Well that wasn’t fun.
Sometimes it’s not your night… and sometimes it’s REALLY not your night. The Predators were swallowed whole by the Red Wings tonight, losing 5-2. Gustav Nyquist, Kyle Quincey, Tomas Tatar (twice), and Henrik Zetterberg scored for the Red Wings. Mattias Ekholm and Mike Fisher scored for the Predators.
Some will say the story of the night was Carter Hutton starting on back-to-back nights and then allowing 3 goals on 4 shots, only to be replaced by Marek Mazanec (who wasn’t spectacular either). But I think it was really just a really awful, bad-luck filled pock-mark on an otherwise immaculate season. The Preds will quickly want to forget this game and can do so with a better effort on Tuesday.
Random Observations
- Congrats to Anthony Bitetto on his first NHL start! Always great to see the young guys get their first start.
- Well, fart. Wings score first. The Preds fell asleep (or were still asleep, maybe) on a breakout by Riley Sheahan and Gustav Nyquist, who easily scores on Hutton. 1-0 Red Wings only 57 seconds into the game. Not Hutton’s fault, but you have to think the leash is short tonight.
- Now the Wings go up 2-0. Kyle Quincey got a fortunate bounce and Hutton never saw it. And the leash tightens.
- Yuck. Another goal and it’s 3-0. Tomas Tatar snaps it up over Hutton. This has been as bad a 1st period as we’ve seen and we still have over 6 minutes left. Marek Mazanec will replace Hutton, who has allowed 3 goals on 4 shots.
- Preds on the board! A brilliant hesitation move on the shot by Mattias Ekholm who allowed the traffic to move in front as he beat Mrazek stick side. A long road to climb down 3 goals, but it has to start somewhere.
- Wings score again on a funky yes-no-yes-no-yes goal. Zetterberg just threw the puck up high around Mazanec’s shoulders and it hit the inside of the net, just crossing the goal line. It took a minute or so to figure out what in the world just happened, but upon review Zetterberg definitely scored.This is just one of those games, it would appear.
- Can we just add all these Red Wing goals to the official “Pekka Rinne For Vezina Trophy Highlight Reel Submission” please?
- Ok, Mike Babcock obviously put a cheat code in before this game. Tatar just deflected the puck out of mid-air on a saucer from Sheahan and the Wings lead 5-1. A ridiculous goal. Restart the game, please, this time no cheating.
- Mike Fisher makes it 5-2 with a nice backhand on the power-play. How did we do so well without Fisher for so long? He contributes in so many ways, it’s hard to imagine the team without him.
- Some nice effort in the 3rd period by Calle Jarnkrok, Cullen, Jokinen, and Beck. But no goals and no comeback.
- Red Wings: a lot, Preds: a little
- At least no Red Wings fans were in the building to watch this.
OTF’s Super Duper Stars of the Game
- Mattias Ekholm: Scored a nice goal, his second in back-to-back games.
- Calle Jarnkrok: Came close to scoring a couple times, showed bursts of energy when everyone around him didn’t. Had a good night on the face-off dot, winning 4 of 5.
- Mike Fisher: His goal was probably the prettiest moment of the game. That isn’t high praise, but at least it’s something. /
Tweets Of The Game
Time to bring out the Predalcohol
— Smashvillian (@Smashvillian_) January 18, 2015
If having Rinne is wrong, I don’t wanna be right.
— PrinceFilipForsberg (@FilipThePrince) January 18, 2015
Boxscore – Game Summary – Event Summary – War-on-Ice – HockeyStats – Natural Stat Trick
Roll the video highlights…