Well that is more of what Pred fans are used to seeing when the Preds play Columbus. A 1st period lead that the Preds use to propel themselves to a regulation win vs the Blue Jackets. Tonight was almost opposite of last nights but the Preds kept their offense going and kept the home town fans happy.
Felder’s FANTASTIC Five:
1. Shea Weber = Monster – Take note NHL. This guy is playing big time and putting together a Norris trophy campaign. It’s early yet but so far Shea Weber has been a key part in each game the Preds have won and tonight was no different. Weber had 1 goal, 3 assists, and a whopping +5 rating. He also tied for the team lead tonight with 5 shots on goal and added 3 hits for good measure. Just a big game from a solid player that is embracing his new increased role on this team.
2. So That’s What the 2nd Line Should Be – A very solid night from both Erat and Legwand. Also, a move I’ve been wanting to see happen occurred as Ryan Jones was moved to this line. It paid dividends (and made me feel smart) as this line figured in on 2 of the 6 Pred goals. Erat had 2 goals, a +1 rating, 5 shots on goal and 1 hit. Legwand had 1 goal, 1 assist, a +2 rating, 2 shots on goal and 1 takeaway. He also won 55% of his faceoffs going 11 for 20 tonight. Jones had 1 assist, a +1 rating, 2 shots on goal, and 1 hit.
3. PK Back on Track – The Preds killed off all 4 of the Blue Jackets powerplay chances tonight. The cherry on top was penalty killer Joel Ward scoring a shorthanded goal to give the Preds a 3-0 lead. Ward finished the night with 1 goal, a +2 rating, had 5 shots on goal, and 2 hits.
4. Tootoo’s Grit Returns – Jordin Tootoo used tonight to show the Jackets that he is still a force physically that can’t be ignored. Toots racked up charging, roughing, and fighting penalties within the contest. He definitely had the attention of 2 or 3 Jackets each time out on the ice.
5. Preds Put Pressure On in 3rd Period – I called for more shots on Dan Lacosta at the end of the 2nd period and the Preds delivered. A whopping 17 shots on goal in the 3rd period alone and the Preds scored twice to keep their lead comfortable. Nice to see them pepper the fresh Jackets goalie and keep Columbus on their heels.
Other Notes:
• Tonight’s scratches were Kevin Klein and Jason Arnott. Interestingly, the starting line up was the 2nd line, but the new addition was Ryan Jones to the Erat and Legwand pairing. Finally a move I’ve been calling for since training camp. Hope it spells success.
• 1ST PERIOD
• I find it interesting that despite their play last night Trotz still matched up Legwand and Erat vs Nash and Huselius.
• GOAL for NASHVILLE – 13:30 remains. Nichol had just drawn a tripping penalty negating a Columbus PP. Skating four and four and right after a faceoff J.P. Dumont lays a pass across to Shea Weber. The Cannon fires off a blast and David Legwand tips the puck home high stick side on Norrena. Legwand’s first of the season from Weber and Dumont. Preds lead 1-0.
• GOAL for NASHVILLE – The 2nd line IGNITES. Jones gets a feed from Hamhuis at the blueline, skates in and drops a pass back for Erat. As Jones continues to drive the net Erat fires one on goal and it goes in 5-hole. This is why I’ve been saying the Jones should be on the 2nd line. I like it when they make me look right. Erat from Jones and Hamhuis. Preds lead is now 2-0.
• 5:45 remains and here comes that heat seeking missile known as Jordin Tootoo. He blew up Fedor Tyutin along the right boards. The problem with the play was that Toots was called for charging and thus had to spend 2 minutes in the box. I can see why they called this since Tootoo had his man lined up from the other side of the ice.
• SHORTHANDED GOAL for NASHVILLE – 3:53 to go and Fredrik Norrena comes out of his net to play the puck. Unfortuantely for him he mishandles the puck and Scott Nichol uses this to feed Joel Ward driving to the net. Ward buries his shorthanded chance 5-hole and gets his 2nd goal of the season. The crowd of course erupted appreciating not only the strong PK but the goal for the grinder and newcomer Joel Ward. Ward from Nichol and Weber. Preds up the lead to 3-0.
