The Predators welcome the Anaheim Ducks into Bridgestone Arena tonight as they look to extend their two game winning streak.
The last time the Preds faced the Ducks, it wasn’t pretty. The Ducks scored five times in the 2nd period on October 26th, including two shorthanded goals. It was probably the ugliest moment of the season so far for the Preds.
Time for a little revenge.
The Anaheim Ducks
I despise the Ducks.
They’ve got a good team, sure, but that doesn’t mean we need to spend a lot of time on them. We’ve got other things to do. Corey Perry leads the team with 13 points. They finally signed Hampus Lindholm. John Gibson has a .903 save percentage and has been pretty inconsistent. Whatever.
Now lets watch Max Domi take Ryan Kesler to the woodshed.
Feel better? No?
Here’s another angle…
Or you can click here to go see the whole thing in real time.
Here’s your scorecard from hockeyfights.com:
I despise the Ducks.
The Nashville Predators
In general, the Preds have been playing a lot better in their last few games than they were in the first month. That should be obvious, as they have been actually winning a few games here and there.
But overall the team is playing a much better brand of hockey when it comes to possession. Here’s a look at their adjusted 5v5 CF% as a team over the course of the season courtesy of Corsica (I threw the Ducks on there too, for good measure)
The Predators were bad, bad early on in the year, including during that stretch run in California which including that loss to the Ducks. Over the last couple weeks, though, the team has skyrocketed. Possessing the puck is a solid predictor of winning hockey games, which is what the Preds have been doing.
But possessing the puck isn’t enough… you’ve still got to score goals. That’s the whole point of this game. Thankfully, the Preds have been doing that as well. James Neal, Calle Jarnkrok, Craig Smith, Mike Ribeiro, Ryan Ellis, and P.K. Subban have been the most consistent contributors on offense, while we still wait for Filip Forsberg and Ryan Johansen to really get something going.
Tonight should be a real test. Has the team turned a corner? Or will they cool off and return to that October form?
Reasons To Watch
- As I pointed out on Friday, the defense is fun again! The pairings are really starting to gel and that makes for a fun team to watch. The Josi-Ellis pairing is especially exciting. And who doesn’t want to watch P.K. Subban?
- The power play has significantly cooled off, scoring only twice in five November games. The good news? The penalty kill has improved. They’ve yet to allow a power play goal in the month of November and now have a 78% kill rate, which is good for 24th in the league. While that’s still not good, it’s better than the sub 75% rate which was good for 29th in the league a couple weeks ago.
- Pekka Rinne, most consistent Predator. Dude has been on fire. Keep it going, big guy. /
Pre-Game Entertainment
I can only assume Interpol were thinking about PDO when they wrote this song:
I keep falling, maybe half the time, maybe half the time
I keep falling, maybe half the time, maybe half the time
But it’s all the rage back home
It’s all the rage back home
The Important Details
7 pm puck drop at Bridgestone!
TV: FS-TN
Radio: 102.5 The Game