Forsberg and Johansen will probably have a future in hockey
Safe to say, don’t you think?
Just watching both on the ice is like watching two mystical streams of star matter scream through the dark vacuum of the furthest reaches of space.
It’s not really something that most should be surprised about, to be honest. Forsberg and Johansen both are two extremely dynamic players, but on the same line they are just amazing to watch.
The first period gave fans a heavy dose of just that, as both players entered into the offensive zone midway through the period and nearly gave Blues goaltender Brian Elliott a heart-attack — laying down some impressive dekes and a handful of shots before St. Louis ultimately cleared the zone.
They may not have scored, but they had nine of Nashville’s 38 attempted shots towards Elliott.
Penalty kill doing their best work of the season
Have you noticed how successful the penalty kill has been during the last few games? They’ve quietly seemed to figure things out, stopping 23 straight penalties dating back to a 5-4 overtime loss to the Winnipeg Jets on January 14th.
“We’ve been doing a good job getting pucks on our sticks,” said Predators defenseman Barret Jackman. “We’re clearing it 200 feet and frustrating the opposition. [Pekka Rinne] has been unbelievable. He’s been making some great saves and some key saves at the right times. If we do have a hole in our PK, he’s closing it up and making us look good.”
That, in fact, is Nashville’s longest such stretch of penalties killed in a row this season — if that number can grow to at least 29, then it would go down into Nashville’s record books as the third-highest stretch of consecutive penalties killed in franchise history.
The most? 37 set between November 16th and December 6th of 2010.
“The penalty kill did a good job. I thought they did better as the game went on,” said head coach Peter Laviolette. “Especially in the last one [against St. Louis]. Even just getting through the neutral zone I thought they did an excellent job of just clogging it up which forced clears, dumps and lack of zone time.”
Ultimate Snoozefest
Did you watch the game tonight? If so, all I can do is apologize to you for doing so, but I had to watch it too along with the fans in attendance who made it out despite the incoming storm cell.
There was plenty of astonishing neutral zone play along with a plethora of heart-stopping blocked shots and…can you see where I’m going with this? It wasn’t a fun one to watch. In fact, it could have possibly been one of the most sleep-inducing hockey games I’ve ever witnessed.
You can’t really be surprised, though. Nashville and St. Louis have been known to have some instant classics on Tuesday night’s. In fact, friend of all J.R. Lind may have to re-write this fantastic article over at III Communication about the worst game in Conference III history.
Mercifully, and to the disdain of Predators fans, Troy Brouwer was able to convert for St. Louis and end this game with a final score of 1-0.
THREE STARS
Troy Brouwer, St. Louis Blues — Brouwer made sure this game didn’t head to overtime or a shootout. While Nashville very much deserved a point out of this, Brouwer’s goal easily prevented that
Pekka Rinne, Nashville Predators — Rinne deserved much better than the loss in this one. He made some fantastic saves, but Nashville’s defense couldn’t get it cleared out in the end and it came back to bite them.
Brian Elliott, St. Louis Blues — A thrilling 16-save shutout for Elliott and his first of the season.