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Columbus Blue Jackets 3, Nashville Predators 1: Preds To Draft No Lower Than 5th

This was pretty much close to a perfect result for Nashville fans - Chris Mason had a fine game, the team battled hard, Filip Forsberg was spectacular and the team preserved their chance for a very high draft pick this summer.

By Dirk Hoag
Kirk Irwin

After taking a 1-0 lead into the third period, the Nashville Predators dropped the final game of the season tonight in Columbus by a 3-1 score.

Shea Weber put the Preds up midway through the second period, jumping up into the play and unleasing a top-corner wrister that not only got Nashville on the board, but earned Joonas Rask his first NHL point on the secondary assist. Chris Mason enjoyed his finest effort since early in the season, making for a fitting conclusion to his season. In the third period, Columbus came out with guns blazing but Mase didn't give them anything easily.

The winning goal came on an unusual play - as Jack Johnson cruised behind the Nashville net, he tried to feed the puck into the crease but Shea Weber actually whacked it with his stick, through Mason for the score. Interestingly, that play came just minutes after I joked about an old beer-league team I used to play against which randomly had one of their guys fire a shot at their own goalie during each game. Shea, are you reading my tweets on the bench? I'm truly flattered.

Random Observations

  • How about Filip Forsberg? He was especially dynamic in the second period, creating scoring opportunities for both himself and his linemates. Sure, he has work to do learning the North American game, but you can't help but be excited about his future.
  • Some guys were pretty much invisible, however, such as Sergei Kostitsyn and David Legwand.
  • Now it's time to see how the draft board plays out. The lottery is Monday evening...

Boxscore - Game Summary - Event Summary - Corsi Numbers

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