When the Nashville Predators lost Viktor Arvidsson to injury, then lost Filip Forsberg as well you heard a lot of talk that Kevin Fiala needed to step up and fill the gap. Well, consider it filled. Fiala had the game winner last night as a home team finally won in a game between Buffalo and Nashville. Nashville’s 2-1 win over the Buffalo Sabres last night was the first time a home team has won in the last seven games between these teams. Fiala now has 3 goals in his past four games and has really stepped up his game.
Speaking of stepping up their game, Eeli Tolvanen played another good game, while he did not crack the scoresheet, his defensive play was solid, even registering a hit and a takeaway. He drew quite a bit of attention from the Sabres defense every time he touched the puck. The youngster is continuing to develop well.
Nice to see another power play goal as Ryan Ellis pounded home a rocket past former Preds backup netminder Carter Hutton. The power play is slowly but surely moving up the NHL rankings, moving up to 25th from the former position at 30th. They aremoving the puck better and moving their feet better, rather than the ole “pass it to the point and get the hell out of the way” power play from earlier in the season. They are definitely improving their net front presence and it is showing in the stats.
The sellout crowd in Smashville saw a really good hockey game between two well matched teams. Buffalo has some really good young talent and is continuing to grow and develop under the tutelage of former Nashville assistant coach Phil Housley.
So… the longest homestand of the season is in the books. The team hits the road for two, travelling to Vancouver for Thursday night and then going to Calgary for Saturday night.
December will see a nice balance of home and road games… after this tough western Canada trip, the Preds return for their last three home games before Christmas against Ottawa, Vancouver and New Jersey. Nashville finishes their pre-Christmas schedule on the road, back-to-back in Ottawa and Chicago… then to Philly and finishing in Boston. The Predators then finish 2018 with home games against Dallas and the New York Rangers before travelling to Washington for a New Year’s Eve matinee.
The other thing you start looking for is IR to start clearing. Viktor Arvidsson, has been on IR since 11/12 and was stated to be out 4-6 weeks, his earliest possible return would be next week. PK Subban and Kyle Turris have any stated return timeframe as I write this, I will be curious to see when either of them begin practice or joins the team for the upcoming road trip. Filip Forsberg has been on IR since 12/1 and was also stated to be out 4-6 weeks, his earliest return would be somewhere around New Year’s Day.
A well-deserved day off today before the plane gets boarded for Vancouver.
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Random Notes
- Milwaukee Update –The Admirals are back in action Wednesday and Friday night in Texas against the Stars, then Saturday night against San Antonio before coming home.
- Not necessarily lost, but an underappreciated key to last night’s win was Pekka Rinne, he came up huge when Buffalo made a push in the third period. By that time, the big Finn was in the heads of the young Sabres as almost every save, every shot resulted in an eyes-to-the-sky, “what do I have to do to buy a goal here?” attitude from Buffalo.
- The Board of Governor’s meetings are going on at Sea Island, GA… news coming out about the Salary Cap for next season ($83 million) … Ottawa’s arena situation and of course… expansion. The vote on Seattle may come in the next two days.
- Congrats to the Hershey Bears, they had a Teddy Bear toss night that set a new record for this type of promotion, collecting a world record 34,798 teddy bears to be given to needy children.
- The Caps are in Vegas for the first time since hoisting the Cup… should be a good one tonight.
- The Flyers go outside the organization and hires Cliff Fletcher as GM… he will be the beneficiary of Ron Hextalls’s great work in restocking that franchise’s prospect pool.
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