The sellout crowd, the unexpected comeback, and even the first man advantage goal for Nashville just wasn't enough. After one of the craziest 1st periods I've ever witnessed, the Chicago Blackhawks had a 4-3 lead on the Nashville Predators in Bridgestone Arena for Game 6. It was a lead they would never relinquish as a John Madden empty netter sealed the series for Chicago 4 wins to Nashville's 2 and ended the Predators season. 17,113 left the Bridge witnessing the fifth 1st Round exit for the franchise as the 2nd Round remains out of Nashville's reach.
Felder’s FRUSTRATED Five:
1. Too Little, Too Late - A man advantage goal, Arnott pots a pair, and the Preds dominated the 3rd period shots on goal. All of this was too little too late. Had the special teams been better earlier in the series, we honestly are likely talking about a Nashville series win. The Preds captain Jason Arnott was noticeably absent until this Game 6 as well. Those little things add up to the difference in a series against a talented team such as the Blackhawks.
2. Special Teams - It defined the series. The lack of effective special teams by the Predators cost them this series. There's no need to belabor the point. The fact is that the Hawks powerplay went 4 for 23 in the series while Nashville's went 1-26. On top of that the Preds even had their opportunities at key moments, but couldn't produce. Whenever I think back on this series, it will always come down to special teams for me.
3. Faceoffs - It may go overlooked but faceoffs played a big part in the series. Tonight the Hawks won 56% of faceoffs. Game 4 was the only game in which the Predators had a better faceoff winning percentage than Chicago. Letting a strong puck possession team like Chicago come away with the puck that often inevitably cost Nashville a couple of times.
4. Taking Opportunities and Capitalizing - Again, I'm not going to belabor the point. I talked about it in Games 4 and 5's post-games. Tonight, I look at the 3rd period and the back-to-back-to-back man advantages. On the last two those units did not register a shot on goal. Credit should be given to the Hawks for blocking so many shots in this game (18 compared to Nashville's 7), however we all know just how bad the Preds man advantage was. It wasn't difficult to limit them. Major changes need to be made for the special teams by next season.
5. What's Next? - The Preds did have their share of adversity in this series as they seem to do in every playoffs. That said, this is 5 playoffs in a row with a 1st Round exit. Personally I'm not sure what occurs this offseason, but I do wonder what's next for this franchise. Getting their first playoff road win was a step in the right direction, but truth be told they had this series won if they had seized the key moments for themselves. I can't help but wonder when the ownership group, and more importantly the fan base gets tired of the same Preds story every playoff season. It's a tricky situation that will take some time to evaluate, but for now, the fans and media alike are left to wonder… what's next?
Other Notes:
* Tonight’s scratches were Wade Belak, Dustin Boyd, Cody Franson, and Cal O'Reilly. This marked the return of Patric Hornqvist to the lineup. Scratches for the Blackhawks were Nick Boynton, Corey Crawford, Ben Eager, Colin Fraser, Jordan Hendry, and Kim Johnsson.
* 1ST PERIOD
* 16:34 to go and the Preds have their first "opportunity" on the man advantage. Bryan Bickell goes to the box for holding. That particular man advantage registered one shot on goal by Arnott with around 20 seconds left on the "advantage". A key part of that kill by Chicago was Jonathan Toews. At one point he had 3 Pred players around him as he fought for the puck in the corner in Nashville's end. Not what you want to see when breaking out of a 0-22 series slump.
* GOAL for CHICAGO - 13:22 to go. Duncan Keith registers a goal as he hammers home a slap shot from the left point on the high stick side corner.. Tomas Kopecky was screening in front but did not appear to get a deflection on it. This goal certainly takes the winds out of the Predators sails after yet another unsuccessful man advantage. Keith (1) from Marian Hossa (4) and Patrick Sharp (3). Chicago starts the Preds season death watch as they go up 1-0.
