Nashville Predators 4, St. Louis Blues 5 (OT): Breakfast and a Point

After dropping the first game of a back-to-back Saturday afternoon, the Nashville Predators laced up again this morning to take on the St. Louis Blues.

The lineup looked much the same for both teams, with the exception of goaltenders and the Preds’ swapping Matt Irwin for Yannick Weber. The first period seemed never-ending with both teams trading penalties. Juuse Saros had his coffee this morning, keeping this game scoreless through the first, despite some solid chances by the Blues.

Cody McLeod got called for roughing early in the second and the Blues finally capitalized on a power play with a goal from Alex Pietrangelo. Things didn’t get much better when Vladimir Tarasenko followed it up putting the Blues’ up 2-0 early in the period.

All was not lost, as everyone’s favorite tiny tank Viktor Arvidsson cut the Blues’ lead in half just seconds later. The celebration was short-lived when Tyler Bozak netted another one for the Blues. All of that happened in less than four minutes, while the rest of the period seemed to be a lot of the same back and forth we saw in the first. Nashville saw some chances towards the end, but still couldn’t capitalize on the power play.

Roman Josi managed to cut the Blues’s lead again in the third with a glorious wraparound goal.

The Preds weren’t done yet. Arvidsson slammed one home off a feed from Ryan Johansen to tie the game. The tie didn’t last long, as Tarasenko scored his second of the game to put the Blues back up. Nick Bonino seemingly tied the game back up mid-way through the third, but the goal was called off. That wasn’t enough to discourage Filip Forsberg who tied the game up for real.

With under two minutes to go in the third, the Preds were throwing everything they had at Jake Allen while Saros was doing all he could to make sure the Blues didn’t score a late goal. Regulation wouldn’t be enough but 16 seconds into overtime was all the Blues needed to end this one with a goal from Tarasenko, giving him a hat-trick.

Random Observations

• Catfish down.
• Does Bridgestone sell waffles? They should.
• Preds are uh...skating
• We interrupt Preds hockey to inform you that the Ducks have finally fired Randy Carlyle. Oh...and GM Bob Murray will be interim head coach in the meantime. As you were.
• And Fiala to the box to get the penalties started today.
• Preds kill the penalty and immediately go on the power play.
• It was not great.
• Scoreless after the first.
• McLeod to the box already in the second. I want to say I understand why they brought him back, but...why did they bring him back?
• Oh Blues’ score on the power play. Thanks, McLeod.
• Another Blues’ goal...this is taking a bad turn.
• Arvi! Here to bless us with a goal to cut that Blues’ lead in half.
• Well that celebration was short-lived.
• Penalties on penalties on penalties.
• Tempers are definitely starting to flair here late in the second.
• Josi takes a spill but no penalty called. The Bridge is not happy about that.
• Roman Josi. That is all.
• They should just go ahead and chisel a statue of Arvi out of gold outside the arena.
• Well that didn’t last long. This game is ridiculous.
• Nick Bonino almost had one, but alas you can’t bat the puck into the net.
• Filip Forsberg! Go ahead and chisel a statue of him out of gold right next to Arvi’s.
• Preds have some new life this period. That Forsberg goal must have sparked something. As it should.

OTF’s Super Duper Stars of the Game

• Viktor Arvidsson - He’s on track to be a 40-goal scorer y’all.
• Wendy’s - For not pulling the free Frosty promo even though they probably should have this season.
• The catfish - it was put out of its misery early.

Tweets of the Game