• The 2nd PP unit was an interesting mix of young and old. On the blueline was Koistinen and Peverley, the forwards were Legwand, Jones, and Hornqvist. Trotz utilizing the youth. I like it….
• END of the 1ST PERIOD – Preds winning the shot battle thus far 8-5. Also, they are dishing out the punishment tonight with a total of 14 hits already in the game.
• 2ND PERIOD
• GOAL for NASHVILLE – The 2nd line is at it again! This time Martin Erat gets the clean up goal as he skates into the crease and pushes the puck home after it trickled through Norrena’s legs. Legwand and Jones were fighting hard for the puck in front and Jones got the puck through Norenna. Erat from Jones and Legwand. Preds lead 4-0.
• After that goal the Blue Jackets elected to put Dan Lacosta in net. Lacosta has limited NHL playing time to say the least. A total of 13 minutes which actually happened to be against the Predators.
• GOAL for COLUMBUS – 13:18 remaining and the Jackets punch home a rebound goal as a delayed penalty is about to be called. Chimera pushed the puck around behind Ellis right leg off a rebound chance from his original shot. Chimera from Novotny and Methot. Preds lead is cut to 4-1.
• As the goal occurs Greg DeVries and Derek Dorsett go at it to settle the conflict they were having. DeVries was about to go to the box for cross checking Dorsett in the face but Dorsett settled his differences by dropping the gloves. A solid fight that Devo really was strong in.
• GOAL for COLUMBUS – 7:09 remaining and the Jackets use a nice rush play to cut the lead in half. Methot trailed on the play and took the pass in the right slot. He fired off a quick one that beat Ellis glove side. As I watched the play develop I had that feeling of danger. The play was similar to one of the Columbus goals last night. Methot from Umberger and Huselius. Preds lead down to 4-2. Déjà vu anyone?
• END of the 2ND PERIOD – Only 2 shots on goal against Lacosta since he came in. I have a feeling that Trotz likely spoke on this during intermission so lets see if the Preds can come out firing in the 3rd.
• 3RD PERIOD
• GOAL for NASHVILLE – 19:33 to go and Shea Weber lets off another cannon shot, beating Lacosta. There are the early shots on the goalie I wanted. A faceoff win by Radek Bonk that goes straight to Weber for the big shot. Ward and Bonk were screening Lacosta on the play. Weber from Bonk. Preds lead 5-2.
• GOAL for NASHVILLE – 15:59 to go. Rich Peverley puts on a show as he comes out of the left corner. He dekes his way towards the net and in a beautiful move scores 5-hole on Dorsett. Go look up the highlight on this one cause that was beautiful. Lacosta had played the puck and sent in to the corner where Rich dug it out and made the play. Peverley with the unassisted goal ups the Preds lead to 6-2.
• 15:27 remains and the Jackets need some momentum back. What better way than to get in a fight. This time Jordin Tootoo squares off with Ole-Kristian Tollefsen. Toots got the better end of this exchange since immediately following Tollefsen was seen clutching his right arm and went straight to the locker room for medical attention. It must have just been a bruise because Tollefsen did return.
• GOAL for COLUMBUS – 12:36 remaining. Another rebound tally pushed in, this time five hole. Rick Nash does the honors with assists from Huselius and Commodore. Preds lead cut to 6-3.
• 9:02 and the Preds almost get themselves another grinder goal. Smithson found Ward in front again on a broken defensive play but this time J-Dub could not punch the puck in. A nice save by Lacosta on this one who dropped down and prevented the along the ice shot to go in.
• The Preds keep things even and finish the game with a 6-3 win.
My Three Stars:
1. Shea Weber
2. Martin Erat
3. Joel Ward
Goalie Grade:B- – The starting goaltender tonight was Dan Ellis. Ellis 1st goal let in was just a solid rebound play that left Dan no chance. His 2nd goal let in I can take a little issue with since it appeared to be a little weak. I think Dan could have gloved that one down, but he may have been screened a little bit on it. The 3rd and final goal was yet another rebound that left Ellis grasping for a save. Pretty solid night but not great. Be sure to check out Ellis’ quotes as he shared some great insight with me.
