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Washington Capitals 4, Nashville Predators 1: Do the Preds Have Goaltending Concerns?

Posted on by Dirk Hoag

The Washington Capitals took an early lead on the Nashville Predators tonight and didn’t let up, pulling away with an easy 4-1 victory. Victor Bartley scored on the power play with 14 seconds left, but the outcome of the game wasn’t in doubt at that point. The big news to watch following this one, however, is the status of Patric Hornqvist, who was held out of the third period with a lower body injury.

Mikhail Grabovski, who the Predators could have picked up on waivers earlier this summer, led all scorers with three assists, while neither of the former Preds playing tonight (Martin Erat & Jack Hillen) figured in the scoring.

Special Note: If you’re interested in any new Preds gear (or stuff covering just about any sports team, really), Fanatics is marking down their sale items by an additional 40% right now. I just heard about this special today, and you can see their selection by following this link (use the navigation on the left side to scroll through teams). A portion of each sale made through that link goes to support OTF.

How’s Hutton?

Carter Hutton hasn’t exactly set Predators fans at ease with his play during this pre-season. As Daniel Mills brought up during the Game Thread, he’s given up 11 goals on 86 total shots, good for a .872 save percentage to this point. As a point of comparison, Chris Mason put up a disappointing .873 mark last season as Pekka Rinne’s backup.

Jim Diamond shared a verrrry interesting tidbit on Twitter during the game:

This is especially noteworthy, because when George Scoville wrote here a few weeks ago about free agents who could help the Predators, I really poo-pooed his plan to include Jose Theodore in the discussion. I mean come on, this is the guy derided as “Jose Three or Four”! George may have been eerily prescient, however.

From here, the Preds move on to Long Island to face the Islanders in their final pre-season game on Friday.

Boxscore – Game Summary – Event Summary

Video Highlights

Nashville Predators Advanced Stats

Player Pos ES TOI Total Shots For Total Shots Against Corsi Net Zone Starts Adjusted Corsi
Simon Moser C 15:29 20 9 +11 -3 +12
Nick Spaling C 14:11 25 11 +14 0 +14
Craig Smith C 13:11 22 6 +16 0 +16
Eric Nystrom L 12:50 11 13 -2 0 -2
Paul Gaustad C 12:39 15 5 +10 -6 +12
Taylor Beck L 12:32 18 11 +7 +1 +7
Mike Fisher C 12:18 7 12 -5 +2 -6
Matt Hendricks C 11:49 10 13 -3 -2 -2
Colin Wilson C 11:33 7 13 -6 +3 -7
Gabriel Bourque L 11:15 9 14 -5 -1 -5
Rich Clune L 10:12 14 4 +10 -2 +11
Patric Hornqvist R 6:30 4 7 -3 +2 -4
Kevin Klein D 18:55 22 17 +5 -2 +6
Victor Bartley D 17:45 20 14 +6 -1 +6
Seth Jones D 16:44 19 14 +5 -1 +5
Mattias Ekholm D 16:32 19 14 +5 -1 +5
Joe Piskula D 14:37 14 12 +2 +1 +2
Ryan Ellis D 12:15 14 9 +5 0 +5

Washington Capitals Advanced Stats

Player Pos ES TOI Total Shots For Total Shots Against Corsi Net Zone Starts Adjusted Corsi
Marcus Johansson C 15:18 14 18 -4 +2 -5
Alex Ovechkin L 14:52 13 18 -5 +2 -6
Nicklas Backstrom C 14:08 14 18 -4 +2 -5
Martin Erat R 14:03 12 15 -3 +2 -4
Jason Chimera L 12:54 12 15 -3 +3 -4
Troy Brouwer R 12:14 10 15 -5 +3 -6
Mikhail Grabovski C 11:05 7 9 -2 -2 -1
Aaron Volpatti L 10:04 10 12 -2 0 -2
Dane Byers L 10:03 6 9 -3 -3 -2
Eric Fehr R 9:57 7 8 -1 -4 +1
Michael Latta C 9:48 4 12 -8 +1 -8
Jay Beagle C 9:42 9 12 -3 0 -3
Mike Green D 17:59 12 24 -12 +2 -13
Karl Alzner D 17:17 11 23 -12 +2 -13
Jack Hillen D 16:24 21 14 +7 -2 +8
John Erskine D 15:31 8 18 -10 +1 -10
Steve Oleksy D 14:59 16 16 0 -1 +0
John Carlson D 14:59 12 14 -2 +2 -3

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