Predators give up 3rd period lead, lose to Vancouver 4-2

For just the third time all season, the Nashville Predators lost despite leading heading into the final period, as a miscue by Pekka Rinne allowed Mikael Samuelsson to tie the game for Vancouver, and a horrible defensive breakdown led to a Jannik Hansen breakaway that won it for the Canucks.

The loss capped a troubling day in the Western Conference for Nashville, as Detroit came back from a 2-0 deficit to beat Chicago 5-4, and Calgary topped Minnesota 5-2.

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Being outplayed by Roberto Luongo is certainly no shame, but I'm sure that Pekka Rinne would love to have that tying goal back; Samuelsson wound up from a steep angle and puck deflected off Rinne directly into the net. As bad as that was, however, the breakdown which led to the winning goal was perhaps worse. Hansen had so much room on his breakaway that even though Rinne stopped his initial shot, Hansen had plenty of time to look for the rebound and swat it into the net for the score.

In the final minutes, the Predators created only a token amount of pressure, with Jason Arnott getting the only dangerous shot on goal.

The shame is that the Preds made a comeback of their own to take the lead in the second period. Vancouver scored the opening goal, answered shortly afterwards by Arnott on a Nashville power play. Jordin Tootoo, however, put the Preds ahead with a fine play, electing to shoot as he stormed down the left wing (rather than pass to a cutting Dustin Boyd), and batted the puck home on a second-effort after Luongo made the first stop.

From here, the Predators head out for road games at Atlanta, San Jose, Anaheim and Los Angeles. They need to earn at least 4 points out of those games, not just to keep hold of 7th place in the Western Conference, but perhaps 8th as well.

After a week on the road, the Predators play their next home game Tuesday, March 16 against the Philadelphia Flyers. OtF readers can use our coupon code for Nashville Predators tickets to get a great deal.

The Predators obviously missed Shea Weber in this one, although the remaining top four (Suter, Hamhuis, Klein and Bouillon) all had solid efforts. The new pairing of Denis Grebeshkov and Cody Franson struggled, however. What remains to be seen is how quickly Shea returns to the lineup, and what happens to the assignments when he does.

And check out the new guy, Dustin Boyd; a very responsible effort out of him today, you certainly can't complain about his first game as a Pred.