Los Angeles Kings 5, Nashville Predators 1: Jeff Carter Hat Trick Blows It Open

Harry How

Take your pick of the big Hollywood disaster films - this was the Poseidon Adventure, The Day After Tomorrow, and Outbreak all rolled into one. Looking for a positive ending to their three-game road trip, the Predators instead were blown out by the defending Stanley Cup champs.

The wheels came of the proverbial wagon in the third period tonight, as the Nashville Predators coughed up one golden scoring opportunity after another and fell to the Los Angeles Kings 5-1. Pekka Rinne was pulled in favor of Chris Mason after giving up those five goals on just 13 shots, and Gabriel Bourque scored to at least prevent Jonathan Bernier from earning a shutout.

Tonight's loss leaves Nashville in 11th place in the Western Conference, and a -12 Goal Differential which puts them at 27th in the entire league. They are dead last in shot production and goal-scoring, and rank 26th on both the power play and the penalty kill.

They return home to face Edmonton on Friday followed by Minnesota on Saturday. How high is the pressure on this team to deliver wins in those games?

Random Observations

For a while the Predators dictated the pace of this game, and even when down 1-0 after two periods things didn't look hopeless as they had out-shot L.A. 13-6 and had killed two penalties. That third period, however, was just an exercise in awful.
It's probably best to withhold judgments on this team until the morrow after a stinker like this, but four games in a row giving up two power play goals? That, more than anything, strikes me as completely un-Predatorlike.
There's a certain frustration over the way AK46 & Radulov were treated during the Phoenix series, and seeing guys like Jeff Carter & Mike Richards win a Stanley Cup with Los Angeles and dominate the scoring tonight. Sam Page covered that angle very nicely last year.
Three games on the road trip, and the Predators were outscored 12-3 in total. Yup, these are giddy times over at Battle of California (poor Predobear).

Boxscore - Game Summary - Event Summary

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And your advanced stats...

Nashville Predators

Player	Pos	ES TOI	Total Shots For	Total Shots Against	Corsi	Net Zone Starts	Adjusted Corsi
David Legwand	C	16:48	12	13	-1	0	-1
Gabriel Bourque	L	15:57	12	8	+4	+1	+4
Colin Wilson	C	15:35	8	14	-6	0	-6
Martin Erat	R	14:20	9	7	+2	-1	+2
Mike Fisher	C	13:55	8	11	-3	0	-3
Nick Spaling	C	13:42	6	12	-6	+1	-6
Patric Hornqvist	R	13:20	7	10	-3	0	-3
Sergei Kostitsyn	L	12:57	6	14	-8	0	-8
Craig Smith	C	12:29	6	15	-9	+2	-10
Paul Gaustad	C	10:35	6	10	-4	-4	-2
Matt Halischuk	R	8:53	6	8	-2	-1	-2
Rich Clune	L	8:16	5	8	-3	-1	-3
Roman Josi	D	20:21	14	14	0	-2	+1
Shea Weber	D	20:20	14	15	-1	-4	+1
Ryan Ellis	D	19:40	13	19	-6	+1	-6
Scott Hannan	D	16:06	8	12	-4	0	-4
Kevin Klein	D	15:54	7	18	-11	+3	-12
Jonathon Blum	D	13:24	6	10	-4	0	-4