* GOAL for NASHVILLE - 11:10 to go. The Preds push the desperation button and start pressuring in the Hawks end. Shea Weber answers Keith with a goal of his own. Nick Spaling was screening in front as the Beast put a puck through traffic and past Niemi high stick side. The Preds have responded and reenergized their crows. Jordin Tootoo deserves a bit of credit here as he made a nice backhanded pass to Weber to set up his Cannon shot. Weber (2) from Tootoo (1) and Colin Wilson (1). We are now tied at 1 in Bridgestone Arena.
* GOAL for CHICAGO - 10:06 to go. Right off of a faceoff before most could even see the play occur. The puck goes to the boards where Brent Seabrook makes a dumping shot along the boards. The puck deflected off a Patrick Kane's skate near the ankle and changed directions from along the boards to right on net. The problem for Nashville was that Pekka Rinne had already come out of his net to go around behind and play the dump in. By the time he saw the puck arching on net he was unable to get back and stop it. Kane (4) from Seabrook (3) and Toews (5). Chicago takes the surprising 2-1 lead off of a flukey goal. Pred fans must be having flashbacks to the last Game 6, against Detroit, where a fluke bounce from mid-ice allowed Niklas Lidstrom to score on Dan Ellis with a bouncing puck.
* GOAL for CHICAGO - 7:57 to go. A scramble in front produces yet another Hawks goal. Patrick Sharp again gets a dirty goal driving the net and searching for airborne rebounds there. This time he beats Dan Hamhuis to a puck off the side of the net on the stick side. Sharp backhands the puck at the net and it deflects straight up. The puck drops in the crease and then Sharp shovels it home. Have to say that Dan Hamhuis should have been more physical with Hossa wheeling around the boards. Sharp (3) from Hossa (5) and Seabrook (4). Hawks have a will crushing 3-1 lead at the moment and have played this 1st frame almost perfectly.
* POWER PLAY GOAL for NASHVILLE - 4:16 to go. You read that right, a man advantage goal for Nashville. Only 6 games late eh? Jason Arnott no less tallies for the first time in this series by wristing a rebound into an open net. Neimi made two saves originally on Patric Hornqvist and Shea Weber. The rebound popped out glove side and Niemi stood no chance since he had already come to the top of his crease stick side to make the initial saves. Arnott certainly looked relieved after tallying as this was not only his first goal of the series, but also his first point, and the first man advantage marker for the Predators. Arnott (1) from Hornqvist (1) and Weber (1). Chicago's lead is down to 3-2 but the season death watch for Nashville continues.
* GOAL for NASHVILLE - 54.1 seconds to go. My oh my they just won't die. Moments after Dan Hamhuis delivers a huge hip check on Dustin Byfuglin, the Preds blueliner comes back the other way and fires a slap shot on net from the far point. Jason Arnott was screening in front, got a piece of stick on the puck to deflect it, and the crowd erupted as the puck flew in high glove side. Arnott (2) from Hamhuis (2) and Martin Erat (2). We are now tied at 3 a side.
* POWER PLAY GOAL for CHICAGO - 30.4 to go. Yet another power play tally for Chicago that takes less than 10 seconds. This time Duncan Keith tees the puck up, Rinne gives up a rebound low stick side, and Toes takes the rebound and wraps it around the Pred goalie. Special teams failure once again for Nashville in giving up a very quick PP marker. Toews (2) from Sharp (4) and Keith (1). Chicago regains the lead with a 4-3 advantage.
* END OF THE 1ST PERIOD – NSH: 3 CHI: 4 Positives - Arnott and the Man Advantage finally got on the score board. Preds are playing very physical, outhitting CHI 14-5. Negatives - Yet another quick PP goal for the Hawks. Being outshot 13-9. Rinne has not looked spectacular. Chicago has won 57% of the faceoffs so far.
* 2ND PERIOD
* 9:45 to go. Preds still down a goal but the crowd is giving them their best effort. A TV Timeout standing ovation as the whiter rally towels circle the air. These are truly something that you must experience to appreciate.
