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The Predators and Wild engaged in a closely guarded game tonight through 65 minutes, going scoreless through the first two periods before each team scored once in the third, leading to a scoreless overtime. In the shootout, however, Minnesota shot themselves in the proverbial foot on two of their three attempts, allowing Nashville to pull out the win in front of Pekka Rinne, who made 34 saves for a fine performance after three subpar outings.
Jordin Tootoo scored the lone goal in regulation for Nashville, tipping home a Jonathon Blum point shot, while Colin Wilson added the only goal during the shootout.
Marc will be along later with insight from the locker room and more on Gabriel Bourque's debut, but for now, we've got the video highlights and reaction after the jump...
First the video (might take 30-45 minutes post-game to work):
- I think we'd all like to see a little more Gabriel Bourque, eh? His ice time was limited, but he definitely showed some jump out there. I wonder how much of that would be left after 10-20 games at this level.
- That shootout was pretty funny to watch from a Nashville point of view. Cullen just lost the puck off the end of his stick, and Bouchard tried one of those absurd spin-o-ramas on their final attempt. I can't stand that those moves are legal, especially considering how much contact he made with Rinne.
- Colin Wilson's score, however? Just a sick move..
- One thing I need to add to my To-Do List is to come up with Zone Starts by game. It bugs me to see Trotz send out the 4th line for an offensive zone faceoff when the game is tied - those opportunities should go to the team's top offensive players (something Alain Vignault in Vancouver works to the max).
- The Kostitsyn-Fisher-Hornqvist line had a particularly poor night (just check out the grizzly Corsi numbers below). My animus towards SK74 is building quite strong again, there's just not enough drive to the net going on with him. Watch him carry the puck through the neutral zone, quite often he makes an extended East-West cut that slows down his fellow forwards and gives backcheckers plenty of time to catch up with the play.
- Give a tip o' the cap to Ryan Suter, who logged 29:46 of ice time tonight to lead the team. He's 2nd in the NHL in average ice time per game.