The Nashville Predators offense continues to sputter, now having scored two goals or less in the last five games. Tonight, it was a 3-2 defeat at the hands of the Philadelphia Flyers, extending the Preds' losing streak to four, ahead of a key showdown with Detroit coming up in two days.
Follow after the jump for video highlights, reaction, and the advanced even-strength stats...
The Red Wings are coming, the Red Wings are coming! Detroit visits Smashville for the first time this season on Saturday, so save some cash and get yourself some discount Predators tickets for this, or any other home game.
Video highlights, and the Predators vs Flyers boxscore:
- I'm a big fan of Alexander Sulzer, but yikes that first goal for Philly looked ugly. He backed way off from Jeff Carter, giving him all the space in the world, then went down to the ice too quickly, again giving Carter all the room he needed to walk into the slot and shoot.
- Fortunately, the Preds were able to answer right back. Cody Franson really used his size well as he rushed the puck through center ice and put a shot on net. Or shall we call it a pass off the goalie? Maybe that'll get the other guys to shoot more...
- The Predators really played well in the 2nd period, but frankly got screwed when a goal was waved off due to "contact" between Patric Hornqvist and Sergei Bobrovsky in the Philadelphia net. They outshot the Flyers 13-8 on that period, but lost the opportunity to take the lead there.
- It was good to see Kevin Klein stick up for Marcel Goc after he was boarded by Dan Carcillo. Carcillo's a regular scrapper, while Klein fights pretty rarely, but as they say, "it's the thought that counts".
- Crispy was pretty funny in the 3rd period. At the start, all the talk was of getting pucks deep and on net, but when Marcel Goc passed up a shot opportunity to make a back-pass to Suter, he was full of praise.
- Give full credit to Anders Lindback who held off several good scoring chances for Philly to keep the game close. The Nashville goalies just aren't getting any run support these days, however, so anything less than perfection is tough to overcome.
And for the advanced even-strength stats...
| Even Strength | Individual Totals | Team Totals While Player Is On Ice | ||||||||||
| Player | Pos | EV TOI | Shots | Shts Blkd | Missed Shts | Blocks | SOG For | SOG Ag | SOG +/- | Tot SF | Tot SA | Corsi |
| Sergei Kostitsyn | L | 16:17 | 1 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 8 | 9 | -1 | 15 | 13 | +2 |
| Marcel Goc | C | 15:07 | 2 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 11 | 8 | +3 | 17 | 13 | +4 |
| Nick Spaling | C | 14:58 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 7 | 8 | -1 | 13 | 16 | -3 |
| Jerred Smithson | R | 14:39 | 3 | 1 | 0 | 2 | 6 | 8 | -2 | 12 | 16 | -4 |
| David Legwand | C | 14:34 | 2 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 4 | 4 | 0 | 10 | 6 | +4 |
| Martin Erat | R | 14:21 | 1 | 2 | 0 | 0 | 9 | 9 | 0 | 15 | 13 | +2 |
| Patric Hornqvist | R | 14:12 | 2 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 7 | 3 | +4 | 13 | 5 | +8 |
| Joel Ward | R | 13:48 | 0 | 1 | 1 | 0 | 5 | 8 | -3 | 10 | 15 | -5 |
| Colin Wilson | C | 13:48 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 8 | 4 | +4 | 13 | 6 | +7 |
| Matt Halischuk | R | 11:23 | 2 | 0 | 1 | 2 | 4 | 5 | -1 | 7 | 15 | -8 |
| J.P. Dumont | R | 10:12 | 1 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 3 | 5 | -2 | 5 | 13 | -8 |
| Chris Mueller | C | 9:18 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 4 | 4 | 0 | 6 | 12 | -6 |
| Shea Weber | D | 22:11 | 4 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 14 | 12 | +2 | 19 | 20 | -1 |
| Ryan Suter | D | 20:57 | 1 | 2 | 0 | 2 | 13 | 11 | +2 | 18 | 17 | +1 |
| Cody Franson | D | 17:45 | 2 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 8 | 9 | -1 | 17 | 16 | +1 |
| Shane O`Brien | D | 17:31 | 0 | 2 | 2 | 0 | 9 | 10 | -1 | 17 | 17 | 0 |
| Kevin Klein | D | 15:42 | 2 | 0 | 1 | 5 | 3 | 4 | -1 | 10 | 14 | -4 |
| Alexander Sulzer | D | 14:10 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 3 | 4 | -1 | 9 | 13 | -4 |
Finally, an assortment of quotes from the Flyers' PR Staff was forwarded over by Travis from Broad Street Hockey:
Post-Game Quotes
Predators Right Wing Joel Ward
Q: Losing these close games must be frustrating after a while.
