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Philadelphia Flyers 6, Nashville Predators 3: Flyers Cruise Through Another Awful Preds Performance

Posted on by Alex Daugherty

The Predators out-did Tuesday’s heartbreaking loss with a 6-3 loss against Philadelphia tonight. In an incredibly fast-paced game, the Preds were slow, didn’t take care of the puck, and couldn’t capitalize on their chances. Everything that could go bad, went bad. That four-game winning streak is a mere shadow in the rear view mirror at this point.

There was a line shake up tonight, with Mike Fisher playing wing on a the top line with Ryan Johansen and James Neal. Filip Forsberg dropped to the 2nd line with Mike Ribeiro and Craig Smith. Why? Because reasons. It didn’t last long. It was a pretty terrible start for the Preds, going down 2-0 in the 1st period. Much complaining happened after the Brayden Schenn goal made it 2-0 as Ryan Ellis thought he was being was being interfered with at the blue-line. The goal counted, of course.

Every time the Preds inched close, every time they fought back into the game, the Flyers answered and then some. Ryan Johansen put the Predators on the board with a beautiful goal, but the Flyers answered. Twice. Wayne Simmonds and Claude Giroux made it 4-1. Although Calle Jarnkrok would inch the Preds closer and Shea Weber would get late power-play goal, it wasn’t enough. The Flyers equaled with two more goals, again by Giroux and Simmonds. In the end, no amount of shots or Corsi or crisp passing or “feeling-good” did anything. The Flyers put up 6 goals, the Preds put up 3.

Credit Steve Mason, who stopped 37 of 40 shots, with many of them being very, very tough saves. Pekka Rinne made some decent saves, but really the defense let him down. Also credit the Flyers as a team… they clearly found massive holes in our system and exploited them expertly. They were incredible out there.

Overall, just a bad team performance by the Predators in this one.

Random Observations

  • Not a great start for the power-play. Radko Gudas gets a dumb double minor penalty on Salomaki, but the Preds can’t capitalize. They did get 4 shots, but boy that hurts.
  • Unbelievable. Jackman and Ellis get forced into each other by a Flyers forward and then Matt Read takes a pass and scores. He had a clear shot at Rinne because UHHHHHH there was a penalty that wasn’t called. What in the blue nonsense. That has to be an interference call. 1-0 Flyers, I suppose.
  • Golly. 2-0 Flyers now. Ellis is stuck defending a 2-on-1 because Jackman did… something else? I guess? Schenn gets a stick on the end of a Sean Couturier pass and puts the puck past Rinne. Soon after that, Craig Smith gets a double-minor. Flyers will start the 2nd with a long power-play. This is all kinds of bad right now. ALL. KINDS.
  • “The Preds will be on the penalty-kill for most of that double-minor against Craig Smith.” -Stu Grimson, a man who is paid to talk about hockey games on television.
  • Johansen gets the Preds within 1 with a filthy shot over the stick of Mason. Josi made the pass to RyJo in the slot, who followed up the goal with a nice team logo pat celebration. Cool moment for Johansen, who gets his first in front of the home crowd.
  • What the what. Wayne Simmonds gets a long feed from Scott Laughton and buries the rebound home on the breakaway. Weber’s stick broke at the other end and that .5 seconds it took to retrieve a backup from the bench was all it took to open up that long pass. This is a fast league. 3-1 Flyers and things are back to SUCK.
  • This Roman Josi spin-o-rama is neat.
  • Claude Giroux goal. 4-1 Flyers. Just another absolute stinker, only this time the Preds will make sure the fans can leave early.
  • Mike Fisher, who is just a warm body at this point, switches with Jarnkrok, who promptly scores. And then Jarny gets several chances in the 3rd.
  • Shea Weber’s power-play goal was nice, but it was followed by two more Flyers goals that solidified the win. Let the hate flow through you…

OTF’s Super Duper Stars of the Game

  • Ryan Johansen: a goal and an assist. How bad would this game have been without him? Geez.
  • Wayne Simmonds: 2 goals, with a great effort to squeeze the puck past Rinne’s skate on the 1st one. Fast and skilled… two things that most of the Preds were not tonight.
  • Claude Giroux: 2 goals. Also fast, also skilled. Dude can rake. /

Tweet of the Game

Joel Quenneville was SUPER pissed about Ellis not getting an interference call…

Boxscore – Game Summary – Event Summary – War-on-Ice – HockeyStats – Natural Stat Trick

Roll the video highlights…


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