The Predators made their 14,797 fans on hand wait a bit to let out any sighs of relief. A come from behind 3-2 win over the Avalanche had just as many spills as thrills, but the end result kept the Preds record spotless.
Felder’s FANTASTIC Five:
1. Top Line Carrying the Scoring Weight - The Preds top line has been the reason the Preds have scored any goals this young season. Considering the injuries, head coach Barry Trotz seems to be leaning on them for most of the offensive output. I asked about the secondary scoring (or lack thereof) and Trotz made an interesting admission. Head to the QUOTES for that. Back to the top line though. Arnott with 8 shots on goal, Hornqvist with 7, and Steve Sullivan with 3. Arnott and Hornqvist provide the goals and so far so good for the Preds top line this season.
2. Breakout Night for a Swede - Those of you expecting Hornqvist to even make the team before camp started raise your hand…. Ok, put your hand down if you are related to Patric. Yep. No more hands. Whatever caused Hornqvist to struggle last season seems to have disappeared. Whether he has truly adjusted to the NHL ice size or speed remains to be seen, but his early returns show some really good results. When Dumont returns, Hornqvist could actually provide scoring depth for this team if he keeps his play up to this level. A nice breakout game for Patric in which he earned the 1st star of the game.
3. Call It Winning Goaltending - Dan Ellis has looked good from training camp on and not looked back. At this point he has made a solid case for starting Monday night. Rinne is scheduled for Saturday and better bring his "A" game if he wants to get back in between those pipes. Head to my Goalie Grade for a little more on Ellis' night.
4. Overcoming Some Tough Stuff - It's interesting what little events within a game do to a team. Tonight, the Preds felt they were unjustly given a no goal review of Jason Arnott's play. Quite frequently things like this change the complexion of a game, but it's not every day that you seem a team RALLY from what they consider an unjust call. The Preds did just that tonight and you can't help but think that will build some confidence for the future of this season.
5. Using Momentum - The players certainly took note of the fans effort tonight. After seizing momentum with two unanswered goals, the fans kept the team's spirits high and urged them on to hold off the charging Avs. Momentum is a tricky thing in sports but tonight was a good example of how to use it to your advantage.
Other Notes:
* Tonight’s scratch was J.P. Dumont due to a concussion. Jordin Tootoo, Joel Ward, and Colin Wilson are on IR with groin strains. For Colorado, Brett Clark, David Koci, and David Jones were scratched.
* 1ST PERIOD
* 16:35 to go. A little bit of a disjointed start for the Preds offense. The positive is that the D has yet to allow a shot on goal so they are stifling the Avs forwards for now as well.
* 10:07 to go and Dan Ellis comes up with the first highlight save of the evening. Wade Belak commits a bad giveaway from the boards that goes right to TJ Hensick in the slot between the circles. Hensick pauses, finds the spot he wants, and fires a slapper. Ellis makes a gorgeous glove save on the high glove side and brings the crowd back into this game.
* 5:13 to go. Chris Stewart gets involved with a bit of rough stuff battling against Ryan Jones. The contact comes after Jones had the puck and even though Ryan came back at Steward, the refs blew the play dead and assessed an elbowing penalty to Stewart. First chance on the man advantage for either team tonight.
* 4:00 to go and the Preds miss a great opportunity after Sullivan took the puck across the ice in front of Anderson and then missed just barely on the glove side. Sullivan may have been guilty of holding the puck a bit too long on this one because it allowed rookie Matt Duchene to accidentally block the puck while trying to clear Jason Arnott from the crease. Anderson lost his stick on the play, but the Preds were too slow to realize it. After about 10 seconds without it, Anderson recovered his stick from within his own net.
* END OF THE 1ST PERIOD – NSH: 0COL: 0Positives - Lead the shots on goal 9-7. Won 61% of the faceoffs. Ellis played very well and only gave up one big rebound. Negatives - Sloppy play throughout the period with 6 giveaways. Things just seemed disjointed on offense despite the 9 shots.
* 2ND PERIOD
* 15:34 to go and the Avs will get their first power play of the evening. Triston Grant commits an obvious interference penalty when he hit an Av who hadn't even touched the puck recently. Stupid penalty there.
