Hurricanes 4, Predators 3: Crime Doesn't Pay

Back to back + Eastern Conference team + Lindy = Loss

Canes keep alive their faint playoff chances…..but they could’ve let us get a point though.

We’ve won some games this season (the last Stars game would be one) where we got a fatigued team that played the night before. That’s pretty much what happened here, IMO. Plus, Lindy clearly needs some more starts to get sharper. Canes playing much better hockey these days than during the coach Mo era…….thank you Capt, Kirk!

He didn’t play that well Monday ok, but no one else did either really. I though when the game started they should have scratched Smith, but then he scored, then I thought Hali, but LEGGY stunk up the joint again, and it happens more and more frequently with him. I really think its time for Leggy to sit especially with Gaustad coming in. He will never learn to pay attention and he barely makes up for it with the points he does put up. It’s time.

Most of the time when the Preds rush their new acquisitions into the lineup, we end up losing. Not only does it obviously upset the chemistry between the guys that were working together, but I’m sure it puts everyone, at least in the lower lines, on edge. As a result, it seems to me they try to hard and you get what happens tonight. In my opinion, Trotz would have been much better off putting in AK46 and possibly Gaustad in on Sat., after these guys have had more of a chance to practice with the other guys.

This was a classical situation for a stinker.

Back-to-back game. Some inconveniences during travel/game preps. A team weak on the paper, but on a small (home) roll. Big expectations. Maybe a small dose too much confidence… and when things don’t run as you like, you’ll get easily frustrated resulting in more time in the penalty box than usual. And, voilà, you have a loss.

Good thing: It happened against an eastern foe. These kind of games can actually have a positive effect: You definately don’t want to let this happen again :-)

@Lindback: Young goalies aren’t meant for backup roles with long stretches without match practice, like Lindback this season. Young goalies need (successful) games to get into a rhythm, they’re streaky, and if they feel they have to prove something, chances are big, that they’ll be over-motivated and that’s never a good thing for a goalie. I really like Lindback’s potential, but at this point (with Rinne carrying yeoman’s workload), the club might be better off with a steady 30+ backup guy who’s been there and done that.

The way the preds played in the first two periods was pretty poor overall but if the officials would get their head out of their ass we would have won that game. People have already noted the off sides right before Webbers penalty so I’ll skip that one. How about the off sides called when Sergei was carrying the puck over with Erat and fisher in tow. They called off sides on that one and the puck was clearly 2 feet over the blue line before any of the preds entered the zone. Then there was the slap shot into the zone by Webber with about a minute to play from center ice with three preds breaking in. They called off sides again and the puck was clearly almost behind the goal line before a pred entered the zone.

The hooking penalty on Fisher really threw me. He never pulled on the player even a little. As soon as the play started he went for a stick lift and his stick was chickenwinged and he let go. The canes player then skated for about 4 seconds before letting the stick fall to the ice. No clue how Fisher could be called for that one.

Lindy played well imo. He looked a bit shaky at times but honestly what should we expect. He has hardly played at all this season.

I stand corrected…Rinne played 4 back to backs last season and lost 3 out of those 4 games.