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Washington Shutdown

January 16, 2019, 8:15 AM ET [3 Comments]
Paul McCann
Nashville Predators Blogger •Predators Radio Network • RSSArchiveCONTACT
The Washington Capitals are going to be just fine. A 7-2 loss to Nashville last night won’t hurt them that much. When April comes, they will be a favorite to successfully defend their Stanley Cup Championship. For Nashville, last night was another object lesson in bouncing back after a sub-standard effort.

The anticipated Rinne vs. Holtby matchup didn’t happen as Juuse Saros and Pheonix Copley manned the nets and if you are to be perfectly honest… the game was between the pipes. Saros made the saves necessary in the first and early second period against a high-powered Caps offense. Copley? Well… he didn’t… and he was Washington’s only choice as Braden Holtby was the backup… but hurt.

The Predators were dominant 5-on-5. Dominant on the scoreboard and dominant in the analytics. Oh… and the JoFA line… yeah… dominant. A hattie for Viktor Arvidsson, and three more points from Ryan Johansen and Filip Forsberg. Secondary scoring from Nick Bonino, who finally seems to be finding his place on this team… his game has been outstanding over the past few weeks.

And then there is Rocco. Rocco Grimaldi has played his way into a solid role on this team. His speed, his tenacity and skill level have been more than expected… and last night’s spinorama goal was highlight reel material.

You gotta give a lot of credit to head coach Peter Laviolette’s decision to bring the team home between the Columbus and Carolina games… the “Coming Home Stinker” happened in Carolina instead of last night. The other coaching decision that needs to be called out was the shuffling of the defensive pairings… the new top pairings of Roman Josi/PK Subban and Mattias Ekholm/Ryan Ellis really solidified the defense.

This is what this Preds team can do when they play on their toes and are aggressive. The only fly in the ointment is the power play… although you are seeing signs of life. The puck movement was better and there were shots coming from different areas of the ice, I got the feeling that a breakthrough is coming.

OK… time to put this one aside and get prepped for a showdown as Winnipeg comes to town for their last regular season visit tomorrow night.

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The Where We Stand section

As play begins today, Nashville is in the second slot in the Central Division, two points behind the Winnipeg Jets, Winnipeg holds two games in hand over Nashville. The Preds lead Dallas and Colorado by ten points.

Nashville currently holds the 4 seed in the Western Conference playoff race and has a 99.6% chance of making the playoffs according to SportsClubStats.com… the “85% chance” line stands at 90 points right now.

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Random Notes

- Milwaukee Update –The Admirals are back in action tonight in Manitoba.

- Double Triple? – Nick Bonino’s second goal had folks scrambling to the Google machine to find out how many times a team has had two players with a hat trick in the same game.

- Isn’t it Ironic? – Arvidsson’s hat trick came on National Hat Day.

- Record – Arvidsson’s hattie was the fifth of the season from a Nashville player, a franchise record. All five hat tricks came from different players.

- Huh? - You have to question the wisdom of Caps head coach Todd Reirden’s decision to not call up a goaltender to cover a backup role for the injured Braden Holtby.

- Beast mode part II - Mattias Ekholm has already beaten his career total in points… he has 36 points so far with a LOT of games to go.

- Milestone - Peter Laviolette’s next win will be his 600th as an NHL Head Coach.

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