The Nashville Predators hosted the Columbus Blue Jackets Thursday night at Bridgestone Arena, after a heart breaking loss to the Buffalo Sabres on Tuesday.

It was nice to see former Predator Seth Jones back on Nashville ice, even if he is thy enemy. Brandon Saad gets it going for the Blue Jackets, and for the billionth time this season Nashville gives up the first goal of the game. The Preds were outshot 14-9 in the first and they are having another one of their notoriously slow starts.

Thank God for the second period, where Nashville outscores everyone. Calle Jarnkrok drills home a beauty on the power play. Nashville needed that because their power play has been horrendous lately. Harry Zolnierczyk scores his first of the season and the Preds have a 2-1 lead. That goal reads Zolnierczyk from McLeod and Sissons. Let that sink in.

Craig Smith makes an appearance in the third period, and he scores his first goal in 29 games while Nashville takes a 3-1 lead. Uh oh, a two goal lead for the Preds? Don’t worry, Zach Werenski made it a one goal lead and brings Columbus to within 3-2. Craig Smith decides he hasn’t quite earned his paycheck tonight, and drives home his second of the game. Where ya been Smitty? Ryan Murray would bring Columbus to 4-3 but Nashville held on and they enter the All-Star break on a high note.

Random Observations

• Hey Seth Jones, in the words of Keith Urban, blue isn’t your color. Gold looked better on you
• This Bluejackets teams has a lot of fun names to say: Boone Jenner, Zach Werenski, Alex Wennberg, Lukas Sedlak, Sergei Bobrovsky
• Calle Jarnkrok gets the Preds on the board; it’s always great to see him score
• Zolnierczyk just crashed into the boards pretty hard, hope he’s okay
• Of course the Preds give up the first goal, and of course it’s former Blackhawk Brandon Saad
• We’re lucky to be down just one going into the first intermission
• Calle! Then Harry Z! Unsung heroes anyone? And how about Cody McLeod?!
• Man, Hartnell really wanted a piece of Irwin there
• Craig Smith has two goals! I REPEAT, Craig Smith has two goals!
• Well what good is a two goal lead if you can’t blow it?
• Preds making us sweat it out until the end

OTF’s Super Duper Stars of the Game

1. Craig Smith - he didn’t quite redeem himself for tripping over his own stick earlier this year, but two goals is a start. Now let’s see if he can turn this into consistency.
2. Mattias Ekholm - he had two assists tonight and led the team in ice time at 28:58
3. Calle Jarnkrok - how good has Calle been tonight? Another goal, solid defense, he is the ultimate Swiss army knife.

Tweets of the Night

Game Extras

Game Stats

HockeyStats

Natural Stat Trick

Game Video