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Nashville 4, Ottawa 5 (OT): Nashville Can’t Overcome Their Own Collapse, Escape With a Point

Posted on by Bryan Bastin

Recap

Nashville opened the game on a four-shot streak before Ottawa got their first.  They controlled the flow of the game pretty early and throughout.  Craig Smith tallied several high-danger chances before getting a pass from Kyle Turris on the wall and driving it home to give the Predators a 1-0 lead.

The Predators continued their attack throughout the period, blocking 11 of Ottawa’s 25 shot attempts, and finished the period with 9 high danger shot attempts overall—five of which came from Smith.  They kept it clean as well, as neither team took any penalties before the period came to an end.

Nashville started the second period with a Colton Sissons holding penalty, but Ottawa took a penalty of their own to push the game to 4v4.  Unfortunately, Ottawa’s Colin White scored a goal, then Vladislav Namestnikov scored again 50 seconds later while the Senators were shorthanded.  The Predators’ habit of giving up shorthanded goals is starting to be a bit worrying.

Roman Josi took a phantom tripping penalty with nine minutes to go and they were off to the penalty kill again.  After a near-miss on a delay of game penalty, the Predators killed off the power play, and Filip Forsberg nearly scored the other way on a great cross-ice pass from Dante Fabbro.

The Predators couldn’t build on that momentum, as Ottawa spent a ton of time in Nashville’s zone.  With under two minutes to go, Dante Fabbro turned the puck over in the neutral zone, and after a couple of Ottawa chances, Artem Anisimov buried one to take the score to 3-1.  The Predators’ lifeless second period came to a close.

Hoping to come out strong, Colin Blackwell took a slashing penalty, and 80 seconds into the period, the Nashville penalty kill left Brady Tkachuk alone in the left circle to score, and the Predators were down 4-1.

However, the small wonder Rocco Grimaldi wouldn’t lie down easily, and jammed a rebound short-side 20 seconds later to bring the score to 4-2.  But the Predators couldn’t do anything else, giving up a couple of odd-man rushes (that Ottawa thankfully missed on) before finally drawing a tripping penalty on Mark Borowiecki with 10:48 to play.

After the Senators’ penalty kill cleared the puck easily twice, Ryan Johansen deflected a Ryan Ellis shot pass in the net to take Nashville to 4-3 with half the period remaining.  A few minutes later, Roman Josi took the puck 160 feet, stole the souls of two Ottawa players, and scored a gorgeous goal to tie the game 4-4.

A tense final few minutes of the period saw a back and forth effort by both teams, unfortunately broken up by a fan being struck by a puck.  Ottawa looked to take the final shot, but Ryan Johansen broke up the breakout in the neutral zone and the game headed to overtime.

Mattias Ekholm broke up a 3-on-1 breakaway by Ottawa, but Calle Järnkrok took a penalty that would send the Senators on the 4v3 power play after nearly a minute of delayed penalty time.  The controversial call would prove lethal:  coach Peter Laviolette refused to take a timeout after the long shift, and shortly thereafter Anthony Duclair scored his second game-winning goal in overtime in two games, and Nashville left Ottawa with only a loser point to show for it.

Observations

  • Puck drop and the Preds have another night with the line blender.  It kind of worked, so we’ll see.  Love to see Trenin get a shot on the top line
  • Forsberg with a snap shot from above the circles—I don’t like it, but if anyone can make it work, it’s Fil
  • Craig Smith with a nice rebound shot and the Preds start 4-0 in shots on goal
  • Predators are blocking a lot of shots already
  • Willy called Ottawa “a little bit of a sleepy atmosphere”, haha
  • Nice move by Trenin to drive for a good shot
  • Sens get a decent chance on a wrap-around, but Juuse Saros stands tall
  • CRAIG OPENS THE GOAL SCORING AGAIN!  Great pass from Turris
  • 13 minutes in the game, and still no whistles besides offsides.  I like it.
  • Trenin is very good
  • CRAIG SMITH CANNOT STOP GETTING HIGH-DANGER SHOTS
  • What a dominating first period—please, please, please keep it up
  • Nashville’s Colton Sissons takes the first penalty of the night a few minutes into the second
  • Ottawa takes one 20 seconds in and we go to 4 on 4
  • Oh no
  • OH NO x2
  • Seven minutes into the second, and Nashville has only two shots on goal.
  • Filip Forsberg, Matt Duchene and Rocco Grimaldi are having a night to forget so far
  • That’s a suspect penalty call on Josi
  • After that nice Forsberg chance after the penalty kill, Preds can’t do anything at all
  • Neutral zone turnover by Fabbro and the Sens get a couple chances before Artem Anisimov buries it
  • Come out strong? Nope, penalty, PP goal against.
  • BUT THERE’S ROCCO
  • Little bit of fighting on the wall, with Watson, Sissons, Hamhuis and Irwin tangled up in it—just the guys to turn this thing around :eye-roll:
  • After a fantastic first period, Nashville has reverted back to their low-quality shot ways—the Peter Laviolette special
  • This is just sad to watch.  No defensive positioning, multiple odd-man rushes allowed.  How much longer will David Poile let this team languish like this?
  • Hey, a goal was scored on the Nashville power play, and it was our team!
  • Nashville starting to gain momentum, but can they tie it up?  They’ve been prone to giving up some odd-man rushes against, they can’t blow this comeback by giving up an easy one
  • The captain builds his Norris resume by taking it coast to coast, while stealing souls, and the game is tied!
  • Hate to see someone hit by a puck like that
  • Bonus hockey!
  • Trash penalty call, and the coaches don’t take a timeout and Duclair ends it.  Bad./

On The Forecheck’s Stars of The Night

  1. Craig Smith – the man was on fire to start the game
  2. Roman Josi – that game-tying goal was absolutely gorgeous
  3. Ottawa Money on the Board and Kids Up Front Ottawa – What a wonderful organization and drive to help kids out in the Ottawa area.  Go support these fine folks when you can!  Find their website here.

Worst Performers

  1. Fox Sports Tennessee and whoever told them to fire Martel – We support Kris Martel, and the decision to get rid of him as social media manager for daring to say that sometimes things aren’t all 100% perfect is an awful decision.

Tweets of the Game

Game Videos

Talking Points