* Around the 7:00 to go mark. During a stoppage the fans throw a catfish onto the ice. Haven't seen that all season I believe. A Preds ice guy goes out, retrieves it, and then holds it up high for the fans to cheer on. That's certainly never occurred.
* END OF THE 2ND PERIOD – NSH: 3 CHI: 4 Positives - Killed off all 4 penalties taken that period. Still out hitting the Hawks, now at a 27-7 margin. Negatives - 10 minutes worth of penalties to kill. Tempting fate with that. Hawks dominating the SOG with a a 29-13 count. Chicago winning 55% of faceoffs as of now.
* 3RD PERIOD
* 16:24 to go. The Preds are going on the man advantage. Yet another chance to redeem themselves. A tying goal here would bring the house down. Nashville managed 3 shots on goal during the advantage and one scoring chance but no goal.
* 14:03 to go. Just after CHI kills their penalty they take yet another. This time Byfuglien is in the box for interference. Yet another huge opportunity for the Preds to even this game up and get themselves off of season death watch. No shots on goal during this man advantage so a wasted opportunity.
* 11:55 to go. The Preds are being given every chance in the book to get this game tied up. Another CHI PK success, and then immediately following the kill Brent Sopel heads to the box for hooking. This evens up the amount of penalties called and the refs have completed their Mary Kay duties. This could be the last chance on the man advantage for the Preds. Again, no shots on goal during that advantage. Special teams will likely be the death of the Preds season.
* 5:17 to go. Still down one. One last TV Timeout ovation to will their team. No one can say the crowd didn't give it their all tonight.
* 1:16 to go and the Preds goaltender Rinne heads to the bench for the extra attacker. Now or never for Nashville.
* 1:07 left and Nashville uses its timeout to try and find a way to get one past Niemi at least one more time.
* EMPTY NET GOAL for CHICAGO - 7.8 seconds to go. A desperate attempt at a keep in by Shea Weber leads to a penalty. As they go down the other way John Madden ices the series and Nashville's season.
* FINAL SCORE – NSH - 3 CHI - 5.
My Three Stars:
1. Sharp - 1 goal, 2 assists, +1, 2 SOG, 1 takeaway, and won 8 of 13 faceoffs taken.
2. Arnott - 2 goals, game leading 8 SOG, 1 hit, and won 10 of 23 faceoffs.
3. Toews - 1 goal, 2 assists, +2, 3 SOG, 2 takeaways, and won 16 of 28 faceoffs.
Goalie Grade:C – The starting goaltender tonight was Pekka Rinne. It very well could be Rinne's worst game. Certainly his worst 1st period. Beyond that first frame, Rinne gave his team a chance as he did in each game this series. Peks finished this game with 27 saves on 31 shots against. It's unfortunate that Rinne finished this series on a down note because in my mind, he and Legwand are the MVP's of series, with Rinne getting a slight edge in my book. He wasn't ImPEKKAble in Game 6, but he had quite the experience in his first taste of playoff NHL hockey.
Quotes:
Brandon Felder - "When you look back at this series, special teams seem to be the key?"
Jason Arnott - "Yeah, absolutely. Our PP let us down, no question. We gotta be better on the power play. The guys battles hard 5 on 5, penalty kill. Peks played unbelievably for us. Probably wouldn't be in this series if it wasn't for him. The guys played hard but our power play wasn't clicking and didn't give us a chance to win. It's disappointing."
*
Felder - "Peks, many of your teammates would say you guys wouldn't even be in this game without your play throughout the series. Talk about the amount of experience you've gained in your first playoffs."
Pekka Rinne - "Well it was a great experience for sure. Right now it's kind of difficult to put in perspective. It was a great experience. I feel like we deserved a little better. These last two games could have went either way and they showed a lot of poise. They have a lot of talent. They play hard. They changed their game, they didn't play like that in the regular season. They defended really well and just played hard. I think so did we, we played hard but right now it's just really disappointing."
