Predators offense sputters and defense fails, fall to the Sharks 2-1

Taking A Look At My Prediction: In my pre-game thoughts, here’s what I said

“The Predators have to keep the Win Train going and pick up that 3rd win in a row and keep pace with the Detroit Red Wings. I think this game is going to be a LOT like the last home game we had against the Sharks. Real close, we may give up the lead, but we’ll come back and win it. The Predators are going to edge out the Sharks and grab an empty netter at the end of the game, winning it 4-2”

For the second game in a row, I’ve called the winning teams goals correctly…just a shame it couldn’t have gone my way. Past around the 5 minute-left mark of the first period, there isn’t much good you can say about the Preds game.

Special Teams:
Powerplay – 1 for 2 (that’s at least ONE PP goal in 6 of the last 7 games!), 50%
Powerplay For The Season – 29 for 193, 14.9%, 26th in the league

Penalty Kill – 4 for 4 (Perfect in the last 5 games! 16 of 16), 100%
Penalty Kill For The Season – 32 for 197, 86.2%, Tied for 2nd in the league

Best Play of the Game: Kinda hard to pick a play of the game on a night like this, but tonight it’ll go to Pekka Rinne. His kick save in overtime on Ryan Clowe kept the team in until the game winner was scored a little later

Worst Play of the Game: Hard to put my finger on this one as well, everything just seemed so bad…*sigh*…picking one? Sullivan not potting his breakaway chance. Sullivan is 0 for the century on breakaways, he’s got to convert on those

Players (Good and Bad) of the Game:
The Good: Pekka Rinne – Without Pekka on his game, there is NO way the Preds get a point

The Bad: What has 12 legs and sits near the blue line? You name a defenseman, they’re on this list. That INCLUDES Shea Weber and Ryan Suter. They just weren’t on their game tonight

My Preds #1 Star: Pekka Rinne. 48 saves on 50 shots. Amazing stat right there

Synopsis: There really isn’t too much more I want to add to this game that already hasn’t shown in my frustration above. The defense just CAN’T play like this if the Predators want to believe that they’re a deep-running team in the playoffs. The Predators need to bottle the “Detroit Mentality” and use it EVERY SINGLE GAME. Because for some reason, whenever we play Detroit, we bring 200% to that game. 4-4-2 in their past 10 is not going to cut it, especially when 2 of those 4 wins could have easily been losses as well.

Lately, the Predators just can’t find their right footing. Trotz needs to sit this team down and explain to them that consistency MATTERS at this stage in the season, not just in the last 2 or 3 weeks. Every game is a playoff game from here on out, especially in this uber-competitive western conference. Let’s just hope the Predators can bring their A-game Thursday night

Next game is Thursday night against the #1 Vancouver Canucks

Thanks for reading!

~KM