Nashville Predators Snatch Defeat from Jaws of Victory
The Nashville Predators served up a microcosm of the first ten games of their season in Arizona last night.
The Nashville Predators needed points going into Thursday night’s matchup, and the schedule seemed to tilt fortune in their favor. Despite missing Captain Mike Fisher, the Preds were slated against the second-to-last place Arizona Coyotes, who themselves were missing key pieces in Martin Hanzal and Michael Stone.
While the 3-5-1 Predators hadn’t gotten off to an enviable start, the excuse could be made that their season opening competition was incredibly stiff. A banged up Coyotes roster, however, was widely regarded as the first ‘should win’ game of the year for the Preds, particularly after coming off of a dismantling of the Colorado Avalanche.
Putting on a dominant first period effort, Nashville outshot Arizona 18-6, yet only managed to enter the first intermission in a 1-1 tie. With the second period played evenly and highlighted by a beautiful P.K. Subban to Craig Smith goal, the ice continued it’s Arizona bound tilt until the Preds were quickly and efficiently smothered through the third period, forcing overtime.
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Overtime is where metaphors starting creeping into the game. The Nashville Predators were largely in control of the puck, keeping possession as they swept back and forth across the offensive blue line, rotating fresh skaters onto the ice. Yet the puck never found its way into the net.
Winger Filip Forsberg, still searching for his first goal on the year, was able to draw a penalty on Radim Vrbata to put the Predators on a 4-vs-3 powerplay with roughly two minutes remaining in extra time. Given every opportunity to leave Arizona with two points in tow, the Predators could not manage to find the win as the overtime period expired.
The shootout sealed the imagery of a fully-fledged collapse. Both Coyotes skaters solved Pekka Rinne for goals, both Forsberg and Ryan Johansen failed to find twine for Nashville. The quickest end result possible in a shootout.
While the Nashville Predators earned a point, it was bad loss to take given the circumstances and perceived talent level on each roster. It was a game looked to as an opportunity for the Preds to find momentum against a not-so-hot squad, and they didn’t perform the way a winning team does.
Nashville is now halfway through a four game stretch against teams that failed to make the postseason last year- a stretch which we at Predlines believe could be used to turnaround the season’s fortune. We called success gaining six points from the games against Colorado, Arizona, Carolina, and Ottawa.
With three points in two games, at least the Nashville Predators are on par to meet that mark. The intensity must be heightened in the coming contests, though Nashville is far from eliminated in the season. They sit one point away from last place, yet only two points away from a Wild Card position. It’s still that early, folks.
The Nashville Predators return to action Saturday night against the 2-4-3 Carolina Hurricanes, the only team in the league with less points than the Preds. It’s not a must win game, but back-to-back losses against Arizona and Carolina won’t help.