Nashville Predators' dive hits five with 4-2 loss to Stars

No doubt about it. The Preds did work hard tonight. They took it to the Stars through two periods and even got up early in the third, but not capitalizing on their early opportunities allowed Dallas to hang around and eventually the tides turned and the flood gates opened.

- Klein doesn’t pick up Ott in the slot, Stars go up 1-0.
- Wilson finally just shoots the puck without trying to make a play, Game tied 1-1.
- Ward blocks a shot in the high slot, sends Wilson on breakaway, Preds lead 2-1.
- Klasen stops moving his feet from the circles in on the backcheck, loses Eriksson, Tied 2-2.
- O’Brien decides to tip a shot from the point with no screen in front, Stars lead 3-2.
- Rinne still reeling from the last goal allows horrible rebound, Stars pounce 4-2.

Credit Raycroft and the Stars tonight. They hung tough and took advantage of their opportunities in the third to win the game, but it was Nashville not being opportunistic through the first 40 minutes that lost them this game…

Definitely need to get healthy. Belak and Mueller saw minimal ice tonight and 10 forwards just won’t get it done in the aggressive system that we play.

Svatos on waivers. I don’t care how “dirty” of a move it would be, I’d like to see him claimed. Couldn’t hurt.

Klasen will definitely have to answer for a couple of plays tonight. Turnovers in the offensive end of the ice are one thing, but he stopped skating on one goal and caused a couple very good scoring chances for the Stars tonight in the defensive end while trying to do too much. Trotz did keep playing him though. What other choice does he have?

Wilson scored a pair and I agree he is our offensive force, but I don’t care how much talent he has. He needs to get selfish and stop trying to force plays when they aren’t there. He can score so many more goals if he’d just shoot the puck! He’s not the only one that needs to simplify his game, but I think he’d be the one that sees the best and quickest results.

I’m sorry, I can’t honestly sit here and say we lost tonight because of our injuries. We had plenty of opportunities to light the lamp, but didn’t get it done. Players need to step up and assume the roles that are open right now. If they cannot, then Poile is going to need to bring in someone else and Trotz cannot be faulted for searching for line combos that work.

Very frustrating night tonight, but there is still time to turn this around. Team is playing pretty good defense right now and the goaltending has been above average. It’s the offense that we really need to address and soon…

I couldn’t help but think about this movie clip as things spiraled out of control in the 3rd period. One thing after another, it summed up the situation perfectly…

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i3O-kYwM8qY&feature=related

…no further comment except that Wilson is our best offensive player right now and can’t do much more.

And I agree that Trotz is in a tough spot right now with the lines. But playing Belak <2 min and Mueller <5 min is nothing but tragic for the offense. He’s not searching for lines, he’s hoping for anything at this point. If we’re that screwed, he should just put both of those guys on the 4th line with…Ward or Spaling or somebody like that and play the whole line for 6 or 7 minutes and at the same time keeping the other lines together. I’ve never seen us play well with the line mixing routine. Again, I"m not faulting Trotz, just offering a suggestion. Now I expect to be criticized for this opinion, just like I always am, but you can’t tell me it wouldn’t work cause its never been done before. What has been done is the line-shifting, and that has never worked well.

Gotta ride this storm out boys and girls…….