to force the play offensively and lead SOG still 26-10. Timely response towards the end of the period to take the momentum with them into the 3rd. Negatives - A little bit of undisciplined play but nothing too bad just yet. Failed to convert on a couple of odd man rushes as well.
* 3RD PERIOD
* GOAL for DALLAS - 18:30 to go. Ryan Suter gets caught after an up ice giveaway to Brad Richards. Richards immediately found Eriksson driving in behind Sutes. This gave the Stars a 2 on 1 and Eriksson took advantage with a high glove shot that found the twine. I say Suter got caught on this play because he was in the neutral zone trying to stop the Richards pass after the turnover and that is what allowed Eriksson to slip in behind the D. Eriksson (27) from Richards (61). Stars take a 2-1 lead early in the period.
* GOAL for DALLAS - 18:00 to go. Simple play here. Legwand has the puck in the corner and doesn't contain it as Brandon Segal swipes it away from him and pushes the pass to the point for Morrow. From there Morrow slides the puck over to Matt Niskanen who waits for a screen in front and then fires his shot home stick side. Quick start for the Stars with goals merely 30 seconds apart. Dallas has taken all the energy and momentum away for the 3rd period so far. Niskanen (3) from Morrow (25) and Segal (6). Two goal advantage for Dallas now with the scoreboard showing 3-1.
2. Kari Lehtonen - 34 saves on 35 shots against. Made the necessary saves and kept Dallas in it all night.
3. Brad Richards - 2 primary assists, +2, 1 takeaway, 2 blocked shots, and won 13 of 19 faceoffs taken.
Goalie Grade:B – The starting goaltender tonight was this past week's #1 Star of the NHL, Pekka Rinne. Peks didn't see too much rubber tonight, but when he did it was almost always a scoring chance. He had no chance on the 1st and 3rd Dallas goals. The 2nd one was off a turnover but Peks had the time to square up. I'm not calling it a soft goal, but more of a 50/50. 11 saves on 14 shots against doesn't help the GAA but there was at least one killer save by Rinne that was dissected in the Other Notes section.
Quotes:
Brandon Felder - "When you look early in the game at the amount of shots on goal you guys had, does it get to a point where it becomes mentally taxing to not see one go in?"
Ryan Suter - "No because I don't think we had that many quality shots. They were just shots from all angles but we didn't have any traffic. They weren't high quality shots."
*
Felder - "How hard is it to regain focus after giving up 2 goals in 30 seconds?"
Shea Weber - "It's tough but it's a situation you have to deal with especially if you want to win games down the stretch."
*
Felder - "Suter and Weber both said they didn't think the shots on goal were high quality for the most part. Would you agree?"
Barry Trotz - "I don't think we had enough guys going to the real hard areas. We wanted to stay to the perimeter and you can't do that, not with the way they were playing. You've got to go to the hard areas, you've got to win those puck battles. You've got to find those puck and you've got to throw them there - just like how they got their third goal, they had a guy right at the net, they threw it at the net, and it found its way in."
Final Thoughts:
This game made me wish the regular season was over even more than I did before the game. It was just a boring game to be honest. Dallas almost lulled the Preds to sleep and finally took advantage to start the 3rd. It wasn't a BAD game by Nashville, but certainly not what you want to see night in and night out. A few lessons learned and a better sense of urgency for Thursday will be all that's needed to get back on pace.
The Predators next game is Thursday night versus the red hot Phoenix Coyotes. This will be a true test of which team in the West is best. 7 PM faceoff as usual right back here in the Bridgestone Arena. It should be quite the battle so if you somehow can't make it to the game, don't miss out and make sure you catch the FS TN broadcast.
Till the next time, take care.
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