* POWER PLAY GOAL for COLORADO - 15:30 to go. Right off the faceoff Kyle Quincy get the puck at the blueline and tees up a shot. Ellis couldn't see it through traffic and it floated in stick side. At first glance I thought Duchene may have deflected it but apparently my eyes aren't very good. Quincy from John-Michael Liles and Milan Hejduk on the power play. The Avalanche take the 1-0 lead early in the 2nd.
* 13:20 to go and Anderson continues to blank the Preds in unfathomable ways. This time Marcel Goc wheeled in out of the corner and appeared to have beat Craig but somehow the puck ended up on the glove side instead of in the net. Watching the replay showed the rebound came in between the legs of a now sitting Anderson and he did well to cover up before Goc could follow up with a rebound attempt. Impressive goaltending.
* GOAL for NASHVILLE - 8:58 to go. The Captain comes through with a goal from the middle of the slot. Anderson had just made a huge save and was recovering from the rebound. Sullivan tracked the puck and took it along the boards. He spotted Arny camped and ready for a slap shot and quickly gave the centermen the puck. Arnott tallied low stick side before Anderson could get back in position. Arnott from Sullivan and Hornqvist. This game is tied at 1.
* 4:47 to go in the period and Triston Grant takes another bad penalty. This type of play will quickly get you shipped back to Milwaukee. You can't take interference penalties each game, let alone two in one period.
* 8 seconds to go and Avs rookie Duchene gets the best chance to net a goal of his short career. The Avs find him crossing the blueline for a breakaway. Duchene broke in, faked stick side to get Ellis to sprawl, and then had Dan right where he wanted him on the glove side. All Matt had to do was lift the puck but he ran out of real estate and ended up putting the puck right into the upper portion of Ellis' leg pad. Missed opportunity there but fortunate for the Preds.
* END OF THE 2ND PERIOD – NSH: 1COL: 1Positives - Still winning the majority of faceoffs with a 58%. Somehow leading shots on goal 22-16. Negatives - There is not much of an offensive pulse on this team other than Arnott and Sullivan. 10 giveaways at this point. Weber with 0 shots on goal. He's tried, but all 3 attempts have been blocked.
* 3RD PERIOD
* POWER PLAY GOAL for COLORADO - 12:16 to go. Just as time is expiring on Patric Hornqvist goaltender interference penalty Marek Svatos sneaks a puck in just under Dan Ellis glove in close. Hensick found Svatos driving the night and put the puck right on his stick. Stupid penalties have cost the Preds dearly thus far. Svatos from Hensick and Tucker. Avs now lead this one 2-0.
* 8:58 to go. The Preds catch the Avs napping on a D-pair line change. Hornqvist breaks in all along behind the D. After a deke and try low glove side on Anderson the puck rest on the red line. Jason Arnott charges in hard to the net where all he needs is to get a stick on the puck to get it to cross the line. With pressure from behind Arnott misses the puck with his stick, but his left skate does make contact and push it in. The immediate call from the refs was a no goal signal. The play went to a review in Toronto where the referee's decision was upheld. After looking at the replay, I have to say I think they got it right. As Arnott slowed down upon getting to the puck, he did appear to have a twitch in his left leg. That alone was enough to cause doubt and I can see where Toronto saw that as no goal. All that said, how do you not get your stick on a puck that is literally on the red line waiting for a tap in?
* GOAL for NASHVILLE - 7:29 to go. Patrick Hornqvist buries a rebound low glove side on Anderson. A shot from the blueline by Suter hits right at the crest of Anderson's closed leg pads. Hornqvist was in the crease battling and the puck went right to his stick. Patric wasted no time putting this one in the back of the basket. Hornqvist from Suter and Arnott. This game is tied at 2.
* GOAL for NASHVILLE - 5:12 to go. Weber drops into the offensive zone all the way to the faceoff dot on Anderson's left. With Hornqvist at the net again, Weber simply puts it on net hoping for good results. The puck goes off Hornqvist skate and redirects in and under Craig Anderson. Two quick goals by the Preds have the place jumping and the Preds holding a 3-2 lead.
* 4:22 to go and the fans don't even let one game go by in this season without getting an infamous TV Timeout standing ovation.
