The Predators returned home Monday night to kick off their Thanksgiving week home stand to take on the Steven Stamkos-less Tampa Bay Lightning.

This was one of the better starts the predators have had this season. Viktor Arvidsson continued to remain red-hot, scoring his sixth goal of the game on a beautiful pass from Roman Josi. The Preds were able to keep the pressure on the Lightning, as Tampa Bay was not able to get much going offensively.

Pekka Rinne continues to baffle opposing defenses. He has turned away some pretty good chances by the Bolts in the second period. P.K. Subban unloads a slap shot, and Ben Bishop has no chance there and Nashville takes a 2-0 lead. Moments later, Subban strikes again, his first multi-goal game since October 2014. Ryan Ellis quietly has three assists, the third three point game of his career, and first three assist game.

The game started getting chippy in the third period. Arvidsson rode Namestnikov kind of hard into the boards and drew a penalty. J.T. Brown returned the favor knocking Roman Josi into the boards fairly hard as well. Josi had to leave the ice and get checked out. Not too long after that, Brown pounced on Ryan Ellis, unloading a barrage of punches WWE style. The Lightning added a goal after Ellis and Brown were handed misconducts. The shutout is gone but luckily this one ends before any steel cage matches break out.

The refs deserve most of the blame for that 3rd period, as they severely mishandled the physical play that led up to the final melee. Brown is definitely culpable, as is Ellis, but the refs had chances to call penalties for obvious infractions and didn’t.

See you on January 5th.

Random Observations

• NHL Commissioner Gary Bettman is in the house!
• Holy moly, Viktor Arvidsson. That was also a great set up there by Josi.
• Pekka looks very sharp tonight. He has been lights out over the last handful of games.
• Colin Wilson just handcuffed Mike Fisher to ruin a great scoring chance.
• That was one of the better periods the Predators have played this year.
• Colin Wilson remains the king of the “almost goal.”
• James Neal with a breakaway. And right into Bishop’s pads. Smh.
• It might not be 108 mph, but Subban’s slap shot is pretty beastly.
• Subban again. He now has four goals and three assists in eight games at Bridgestone Arena.
• The defense has played well this game, particularly Roman Josi.
• The Lightning entered the game tied for second in goals scored. Pekka Rinne has shut them out for 55 minutes thus far.
• This game is getting more physical than it needs to be. First Arvidsson boards Namestnikov, then J.T. Brown does the same to Josi, then Brown again tackles Ellis and unleashes a slew of very unnecessary punches. A well-deserved suspension is probably in his future.
• Ladies and gentlemen, the Tampa Bay Lightning:

OTF’s Super Duper Stars of the Game

1. P.K. Subban - his two goals tonight give him five for the season, just one behind his total for all of last season. And we’re only 18 games into the season.
2. Ryan Ellis - you could probably say Ryan Ellis had three assists tonight out loud and the overwhelming response would be - “really?” In the last seven games Ellis has tallied three goals and three assists.
3. Viktor Arvidsson - he is all over the place, always. I think Arvidsson runs on Redbull and espresso. With his sixth goal, he is giving James Neal a run for his money for the most dangerous scorer on the Predators’ roster.

Tweets of the Night

Game Extras

Game Stats

Game Photos

HockeyStats

Natural Stat Trick

Game Video