Courtesy of ESPN
Well, the Predators kind of fell apart in the last 40 minutes of this tilt and ended up losing their 4th straight and the season series to the Calgary Flames tonight with a final score of 3-2 in regulation
Special Teams:
Powerplay – 0 for 3, 0%
Powerplay For The Season – 32 for 218, 14.7%
Penalty Kill – 1 for 2, 50%
Penalty Kill For The Season – 34 for 231, 85.3%
Best Play of the Game: The first goal of the game. Martin Erat pulls off a spectacular Ovechkin-esque falling down shooting of the puck right past Kiprusoff for a 1-0 lead early in the first period
Worst Play of the Game: Can’t really fault him for doing it, but Sergei Kostitsyn’s yanking down of Jarome Iginla in the second gave him a penalty shot opportunity which he cashed in on, tying the game at 2
Players (Good and Bad) of the Game:
The Good: Pekka Rinne – Martin Erat looked pretty good, but without Pekka in net this game would have easily been 7 or 8 goals to 2. It’s just a crying shame that for all of the work that Pekka does, he has a near .500 record to show for it
The Bad: N/A, I can’t really single anyone out again, because this loss was on the shoulders of the entire team. Not just one particular person
My Preds #1 Star: Again, giving this to Pekka Rinne. Like I said, without him this game would have been lopsided
Synopsis: Really hard to stomach a loss like this when we need to gain points every night. The Predators played about 25 good minutes tonight (1st period and scattered minutes the rest of the game) but just kind of disappeared for the rest of it, including a measly 4-shot-on-goal second period.
So, with this loss, Pekka Rinne is 0-3-2 lifetime against the Flames and the Flames go 4-0-0 against the Predators this year. The Predators, however, get a bit of luck tonight with the Wild and Ducks both losing…but they fall to 11th overall. If they don’t get in check soon, they could really start to fall behind in the Western Conference playoff race. However they have 12 of their last 16 at home, so it’s time to amp it up and get back to work
Remember, readers: MARCH IS GOOD MARCH IS GOOD MARCH IS GOOD…
Next game is Tuesday March 8th against the San Jose Sharks at 9:30pm
Playoff Outlook: 75 points, Currently, 11th place – 1 point out of 8th and 11 points out of the Division Lead
Best of 19 Record: 1-1-1
Smarch Record: 1-1-1
Thanks for reading!
~KM
Hate to say it, but a couple more inches inside the post and we have a 5 to 4 Preds win. Bad puck luck sometimes, and I truly wish we could play the entire game like we play the lastminute of the third period. I realize we have an extra man with the goalie pulled, but that aggression should be there the whole game. Flames had it, we didn’t. Tough one to swallow last night with the loss. Now we have to go into the Shark Tank and win one, and that ain’t something that’s easily done. Great read as always, especially cause I know in your heart of hearts you want to scream “Network-style” from your window when we give up 1 point to another Western conference team, let alone 2 points.
Just another tough loss. This team knows what it has to do and knows how it has to play, it’s just a matter of executing :-/
Sportsclubstats says we need to win 12 of our last 16 to guarantee a playoff spot…better get at it
I find 12 out of 16 to be unattainble at this juncture. Ugh. I just don’t know. Is it really injuries? Is it lack of focus? Is it coaching style? WTF is it that this team needs to do to get going again?
I still think our team and it’s philosophy of waiting and waiting and letting the other team set up and not executing the play fast enough, and waiting to draw their defender over rather than pushing the play up the ice for those “scoring chances” is what is killing this team. Ever notice how our players wiat for the puck to come to them instead of skating and aggressively pursuing the puck? I have watched this for years and that might be at the very core of our scoring issues. We have got to drive to the puck, HARD. Other teams do this and get rewarded for it, namely lately the Flames. Detroit and San Jose and Chicago employ this tactic on a regular basis, and look how they do in the scoring goals catagory.
Rant over, sorry had to get that out there.
Example Games: See our wins vs Detroit/Vancouver
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