It was yet another 0-0 tie after 40 minutes in Nashville. This time, the Preds tallied first in the 3rd, but the St. Louis Blues kept fighting, scored, and forced a shootout. 16,702 looked on as Pekka Rinne stopped Brad Boyes on his shootout attempt, securing the Predators their 100 point season on their final regular season game.
Felder’s FICKLE Five:
1. An ImPEKKAble Performance - I normally save the ImPEKKAble tag for shutouts, but I think Rinne earned it tonight. His play early in contest preserved the Preds chance to even see that 100th point. Check the Goalie Grade for more.
2. Where is the Killer Instinct? - This is one of my big concerns for Nashville heading into the post-season. Great teams know how to put lesser opponents away. This past week the Preds failed to come out flying in some key games. They lost to Phoenix due to that, and then tonight they couldn't put away the non-playoff team. Maintaining leads in the 3rd are one thing, but when you have the opponent reeling early in the 1st period you have to use your killer instinct and put them away. I haven't seen much of that from the Preds this season.
3. Let's Get Physical - One thing I did like about tonight's game was the physicality. 21 hits dished. 21 shots blocked. Those details are important next week.
4. Finish Please - At this point, the one thing I really believe may be THE reason the Preds don't go deep into the playoffs is their lack of ability to finish off scoring chances. The Preds put 36 shots on Conklin and only tallied once. In the playoffs, the chances are even harder to create so when you do get them, you have to make sure you put the puck in the net. Finding the twine is always key to winning, but putting the puck on the corners and not into the goalies chest increases your chances to win in my opinion.
5. Signed, Sealed, and D-eliverd - Another solid outing by the Predator defense. They were able to contain for key stretches. Now, it wasn't a perfect night for them by any means. There was the occasional turnover, the odd man rush given up, etc. That said, better to do those things today rather than next week. Maybe it's out of their system.
Other Notes:
* Tonight’s scratches were Denis Grebeshkov, Patric Hornqvist, Cal O'Reilly, and Nick Spaling. Scratched from the Blues lineup, Patrik Berglund, Barret Jackman, Erik Johnson, DJ King, TJ Oshie, Roman Polak, and Keith Tkachuk.
* 1ST PERIOD
* The first 5 minutes were solid for Nashville. Beyond that you didn't see much killer instinct. Pekka Rinne is keeping the Preds energized.
* END OF THE 1ST PERIOD – NSH: 0 STL: 0 Positives - St. Louis did not score.. Negatives - Out shot 12-10. Blues won 63% of faceoffs. St. Louis actually out shot the Preds shorthanded 2-0.
* 2ND PERIOD
* This game looks like the Blues want to win, and the Preds aren't too concerned either way. The goaltenders have been fantastic though.
* END OF THE 2ND PERIOD – NSH: 0 STL: 0 Positives - Preds poured the puck at the net and now lead the game 26-19 in the SOG dept. Peks still stopping them all. Negatives - Lack of finish on those scoring chances. Blues have won 56% of faceoffs tonight.
* 3RD PERIOD
* GOAL for NASHVILLE - 14:34 remains. The Captain Jason Arnott tallies for the first time since injury. A feed from Shea Weber across the front of the net gave Arny plenty of time to tally on the open net stick side. Not much chance for Ty Conklin on this one as the feed from faceoff dot to faceoff dot by the Beast was done in a flash. Arnott (19) from Weber (27). Preds take the 1-0 lead early in the 3rd period.
* GOAL for ST. LOUIS - 9:42 to go. Tic-tac-toe and David Backes has a goal. What a play here as Backes is low on the stick side, finds Brad Boyes on the glove side slot, and then a return feed goes to Backes for the gaping net. Boyes just found a way to slip the puck between Francis Bouillon's legs to feed the puck back to Backes for the easy tally. Well executed there. Backes (17) from Boyes (28) and Paul Kariya (25). This game is tied up at 1 now.
* TO OT WE GO
* TO THE SHOOTOUT WE GO FOR THE 12TH TIME THIS SEASON
* Pekka Rinne stopped all 3 STL shooters. Martin Erat tallied high glove to give the Preds a go-ahead goal as Brad Boyes took the final shot for the Blues. A high glove stop by Rinne sealed the deal and the all important 100th point for Nashville.
* FINAL SCORE – NSH - 2 STL - 1.
My Three Stars:
1. Rinne - 33 saves on 34 shots against. Stopped all 3 shootout attempts.
2. Arnott - 1 goal, +1, 5 SOG, won 8 of 16 faceoffs taken.
3. Conklin - 35 saves on 36 shots against. Kept the Blues in this game early.
Goalie Grade:A – The starting goaltender tonight was Pekka Rinne. Yet another solid outing for Peks. Where would this team be without some of his performances the past month and a half? He has been keeping this team from being buried by poor starts. It will be very interesting to see how Mr. ImPEKKAble responds to his first ever taste of the NHL playoffs.
