Colin Wilson broke a weeks-long cold streak but had several other golden scoring chances come up just short, as the Nashville Predators fell in a 3-2 shootout decision at Bridgestone Arena tonight. From here, the Preds (13-11-3) move on to host the Vancouver Canucks on Tuesday.
The Predators enjoyed 10 minutes of power play ice time tonight, but were out-shot by the Philadelphia Flyers 4-1 in that time span, in one of the worst PP performances I’ve ever seen a team put together. All those opportunities to blow this game wide open were wasted, allowing the Flyers to hang around until the shootout.
Wilson scored his first goal since November 6th to give the Preds a 2-1 lead just over five minutes into the third period. Mike Fisher scored the Predators‘ first goal, answering a Claude Giroux score to tie things up in the first period. Sean Couturier tied things up late in the third, taking the game to overtime.
In the shootout, Vincent Lecavalier scored on Marek Mazanec in the first round, and the Preds were shut out in three tries to give Philly the win.
Random Observations
- Patric Hornqvist was superb in his return to action, creating scoring chances, driving the net and drawing penalties from Philadelphia.
- This game looked awfully sloppy at times, with casual giveaways by both sides, and lots of one-handed poke passes to move through the neutral zone.
- Nobody that I saw laid a finger on Steve Downie in retaliation for the concussion-inducing hit he laid on Roman Josi back in early October. #grit?
- In the absence of Shea Weber & Kevin Klein, the dynamic duo of Seth Jones and Roman Josi logged heavy, heavy minutes (over 30 each) and looked like a legit top pair.
- It was nice to see Wilson end his long goal-less streak, but he had at least four other outstanding chances to score that he couldn’t convert, including a shot off the goalpost and a breakaway in overtime. If he have that kind of impact more consistently I’d be pretty excited, but experience tells us it’s a rare treat.
- All that PP time really cut into Paul Gaustad’s night, as he played a season-low 10:06.
- You do have to tip your cap to the defense corps overall, which stepped up and generally kept things under control tonight. Behind them, Mazanec turned in a solid performance – he couldn’t really be faulted on either Philadelphia goal.
- In a bizarre coincidence, all four centers who took more than one faceoff for Nashville won exactly half their draws.
Boxscore – Game Summary – Event Summary – Fancy Stats
Roll the video highlights…
Who was your Predator of the Game?
| Mike Fisher | 12 |
| Patric Hornqvist | 29 |
| Marek Mazanec | 43 |
| Colin Wilson | 25 |