The Nashville Predators appeared to learn their lesson from Thursday as they defeated the Dallas Stars 4-2 last night in front of a raucous Bridgestone Arena crowd, delivering Frostys and two points to Pred Nation.
The best evidence of lesson learning? David Legwand did not hesitate to bury his open net chance…
The team is on a serious roll right now, winning six in a row and going 8-1-1 over their last ten. It’s on off day for the team. They will be back in action on Tuesday night against the Vancouver Canucks... trying to make it seven... :-)
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The last fifteen…
Games 13-15 – Minnesota (W), Colorado (W), Los Angeles (L) – 2-1-0
Games 10-12 – Boston (W), Detroit (W), @Buffalo (W) – 3-0-0
Games 7-9 – Edmonton (W), Anaheim (W), Dallas (W) – 3-0-0
Games 4-6 – Vancouver (3/29), @Colorado (3/31), Detroit (4/2)
Games 1-3 – Atlanta (4/5), Columbus (4/8), @ St. Louis (4/9)
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Random Notes
- The standings update… the Predators are in 6th, they have 92 points tied with 5th place Los Angeles . They trail 4th place Phoenix by one point. The Preds lead 7th place Anaheim by three points, 8th place Chicago by four points, 9th place Calgary by five and 10th place Dallas by six. The Ducks and Kings have a game in hand, the Stars and Blackhawks have two games in hand on Nashville. Nashville has a game in hand over the Coyotes and Flames.
- Tonight’s impact games – None
- The Predator’s playoff chances are now up to 96.2% (according to SportsClubStats.com) after last night’s action. Who to root for tonight? Sit back and relax as none of the games tonight have an impact on the Predators playoff chances.
- Nice to see Mike Fisher get back on the score sheet last night. In his best game as a Predator, he buried two and was all over the ice.
- Terrible call on Ryan Suter with two minutes to go in last night’s game… no way that call should be made with two minutes left in the first period… let alone the third.
- A little over two hundred short of a sellout last night… bad weather certainly hurt the walk up business. I have to say… most teams would declare two hundred short of capacity a sellout… I like the honesty this organization shows.
- The playoff matchups are yet to be determined, but it is fun to talk about what would happen if the playoffs started today… The Predators would end up with (gulp!) the Sharks. Even though the Preds have matched up well against San Jose, it still gives Pred Nation a case of heartburn. Speaking of heartburn… Canuck fans would be in freak mode as Vancouver would be matched up against Chicago.
- Big win for Anaheim last night, winning in regulation over Chicago. The Blackhawks have games in hand over everyone they are chasing, but a tough road ahead.
- Pittsburgh clinched a playoff spot yesterday, the third spot clinched in the Eastern Conference, only Vancouver has clinched in the west so far.
- Bad news on the injury front last night for Los Angeles as Anze Kopitar went down with a nasty looking broken ankle. First Justin Williams, now Kopitar… some bad mojo in LA right now.
- Speaking of injuries, the Detroit Red Wings lost Jimmy Howard in the third period last night as Joffrey Lupul fell on Howard while scoring. Wings GM Ken Holland was quoted as saying the injury “doesn’t appear to be anything significant. He’s day-to-day.” Language like that makes Pred Nation nervous... I wonder if Holland went to the Barry Trotz scho0ol of injury evaluation. :)
- Losses by New Jersey and Toronto last night have effectively ended their playoff hopes… unless a miracle happens.
- Big props to Calgary, who saw their season spinning away, going into the third period of last night’s game with the Oilers down by three, and coming back to win… it may not be enough, but a real character test for Calgary.
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COMING UP ON THE NEXT SLAPSHOT RADIO…
This week’s podcast is posted… the show featured Comcast’s Bill Clement and ESPN.com’s EJ Hradek. Check it out at
the SlapShot Radio website.
Next week’s guest list is being finalized.
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