Quotes:
Brandon Felder - "Arny what type of things does your team need to tighten up on as they head into the playoffs?"
Jason Arnott - "First, starts. Drop of the puck. We got to be ready to go. Whoever we play is going to be fast and ready to go so we have to get off to better starts than we have as of late. And just playing sound defensively. It's hard not to make mistakes, it's gonna happen, but our recoveries have to be a little better. If we take care of our own zone we'll end up scoring goals."
*
Felder - "Webs what type of things do you guys need to sharpen up on as you head to the playoffs?"
Shea Weber - "Everything. The last two games have been very uncharacteristic of us. We haven't played a very good total game and in the playoffs you have to make sure you are doing everything right, especially those little things."
*
Felder - "Peks, when you think of that, your first NHL playoffs, what comes to your mind because I'm sure it is something you've been waiting for for a long time."
Pekka Rinne - "Yeah, absolutely. That's something you think about almost every day and especially as of late since we clinched the playoffs. Since that it's been in the back of my mind and I can't wait. It's going to be so exciting but also you have to approach it where you stay calm and don't get too pumped up."
*
Felder - "Sully it's the first time you've played every game in a season since 02-03. Considering your history with injuries, just talk about that and your daily preparation this season."
Steve Sullivan - "My daily routine is make sure that I do some core exercises and make sure the back stays strong. Besides that we're back to being healthy. This will be the first time I'm going into the playoffs healthy since back in the first year I got here, since the trade. I'm really looking forward to it. I really think the group of guys here is a special group. I think a lot of the 1 goal games we've played are gonna help us down the stretch here in the playoffs. I think we're going to do some special things. I really do."
*
Felder - "What specific types of things do you want the team to sharpen as they go into the playoffs?"
Barry Trotz - "Well everything. Everything from pace of the game, execution, just the details of line changes, just our overall play in every zone, and the details. In the last couple of games we've given up goals where they had great chances when we had pucks in the neutral zone and we're tired so we just go off (for a line change) and that's not good enough. From our standpoint with the playoff intensity I'm sure it will get to another level but those details are going to be the difference. We've won a lot of close games. We've got one of the best records in 1 goal games in the league, but we've got to make sure we eliminate some of those free chances and not leave it up to Pekka. We've got some guys trying to catch up to the moving train a little bit that have been out for awhile. Joel Ward is still trying to find his game. He just got sick between the periods and he's fighting a little bit of a bug. Arny's coming back after a long layoff and he's going to have to ramp his game up even more. So he's got some catching up to do and there are some guys on our 3rd and 4th line that really need to pick their game up. It's up to us all, the whole group. We've done some good things this year. You look at the whole body of work: on the road we've been quite successful, 23 wins. At home, we got off to a little bit of a slow start in our win column but we've turned that around and been pretty good at home. Our penalty killing in the last 10 games has been really quite strong. Powerplay in the last 10 games hasn't been as strong as we wanted to so we're going to work on that a bit in the next day or so. Goaltending has been a strength for us down the stretch."
Felder - "You mentioned the 3rd and 4th liners. How concerned are you about the depth scoring?"
Trotz - "We're going to need depth scoring. The 3rd and 4th line the last two games, I really take pride in the fact that they usually are really good in a lot of the compete levels and a lot of the hard areas. In the last two games I think we've pulled back. That's something I know we'll regain but something that I haven't' been too complimentary of that group the last two games."
Final Thoughts:
The Preds still have some work to do in order to be ready for Round 1. Tonight again highlighted the poor starts, lack of finish, and lack of killer instinct. Those things have been bothersome to this club as of late and need to be corrected quickly, or the playoffs won't last that long. The one positive you can take form yet another shootout win is that this team tends to do well in 1-goal games. Their record is 28-9-6 in those games. The only other team with a better record in a 1-goal game wins is Phoenix. They are 29-6-6 with one game remaining being played tonight in San Jose. All that said, the shootouts won't be there to save either Phoenix or Nashville in their next games so it'd be best to find ways to pot the puck.
The Predators next game is at an unknown date and time. What is important however is that there will be a next game. The playoffs are finally here boys and girls and I can't begin to tell you how happy I am for that. All that said, I've heard the Preds are likely to play Game 3 of their series at home on Sunday, April 18th. So don't be shocked if that date is accurate. Also, considering the 18th will be Game 3 you'd have to pencil in Game 4 for that Tuesday, the 20th.
Stay tuned to this spot for a post before the games commence on Wednesday. I'll have a predictions post (as will every other media person under the sun), but more importantly, I did spend portions of this evening writing my series preview for the Predators. That's likely to be posted Tuesday with the predictions column on Wednesday.
Till then, be well, enjoy the last day of regular season hockey, and take care.
Questions, comments, and criticisms can be sent to [email protected] if you wish to contact me personally.
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