Before my posting… please send your thoughts and prayers to all who were affected by yesterday’s flooding and tornadoes across the south.
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OK... here's my preview of the Predators and Canucks.
When you look at these two teams on paper, there really is no comparison. Vancouver should win this series in a walk... it's a good thing for Nashville that this series won't be played on paper. For some reason, Nashville has traditionally matched up well with Vancouver. The Canucks have seemed to struggle a bit against the defensively responsible Predators over the last few seasons. I expect this to be a long series.
Game Schedule
Thu 4/28 @ Vancouver, 8pm CDT
Sat 4/30 @ Vancouver, 8pm CDT
Tue 5/3 @ Nashville, Time TBD
Thu 5/5 @ Nashville, Time TBD
*Sat 5/7 @ Vancouver, 7pm CDT
*Mon 5/9 @ Nashville, Time TBD
*Wed 5/11 @ Vancouver, Time TBD
*If necessary.
Media Coverage
Television
US - Versus / Canada - CBC
Radio Coverage
Nashville – WBUZ 102.9 FM The Buzz – Play-by-Play - Pete Weber, Color – Terry Crisp, Sideline - Tom Callahan
Vancouver – CKST Team 1040AM – Play-by-play – John Shorthouse / Rick Ball, Color – Dave Tomlinson
Season Series - Tied 2-2-0, each team has won one and lost one at home.
1/26/11 @ VAN – Vancouver 2 Nashville 1 – GWG – Lee Sweatt
2/17/11 @ NSH – Nashville 3 Vancouver 1 – GWG - Nick Spaling
3/03/11 @ VAN – Nashville 3 Vancouver 0 – GWG – Blake Geoffrion
3/29/11 @ NSH – Vancouver 3 Nashville 1 – GWG – Alexander Burrows
Head–to-Head Stat Leaders
Points – NSH – Martin Erat 4 pts (1g,3a) / VAN – Daniel Sedin 4 pts. (1g,3a)
Goals – NSH – Mike Fisher – 3 / VAN – Alexander Burrows – 3
PIM – NSH – 3 with 4 PIM (Hornqvist, Blum, Suter) / VAN – Henrik Sedin – 4 PIM
GAA – NSH – Pekka Rinne – 1.26 / VAN – Roberto Luongo – 1.77
Save % - NSH – Pekka Rinne - .962 / VAN – Roberto Luongo - .929
How they got here
The fifth seed, Nashville won its’ first playoff series in franchise history 4-2 over the fourth seeded Anaheim Ducks. The top seed and President’s Trophy winner, Vancouver finally beat the Chicago Blackhawks, eliminating the defending Stanley Cup Champs 4-3.
Positional Breakdown
Forwards – Vancouver’s top line is a high scoring bunch, the Sedin twins can do it all… and if they don’t do it, look to Ryan Kesler, Mason Raymond and Alexander Burrows. The next two lines do reflect a bit of a drop off. The Predators roll four lines and expect production out of all four, but the contributions of Mike Fisher, David Legwand, Martin Erat and Patric Hornqvist are critical to Nashville’s success in this series.
The X Factor - Alexander Burrows has made the transition from a pest with potential, to a pest that contributes more than just getting under the opponents skin. After last season’s controversy with referee Stephane Auger, he’s learned to yap less and play more, to his, and his team's benefit.
Advantage - Vancouver
Defense – The Canucks have a solid blueline, despite their season long injury issues. The long-awaited (by Predator fans) return of Dan Hamhuis to Bridgestone Arena will happen at last as the former Pred was injured for both Vancouver trips to Nashville this season. Nashville’s top d-pair of Shea Weber and Ryan Suter is widely recognized as one of the best in the league and their leadership of this team is a major reason they are where they are. When you get to the second and third defense pairings, the slight edge goes to the Canucks.
The X Factor - Shane O’Brien - The ex-Canuck does seem to have a burr under his saddle, if he can aggravate without going over the line, he could be a difference maker over the course of the series.
Advantage - Even
Goaltending – Two Vezina Trophy finalists going head-to-head in this one. Both goaltenders coming off first round performances that were less than expected. Roberto Luongo is fighting a perception that he doesn’t bring it for big games, one that wasn’t helped by his overall performance in the Canucks first round series, but truth be told, he certainly went a long way toward banishing that rep with his stellar performance in game seven. Pekka Rinne didn’t have to steal games in the Predator’s first round match-up, but he did make the key save at critical times in the series. Rinne will have to be better in round two. The good news for Predator fans is that Rinne likes lots of shots... he will get them in this series.
The X Factor – How does Roberto Luongo react under adversity again, given what happened in round one? He played well in four games, OK in one and very badly in two. If a leash exists, how short is it?
Advantage - Even
Coaching – Two coaches with playoff experience, one with incredible pressure to win it all, one that could be perceived as playing with house money. Vancouver head coach Alain Vigneault has the expectations of a country on his back coaching the consensus Stanley Cup favorite. He made some very questionable decisions in his opening round series regarding his goaltenders but Vigneault is a solid game manager. Predators head coach Barry Trotz showed some very good counter-moves in Nashville’s first round series, he will need to continue this as line match up will become even more critical in the second round.
