Once again, the Nashville Predators came out of the gate hard and fast, then stepped on the accelerator. The difference with Thursday night’s game? Welll… the Preds had a Broad Street Bully night last night, beating the New York Rangers on the ice AND in the alley as an inter-conference matchup turned nasty early and got worse as the game went on. Recent Ranger add Cody McLeod and Austin Watson were trading hits and jibes all game, but surprisingly… that never boiled over into fisticuffs. But… I am getting ahead of myself.
A decent turnout of Ranger fans saw a fairly even first period, the teams trading chances on both ends of the ice. Even though Nashville badly outshot the Rangers, Henrik Lundqvist was up to the task.
Things heated up early… real early in the seond period as PK SUbban continued his Norris worthy campaign by blasting home a laser that Lundqvist is still looking for to put the Predators up 1-0. The Rangers pushed back fairly quickly, apparently tying the game a few minutes later… but the video team of the Predators caught an offside play before Grabner’s goal and successfully challenged it. Wipe that one off the board and you saw the Rangers sag at that play, the Predators took advantage off a steal from Craig Smith and Smith’s subsequent sweet feed to Kevin Fiala who put the Preds up by two. The second period ended there.
A key play could’ve happened in that second period as Filip Forsberg laid one of his patented reverse butt check and crushed Rangers forward Jimmy Vesey, potentially concussing the young winger on the play. A legal hit that is being whined about in the New York media and an elbow to the head… considering Forsberg’s elbow was tucked in by his side… that’s a hard case to make. The Ranger complaining did get the league to agree to a review by the DoPS, Forsberg has a hearing on the hit today. You never know how one of these things will end, so keep your fingers crossed.
Judge for yourself…
The fight everyone expected happened… but no one called the combatants as Brady Skjei (ummm that’s a nope) and Ryan Johansen. Joey comported himself well and missed o Gordie Howe hattrick but a goal. A solid scrap from Joey who had another outstanding game.
The third just got nastier with scrums after every stoppage it seemed. There were no more fights but six more penalties and the first one of the period, a Delay of Game penalty on Mattias Ekholm saw the Rangers halve the lead before I could finishing announcing the penalty. The Predator pushback was immediate and successful as Colton Sissons got his 5th of the season on a tip of another blast from Subban, restoring the two goal lead… but the Rangers weren’t done.
They closed to within one again on a power play goal from Mika Zibanejad with a little over five minutes to go in the third. And once again the pushback was immediate, only this time it only took the Preds 16 seconds to get their two goal lead back as Viktor Arvidsson completed a JoFA line goal for his 17th of the season and effectively salting the game away. Fiala put the cherry on the cake with a power play goal at 2:02 remaining and it was all over but the shouting.
The Preds get points in the 10th of their last eleven games and head out today for a game in Brooklyn against the Islanders before three in Eastern Canada. Next home game is 2/13 against St. Louis.
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“Where We Stand” update… a daily tracking of where the Preds are in the standings and the games that impact them most, brought to you by Mark Lonsway - THE real estate professional for hockey fans!
After last night’s play the Predators stand second in the Central Division with 69 points, two points behind Winnipeg (3 GIH) and two points ahead of St. Louis (4 GIH) … the Preds lead Dallas (3 GIH) by five points and Minnesota (2 GIH) by eight points.
Impact games tonight (all times Central) – 11:30am – VGK @ WSH.
Playoff Odds Courtesy SportsClubStats.com - The Predators playoff chances are now at 99.5%
The Playoff Point Line - I look at the point level needed for at least a 75%+ chance to make the playoffs… right now, it stands at 97.
Playoff odds and playoff point line courtesy of SportsClubStats.com
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ICYMI - Yesterday’s SlapShot Radio
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Random Notes
- The New York media is so predictable. Calling the Predators “head-hunters” in the headlines… The Alexei Ememlin hit was borderline but it was not late… the puck was still at Staal’s feet.
- Another multi point night from the JoFA line… you can see, when they are firing on all cylinders, they drive the entire team.
- Not much help from the rest of the division last night as Winnipeg and St. Louis both won.
- Eeli Watch – Eeli Tolvanen’s Jokerit team has two games remaining in their regular season. They are now on their Olympic break. Tolvanen now has 17 goals and 17 assists in 47 KHL games. Tolvanen will play for the Finnish Olympic Team. The league returns in late February for a few games before their regular season ends on March 1st.
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SlapShot Radio’s tenth anniversary season is on. As the longest running hockey show in the region, SSR feeds hockey fans what they crave… intelligent, fun, entertaining talk about their favorite sport and we do it from the opening of training camp all the way through UFA day… the only local hockey show that does that.
We are on every Wednesday night at 7pm on the Predators flagship station, 102.5 the Game. Our co-hosts, Dan Keczmer and JP Dumont bring a true insiders perspective to the show. Our next show is Saturday at 8am.
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