* 1:10 to go and after an offsides the Avs call a timeout. Anderson did not return to the net after the timeout.
* FINAL SCORE – NSH - 3 COL - 2.
My Three Stars:
1. Patric Hornqvist - 2 goals, 1 assist, +3 rating, 7 shots on goal, and 1 takeaway.
2. Jason Arnott - 1 goal, 1 assist, +3, team leading 8 shots on goal, and won 62% of his faceoffs.
3. Dan Ellis - 22 saves on 24 shots against. Saved at least three shots that should have been goals. Kept the Preds in it long enough to get the 2 points.
Goalie Grade:A- – The starting goaltender tonight was Dan Ellis. Giving up a couple of power play goals is acceptable in my book. I thought Dan made some huge saves in the 1st and 2nd period that kept the Preds in this game. Without a huge stop at the end of the 2nd and an even bigger one on Matt Duchene breaking in this home opener would certainly have been spoiled.
Quotes:
Brandon Felder - "As you said the team started flat. What adjustments did you guys make as the game went on?"
Jason Arnott - "It was tough. It was a real hot building and it was sticky. I think guys were a little nervous at the beginning (of the game) and it just took us a little bit to get our game down. Once we started forechecking a lot better than we did in the 1st or 2nd (periods) and started playing with a little more emotion, things started happening for us around the net. It started with Horny's forechecking and just our other guys that really created some offensive mobility and titled the ice the other way."
*
Felder - "Sometime do you feel like calls against the team can really spark the team and do you feel like tonight was one of those instances where you guys responded to something you thought was unjust?"
Dan Ellis - "Yeah. You know I think that can spark you and it could really deflate you. It just really depends on how you take that adversity. I think our fans really help us out. With them cheering, and standing on their feet, in a home opener in the first game in our building… that's huge for us. It gives us confidence and it obviously showed because we go out there and win the hockey game."
*
Felder - "When teams have bits of adversity, does that sometimes create a spark to play better than you were?"
Ryan Suter - "Yeah. It was what it was. That might of, like you said, created something. Everyone knew without a goal we got to dig in and there's not going to be any easy ones."
Felder - "What did you feel like you guys adjusted from the 1st half of the game to the 2nd because it almost looked like two different teams."
Suter - "It was a weird night. The energy levels were low, it was hot out there, and the ice wasn't good. Both teams have to play on it though."
*
Felder - "With Dumont's injury, and the 2nd line not clicking offensively just yet, do you feel like your top line is feeling the burden of putting up points every game?"
Barry Trotz - "Well it's only two games into the season and actually Leggy's line the last two games has been put in a defensive role just because we sort of got, I'll say 2 slash 3 line totally out. So he's had to carry a little more of the defensive responsibility. I've been using the majority of Leggy and a little bit of Goc's line in that defensive role. I'm looking for secondary scoring throughout our lineup, and that would be nice, but it's sort of the role that they were given the last two games has been more on the defensive side of the puck. We're only two games in and I know that he and Marty are going to have some big nights and we are going to need contributions right through our whole lineup."
Felder - "Any glaring concerns on special teams or just little adjustments needed?"
Trotz - "Well I think Joel Ward being in next game will help us, especially on the penalty kill. Our penalty kill right now, there's some new people on it, we've had some guys that have been there for a couple of years and we were a pretty good penalty killing team. Now we have some new guys doing it a little bit more. A little bit of adjustments, but I'm very confident that we can always get our penalty kill to the point where we normally are. We've sort of been slow starters the last couple of years. I think we gave up 5 in game two last year or something like that. That always puts us behind the 8-ball."
Final Thoughts:
Up until the 3rd period I had barely anything positive to say. Then the Preds face some adversity, respond the right way, and put in a come from behind win. There were just as many negatives as there were positives in this one, but for now the 2 points will satisfy many observers.
The Predators next game is this Saturday night right back here in the Sommet Center. The Buffalo Sabres will be visiting from the Eastern Conference. Faceoff is at 7 pm as usual and should be another close game.
Till then, take care.
Questions, comments, and criticisms can be sent to [email protected] if you wish to contact me personally.
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