Recently, the Vancouver Canucks have been spiraling out of control and look poised to miss the playoffs for the first time in a long time. It didn’t matter for Nashville. Despite playing well enough to win, the Predators couldn’t score (natch) and let in two quick goals (for the second night in a row) to torpedo their chance at golden W.
Random Observations
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It was Michael Del Zotto’s turn to be the healthy scratch tonight. I’m not exactly sure who gets put in the press box or why, anymore. I just assume Barry Trotz has a big colorful spinning wheel in his office that calls the shots.
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If you didn’t hear yet, Paul Gaustad left the game in the first period and didn’t return. The Preds don’t play again until Friday, so it will give him some time to rest and heal up if the injury isn’t bad. If it’s worse than we think, they might need to start gassing up the bus in Milwaukee.
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One thing you can say about Carter Hutton since Rinne has come back: he certainly has a little swagger in his play. Granted, it means he’s all over the place and causes me to hide under the couch when the rush is coming toward him. He played well enough to win tonight, but needed way more help than he got. That’s been the theme song of the Preds this season.
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Four seconds. That’s how long it took Alex Edler to score on the power play just over a minute after Nicklas Jensen finally broke the scoring. That was also the moment everyone knew tonight wasn’t going to be different than any other night. The collective groan of the fan base probably shook the Earth.
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For those of you playing the home game, that’s the ninth time the Predators have been shutout this year. Tied with freaking Buffalo. If they can do it eight more times, I owe Pekka for Predator Pontiff a piece of pizza.
Boxscore – Game Summary – Event Summary – Fancy Stats
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