*
Felder - "Special teams really the key to the series now that you look back?"
Shea Weber - "*pauses* Yeah, in a way. Obviously we get our power play going it could change a lot of things but you look at the way we played 5 on 5 and we played well enough to win. It was just some mistakes on our part in Game 5 and that's just the way it goes."
*
Felder - "Barry you mentioned the special teams struggling all season and into the playoffs. Do you feel like you need to make some major changes in the offseason?"
Barry Trotz - "Well, we're going to look at it. Before I answer that I'm going to say that I'll reserve that question for a week or two down the road. Emotionally I don't think I can answer that question right now. We've put a lot of good work into it and unfortunately we haven't gotten the results that we probably want. We had a poor start on the power play, we got it together, but once we put ourselves in a little bit of a hole at the start, it's hard to climb the rankings. If you could take the first 10 or 15 games out of there, after we got settled in a little bit, it was much better. Not to the point where we are probably happy and the numbers aren't where we want them to be but it was much better. Our numbers weren't that bad after you take those first 15 games out. We'll have to evaluate everything. Everything from who's on it. Our top guys are on the power play, maybe we are missing the boat, maybe we need to find more specific roles for guys, that type of thing. We'll have to evaluate that. I know on the penalty killing side a lot of the personnel that was primary penalty killers the last couple of years were gone this year so we had a lot of people that weren't really playing their primary role, we had some dual roles this year. So that's something that we'll probably have to settle in and say you know, play a little more importance of the primary role for a penalty killer."
Felder - "Barry when you look at Pekka Rinne's first playoff series, it could be said that either he or Legwand were the playoff MVP for your team."
Trotz - "Yeah. One of the things with Peks, and he was really good in this series, the best example of Peks's growing maturity was quite frankly, I thought about pulling him after the 2nd, cause he got maybe a little bit rattled, things were happening. After the 2nd period I walked in, I looked at him, and I said, 'You ok? Your good? Your good.' And Peks gathered himself. I think Peks has matured thru adversity and now when things didn't go his way, instead of letting that last goal bother him, he's got a short term memory and he's able to pull it in. I thought he was really good in the 3rd and gave us a chance to win again. That's a great sign . I think he's a terrific goaltender. That was a strength of our team. We had great goaltending and I thought our defense was a strength for us. No one thought we would score as many goals as we did this year, but we did, we found a way to do that. But to me our team grew the most taking on a harder personality. That's probably more from the injection of the young leadership group having a lot more of that mentality combined with the maturity of the older group, we became a harder team and I think we'll continue to be a harder team because that's the way we draft. We draft well and I think it's a mindset in the foundation that we have. You know we still have a long way to go as an organization and as a franchise but the steps are small and painful. We're not a team that has the same group always. We've had a lot of change in the last couple of years so it has been hard to keep piecing it together but at the same time the foundation is there to always be a pretty solid hockey team."
Final Thoughts:
The better team won this series, but they were assisted greatly by the lower seed. I truly think the Hawks have faced a tall task and survived it. They were better in terms of special teams, offensive depth, and the ability to own the series changing moments. I congratulate Chicago on their series win. Nashville did this to themselves and they know that. That is why it must be very frustrating for fans of the Predators right now. There will be a sense of pride in taking it to Chicago in some facets of the game, however this truly was a series of huge opportunity that was left on the ice.
I close with thanks to all of you who have read my work all season. It's a privilege to be able to provide you with my thoughts and analysis of each games. I also thank the Predators organization for allowing me the access that I have. I hope I was able to bring you a fair and complete analysis of the Predators 09-10 season. I'm sure I'll be back in a week or two with some more thoughts, but for now, just like the end of every Preds season I'm going to get some rest.
Hope you enjoyed this season as much as I did.
Till the next time, take care my friends.
Sincerely,
Brandon
Questions, comments, and criticisms can be sent to [email protected] if you wish to contact me personally.
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