"You know, you said it. It is frustrating. We deserve something out of that and it is unfortunate coming away with zero."
Q: Another tight game where you contained the Flyers.
"They are a good team, obviously atop the East. We knew it was going to be a challenge tonight to come in here and get a couple points. We worked hard and just couldn't capitalize, they did, and that's all she wrote."
Q: Is it frustrating to put in a lot of effort and not get any reward?
"You said it, yeah. Anytime you come in and work hard and feel like you deserve something, you know it's disappointing for sure."
Nashville Defensemen Shea Weber
Q: How tough is it to play these guys so hard and not get the rewards for it?
"Yeah, it's a wasted effort. We fought back hard a couple of times. We got ourselves back in it, but we can't seem find a way to win or get points."
Q: I hate to use the word snakebit, but you guys have had a lot of close games of late that have not gone your way. After a while, how tough is it with one after another, after another?
"It's frustrating. There haven't been a whole lot of games that haven't been one goal games for us, but I think we were winning a lot more of them before the break, up until the last couple of games. We just need to find a way to clamp down. We are not a high scoring team so we need to make sure we are playing well in our own end."
Q: This is really a game of breaks. Does it seem like they just aren't going your way right now?
"Yeah, we got one tonight that brought us back in the game. It was timely, but we had a little bit of a lapse after that with three or four minutes left."
Philadelphia Flyers Goaltender Sergei Bobrovsky
Q: Was it disheartening for you that twice the Flyers had the lead and Nashville came back?
"It's a game situation. Everything happens in hockey so I just kept playing the way I always do."
Q: How good was it for you to bounce back after the game against Tampa Bay?
"It was a very important game. It was very important for me to rehabilitate myself in front of the team and also for myself. So, I considered it to be extremely important."
Q: What happened on the goal that was disallowed? Did someone interfere with you on that play?
"It was such a big mix of people that I didn't even see how it happened."
Q: Did it help that Peter [Laviolette] showed confidence in you after the Tampa Bay game?
"Yes, it was very important to me."
Nashville Goaltender Anders Lindback
Q: That was a pretty tight game. What are your thoughts on it?
"I think they played a good game pretty much all of the way through. We ended up with some small details in our game that they took advantage of, and they finished it off in the end."
Q: What do you think about that goal that was taken away from your team? What do you think about that rule in general?
"I think you have a different rule here [in the NHL] than we do back home [Sweden]. If you stay in it [the crease] and shoot it through it's no goal, so I don't know about the rule here. It didn't look like he touched him, but still I think the goalie should be able to do his thing. I couldn't decide from just watching it a couple of times.
Q: Does that bother you if a guy does that, or are you used to it?
It's a part of the game, with guys coming hard to the net. You have got to be prepared for that. As long as they don't touch me I don't think that it's a big deal."
Nashville Predators Coach Barry Trotz
Q: What are your general thoughts on the game and how your team played?
"I thought we had a really good effort. We came back twice in the game and tied it up and then just some coverage break down. The low forward on the third goal was really loose on Leino and then panicked and Leino executed. I thought we should have come out of here with a point. That's the third game in a row we played very, very well and should have gotten points, giving up a late goal to either lose a point or lose a game."
Q: You said your team came back right after the Flyers scored, do you think it gave some momentum to the team?
"Absolutely, after they scored, they're a good hockey team and obviously the top team in the East and we came back and responded and got a big power play goal. We should be able to hold them down; they really didn't have much going on. That was really the only shift they had something going on after we scored the goal. Just forward low coverage, they had Leino in the corner, then he moved it and they just stood there and watched. You have to be detailed and committed right at the end of the game and we lost, one guy made a mistake and it ended up in our net."
Q: Coach, a lot of people point to this team as, the one thing that separates them from the East at least, is their depth.
"They have tremendous depth, they have three lines that are first or second line quality. We had Timonen, in know he is one of the smartest defenseman in the league. Pronger is going to be a Hall of Fame Norris guy every year. They have really good depth, mobility, smarts. They're the deepest team that I've seen out of the East, there is no question about it."