Nashville Predators 4, Dallas Stars 1: Look Who’s 2-0!

After a somewhat flat 1st period from the Nashville Predators, the boys turned it on in the 2nd. The tone and momentum from the 3rd period vs. the Sens on Thursday carried over into the final 40 minutes of tonight’s matchup with the Dallas Stars. Shots, chances, speed, fights, hits, and goals. Shea Weber, Paul Gaustad, Eric Nystrom, and Roman Josi provided the scores for the good guys.Our top line did its job shutting down the top line of the Stars, but this game was all about the bottom 6 forwards, bringing the energy and, for the most part, the points.

Random Observations

• While we’ve talked a lot about the new guys signed this offseason (namely Ribeiro and Neal) tonight all they really did was sit on the bench and watch #TeamGrit flat out GET IT DONE.
• Dallas is clearly better than Ottawa. The Western Conference is clearly better than the Eastern Conference. Coke is clearly better than Pepsi.
• Dallas got a fortunate deflection on Antoine Roussel’s goal, but James Neal’s turnover near the blue line put Ryan Ellis in an unfortunate position.
• Dropping the gloves rarely helps momentum, but Gaustad pummeling Vernon Fiddler did seem to jolt the Preds. Several energetic shifts followed, with great scoring chances by Taylor Beck and Craig Smith.
• Only two games in, but the shots keep coming. 14 in the 2nd period alone. I petition that we should get Frosties at either 4 goals OR 40 shots. And if both happen, then we all get our own Wendy’s franchise.
• When does Colin Wilson get back from vacation? I bet his email inbox is crazy full.
• Olli Jokinen sure doesn’t play like he’s 62 years old, does he?
• Anton Volchenkov doesn’t like Jason Spezza either, apparently.
• Shea Weber debuted the eephus shot tonight and it was a ‘beaut.
• All 6 defensemen were stellar tonight, with a special shout-out to Ellis and Volchenkov for their work. Solid game blue-liners!
• If you are keeping track at home, that’s 6 goals so far in the 3rd period, through 2 games.
• You should buy this now, if you don’t already have one.

OTF’s Super Duper Stars of the Game

1. Paul Gaustad: a goal, an assist, a scrap, 69% faceoff wins… yep, that’ll do it.
2. Shea Weber: that was a sweet goal, I don’t care what law of physics it broke.
3. Volchenkov: some have compared him to a Russian tank, but I think even Russian tanks can’t wear skates. I could be wrong.

Tweet of the Night

So basically Firehouse Subs > Sub Stop.

— George Scoville (@OTFGeorge) October 12, 2014

Boxscore – Game Summary – Event Summary

Roll the video highlights…

Who was your Super Duper Star Of The Night?