Ref Review:A – The crew tonight was Mike Leggo, Kelly Sutherland, Pierre Champoux, and Jean Morin. Solid night all around with no complaints whatsoever on my end.
Quotes:
Ryan Jones on moving up to the 2nd line – “When you play with guys that are that good you kind of make things happen. We didn’t get too many pretty goals, Marty’s goal kind of went between my legs and the other one we just grinded it out and sweeped the puck through. We complimented each other pretty well.”
Shea Weber on his progression from last season – “I think as I get older I’ve progressed as a player, become more confident with the more opportunities I get but I still got to keep working.”
Weber on becoming comfortable with his increased role this season – “There are always some things I can do better but as long the teams winning that’s the biggest thing.”
Martin Erat on the team defense – “We have to tighten up a little bit on the defense, we are giving up too many goals, and we are going to focus on that next week.”
Ellis on what can be done to cut down on the goals against – “I think when you look at a lot of the goals a lot of them are deflections and little scrambly type of plays. It’s just a matter of working things out with the defense and getting on the same page a little bit. Right now it’s not like a lot of straight on shots are going through, it’s more passes across, back doors and stuff like that. You just have to work on making some better reads, being more patient on your feet and I think early I was trusting the D a little bit too much locking into the shooter and trusting them that they would take the passer 100%. Sometimes when you do that you leave yourself open to the back door and that’s kind of what happened when we were in Dallas and St. Louis but tonight obviously wasn’t that great again but we need to push through and improve things in practice.”
Ellis on whether or not these back to backs may be helping him – “Yeah. 6 games in 9 nights, last year I don’t think either Mace or I really played even one back to back so to be able to play that many games in such a short period of time, at first I think it was a little bit tiring, I think I started to feel a little bit fatigued that game in Dallas but then you start to get over the hump and get your conditioning legs back and start to feel better actually. You get into more of rhythm and it forces you to stay sharp, stay focused, and get your team wins.”
Barry Trotz on inserting Ryan Jones onto the 2nd line – “We made a change there, I was looking to get Jordin going again a little bit but that line sort of stalled out offensively and I thought Ryan Jones had a real strong game in Columbus. I had a plan A and a plan B going into it and Ryan was pretty good on that line.”
Trotz on using a younger group on the 2nd PP unit – “One of the things we were trying to do is define some roles a little bit. I think Patric is a guy that instinctively can do some things offensively. He hasn’t really put up the numbers yet though. Ryan does a real good job in front. David was sort of quarterbacking it with Peverley and Koitinen on the points. It was stuff we just needed to take another look. Toots, I thought has played very well for us but I though he got a little run down a bit over this course of 6 games, 9 nights, 4 home openers and emotionally very high. I thought today was real important and they might not have the energy but with a rival in town we wanted to respond really well.”
Final Thoughts:
This is the type of game you would like to see from the Preds offensively night in and out. Although I still would like less goals against this was an improved effort from last night to say the least. It will be interesting to see just how these teams match up next time in Columbus without all the pre-game fanfare.
I really liked seeing Jones on the 2nd line, and that Trotz utilized the younger guys on the 2nd PP unit. It’s nice to see those guys get some playing time in different situations so we can get a better feel for what they bring.
The Preds now have a few days off to recover from their 6 games in 9 night’s schedule they just completed. Nashville has evened up their record to 3-3 and have two home games next week. Hope you will be able to attend them.
Till next time, take care.
Don’t forget to tune into the Nashville Hockeybuzz Radio show, Monday nights from 6 to 7 pm on WNSR 560 A.M. with Paul McCann and myself discussing all things Preds! Listen in at the WNSR Website for the best new Preds radio show around!
Questions, comments, and criticisms can be sent to [email protected] if you wish to contact me personally.
Join the Discussion:
»