Playoff shots are here as SlapShot Radio’s awesome photographer was capturing the spirit of the thing in Smashville yesterday…
Pictures are courtesy of Denise McCann Photography
From yesterday’s blog…
Game Six. Pressure begins to shift and today is the first true playoff test of this 2017 Predators team.
This Nashville Predators answered that emphatically, especially after a start that could generously called “tight” with a resounding 3-1 win to capture their second round series with the St. Louis Blues.
Pregame saw an incredibly hyped Pred Nation, they were ready from the jump, and they took the emotion to another level when Kevin Fiala made a surprise appearance as towel waiving hype man right after a stirring National Anthem from Lady Antebellum.
Then the puck dropped… the Predators rode that emotional wave, coming out strong in the first couple of minutes, skating well and getting pressure on the Blues, until a bounce went St. Louis’ way. Paul Stastny poked home a loose puck, the Blues were up 1-0 and the Predators deflated. Their skating went out the window and their puck management went down the tubes. Let’s be honest here… without Pekka Rinne, the Nashville Predators would’ve been down by 2 - 3 goals and we would be talking about a game seven right now.
But they were only down one… and whatever was said in the locker room between periods to reset the team certainly worked.
The Predators came out flying, and like we have seen throughout this playoff run it was the JOFA line setting up the defense to drive the offense. The Predators drove immediately into the offensive zone, Ryan Johansen passing to Mattias Ekholm who took it down the boards and found Roma Josi with a spectacular cross ice pass that left Blues goaltender Jake Allen helpless as Josi snapped it past him to tie the game and unleash joy at Bridgestone Arena.
Pred Nation was back into it, which is where they would remain for the rest of the game. ON their feet, cheering, chanting, urging, begging their team forward… and the Predators fed off the energy. Closing out the period tied, with momentum on their side… the penultimate period began.
A little back and forth, solid saves from both goaltenders, before Ryan Ellis stripped Vladimir Tarasenko of the puck, quick passes Ellis to Filip Forsberg to Viktor Arvidsson. Arvidsson sprinted from defensive blueline to the top of circle when he found Ryan Johansen with a perfect tape-to-tape saucer pass, Johansen deked right, and beat Allen with a backhand left to put the Predators up 2-1 and became the eventual game winner.
Smashville exploded… the thousand or so watching on the Bridgestone Arena plaza went nuts… but there was a long 16:45 to go. Once the Predators took the lead, it was the last time Smashville sat down. Pred Nation delivered three consecutive TV timeout standing ovations, each one louder than the last. As a side note… a big thank you to Bridgestone and Erie Insurance for not getting their sponsored segments last night… I’m sure they were OK with the sacrifice. :-)
The Blues began to press, but with pressing comes turnovers and it was Jake Allen’s turn to keep his team in the game, making a spectacular save on Filip Forsberg’s breakaway chance and doing the same thing to Colton Sissons a few minutes later. The Blues have discovered their goaltender in this playoff run and his name is Jake Allen.
St. Louis continued to press and Nashville held to its defensive system, counter punching at the right times, playing on their toes. Coach Mike Yeo pulled Allen with a little more than two minutes left… Smashville got louder, the Blues pressed harder and Nashville got the break it was looking for. A hard around from the back of the net went astray, Blues defenseman Jay Bouwmeester couldn’t corral it and then lost the race to the 50/50 puck with Calle Jarnkrok, who promptly deposited the empty netter and set off a celebration in Pred Nation.
The last minute passed, a brief celebration for the players then it was back to all business. By the time the press got to the locker room, the sights were set on the Western Conference Final.
So let’s get to the GBU…
The Good - Pekka Rinne seems to have a permanent place in the good category, proving all of his doubters wrong. The JOFA line hit the scoresheet in a big way, generating four points yesterday.
The Bad - The first period wasn’t good, sluggish and out of synch.
The Ugly - Nothing… absolutely nothing can be ugly after yesterday’s game.
So, a milestone has been crossed… history made… with a lot more to come… eight down… eight to go.
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Round Two Reset
Eastern Conference
NYR vs OTT – OTT leads 3-2 - Game six is Tuesday in New York
WSH vs PIT – PIT leads 3-2 - Game six is tonight in Pittsburgh
Western Conference
STL vs. NSH – NSH wins 4-2 – waiting for opponent in Western Conference Final
ANA vs. EDM – Series tied 3-3 - Game seven is Wednesday night in Anaheim
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Playoff Random Notes
- Give the Blues credit… they managed to limit the Preds to 18 shots, but the theme of this series reared its head again yesterday… every mistake the Blues made, the Predators capitalized on.
- SlapShot Radio will have a preview of Game Seven between Edmonton and Anaheim and a look ahead at the Western Conference Final.
- The Western Conference Final probably won’t begin until Friday at the earliest as game seven of the Edmonton/Anaheim series is Wednesday
- Peter Laviolette made some personal history yesterday, he became the first US born head coach to take three different teams to a conference final. He is one of seven coaches since 1982 to take three teams to a conference final, joining Mike Keenan, Darryl Sutter, Ken Hitchcock, Jacques Lemaire, Jacques Demers and Pat Burns on that list.
- Odd stat from yesterday courtesy of @mdnathan on Twitter
- The Predators are going to have to go deep to top the list of incredible national anthems that have taken place in this playoff run, Carrie Underwood, Luke Bryan, Little Big Town, Vince Gill and his daughters, Lady Antebellum… a superstar list to be sure.
- Can Anaheim finally win a game seven at home?
- One game in the NHL Stanley Cup Playoffs tonight – 6:30pm – WSH @ PIT (NBCSN).
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The gauntlet has been thrown down from my fellow blogger in St. Louis, Jason Millen. We will make a small wager on this series… losing team’s blogger makes a donation to the winning team’s blogger charity of choice…
Mine will be Best Buddies of Tennessee… a charity very familiar to fans of the fang…
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