The X Factor - How do these coaches work the media and the officials to manage the series?
Advantage - Even
Intangibles – Both teams are coming off of emotional wins. Both teams are coming off victories that represented hurdles that had to be crossed. Both teams are coming off highly physical series. The difference here may be the expectations heaped on the Canucks, how they react to being the favorite and what they learned from the first round. Being pushed to the edge in their first series could turn out to be a big positive for Vancouver.
The X Factor - Pressure. How does Vancouver handle the pressure from its’ hometown media and more importantly, the pressure of being Canada’s last hope to be the first Canadian team to win the Cup since Montreal’s win in 1993.
Advantage - Vancouver
Who wins this series?
Why Vancouver Wins - The Canucks use their game seven win as a springboard to build up a head of steam. They come out with the same energy and passion they showed in game seven and feed off the Rodgers Arena crowd, rocking the Predators back on their heels, taking the first two in Vancouver and threaten to sweep the upstart Predators. Roberto Luongo puts the past aside and delivers the kind of consistent performance he has yet to show over a complete series and the Canucks drive the Predators into a special teams type of series.
If that happens... the Canucks take this series in five.
Why Nashville Wins - The Predators execute a highly disciplined game plan with a smothering defense, an opportunistic offense and a goaltender that gets hot at the right time, gaining a split in the first two games. These factors frustrate the Canucks, driving the coach or a member of the front office to complain in the media about anything they can think of, bad ice, bad officiating, bad scheduling... anything to take the focus off the on-ice performance. The Predators ride the split into a crazed Smashville and feed off the Bridgestone Arena craziness to ratchet up the pressure on the President's Trophy winners who begin to squeeze the stick a little too hard, only increasing the effectiveness of Pekka Rinne.
If that happens... the Predators win in six.
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Random Notes
- Game one represents great opportunity for the Predators. A three day rest, a little time to heal some bumps and bruises, then back at it. Puck drop is at 8:10pm CDT.
- The Predators managed to get out of Nashville in the middle of all the weather craziness yesterday, arriving in Vancouver at around 7pm CDT last night.
- Vancouver GM Mike Gillis was fined for his comments about the officiating in their opening round series. I’m glad the GM was held accountable for the comments he made.
- Thanks to Blake Price for having me on the Team 1040 last night. The Vancouver station is traveling to Nashville for Games 3 and 4 and will be hosting their show from the Sports Grille at the Hilton right across from Bridgestone Arena. My appearance was in hour 3… the podcast for last night's show is posted on the Team 1040 website.
- How about them Bolts? Big win for the Lightning last night, taking game seven at Consol Energy Center.
- One of the big storylines in these playoffs has been the 40+ year old players making a contribution. Anaheim’s Teemu Selanne, Boston’s Mark Recci, and Tampa Bay goaltender Dwayne Roloson. The 41 year old netminder posted stellar numbers in the Lightning’s series with the Penguins… a 1.77 GAA and a .949 save percentage.
- Pittsburgh provided a valiant effort last night but was running out of gas as the game progressed. They looked like they spent most of their effort on their late season run, but the injury situation was just too much for the Penguins to overcome.
- Montreal bowed out last night as the teams that couldn’t win on home ice in the first four games, became the teams that defended their turf well in the last three. Mike Cammalleri was huge again in an elimination game, but it just wasn’t enough.
- In the other locker room, the Boston Bruins erased the memory of last year’s collapse with the win… but that memory will be refreshed soon enough, given their second round opponent. Plenty of motivation going into the semi’s.
- The Selke nominations came out yesterday, Pavel Datsyuk, Ryan Kesler and Jonathan Towes are the finalists. Hart Trophy finalists are announced later today. The Jack Adams Award finalists are announced tomorrow (Friday.)
- Washington / Tampa Bay gets their series started tomorrow night, along with San Jose and Detroit. Philadelphia and Boston lift the lid on their series Saturday afternoon.
- The NBC schedule for the conference semi-finals is fairly predictable. Philly/Boston this Saturday and Game 5 on Mother’s Day. San Jose/Detroit on this Sunday and Washington/Tampa Bay on Sat 5/7. Of course CBC gets all of the Vancouver/Nashville series.
- Round two in the Eastern Conference features two teams from the Southeast Division and one each from the Northeast and Atlantic… In the West there’s one from the Northwest, one from the Pacific and two from the Central Division.
- I’ll have my breakdowns of the series that get started this weekend tomorrow…
- Tonight’s playoff schedule – Nashville @ Vancouver – Game One, 8pm CDT (Versus, CBC)
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COMING UP ON THE NEXT SLAPSHOT RADIO…
Last night’s podcast is posted - We previewed the conference semi-finals with the Puck Daddy, Greg Wyshynski, we talked to Eklund and had a blogger roundtable with Ryan Porth of Red Light District and Jeremy Gover of section303.com. It was a lively hour, you can get check out the podcast at
the SlapShot Radio podcast page.
Nashville Predators Blogger •Predators Radio Network • 
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