+3
Don't expect this to be a high scoring affair. The Predators have won the first three meetings, but all of those are one-goal wins. The last two games ended in a 2-1 Predators shootout victory. If the Blues want to stay in second place, they'll need to reverse that trend.
There’s some good news and some bad news about the second period. The good news is that the Nashville Predators did not score once in that period. The bad news is twofold — neither did the Blues, and they wound up getting outshot 17-7 in that period. Poor faceoff attempts and an inability to clear the puck did the Blues no favors at all, though a slightly (slightly) increased physicality helped a bit.
Speaking of physicality, the highlight of the period was this fight between Brian McGratton and Ryan Reaves:
You have to admit, McGratton’s fists seemed to be set on hyperdrive there. Cut over the eye notwithstanding, he handled the smaller Reaves very well.
How to get three goals in the third period? Shoot the darn puck, win a faceoff or two, and hope and pray Pekka Rinne suddenly forgets how to tend goal. The Blues might have to save some face in Ottawa on Tuesday night after this one.
Tonight’s game should be a lesson for the Blues’ offense: you can’t outshoot your opponent and expect to win. A lesson for the defense applies here too: clear the puck or limit second chances. So far, it’s not sinking in. The Blues lead 16-14 in shots on goal, but the Predators are up 2-0 in this important Central Division battle.
The first goal came at 6:59 of the period with a Martin Erat slapper:
Good luck stopping that one. In all seriousness, the Predators run a powerplay the way that the Blues should — and could — do so. Nashville’s second in the NHL on PP% for a reason, and the fluid puck movement and quick adaptation in that sequence showed exactly why.
The other Nashville goal was a clearing issue coupled with some serious lack of awareness of the puck’s location. Mike Fisher potted the Predators’ second goal five and a half minutes after Erat’s:
You can see that the puck was at the feet of Alex Pietrangelo, but in a rare defensive mistake he wasn’t exactly aware of the position of it. Of course, this could’ve been fixed by not allowing so many chances. That’s where the Preds succeed; they rarely allow first chances on Pekka Rinne, let alone second and third. You have to shut the other team down.
Here’s hoping that the Blues figure out how in the world to do that during the first intermission. This could be a long evening otherwise.
If there's a storyline between the St. Louis Blues and Nashville Predators, it's the teams' propensities to play shut-down defensive hockey. These aren't goal-fests, folks. When you have teams with defenses like the Blues' and Preds', not very many pucks make it through to the goaltender. When you have goaltenders like Jaroslav Halak and Pekka Rinne between the pipes, not many of those pucks will make it into the back of the net. As Inside Smashville noted, Preds coach Barry Trotz chalks this up to the two teams' similar style of play:
“I think we have similar philosophies. I understand what St. Louis does. They understand what we do. We have been able to end up on the right side. The two games that we won in their building, the first one we had no business winning, it was all Pekka Rinne’s doing. The second one we got a couple of timely goals with a power play goal and we won in a shootout. They have all been close games. It is going to be a playoff-style game [Saturday],” Trotz said.
It also helps surely that the two coaches, Trotz and Ken Hitchcock, are old friends and old rivals who can probably read the other's strategy fairly well. Whatever the cause for the lock up in the games, Inside Smashville brings up the reason why the Preds seem to have the Blues' number in close games. This was fairly disconcerting to read:
Close match-ups are nothing new between the Predators and Blues with 16 of their last 24 meetings being decided by one goal. In 78 games played against the Blues, 22 overtime periods have been required to decide a winner. The Predators have 12 wins and 10 overtime/shootout losses in those games. Of the 22 games to need extra time to decide a winner, 11 have gone to the shootout where Nashville has excelled with an 8-3 record in shootouts against St. Louis.
So, basically, the Blues' seeming inability to understand how to ice the game when they need to have cost them points against the Predators. Makes sense, especially when you consider how many shots on goal they had against Rinne the last two games (40 and 36 respectively). Each of those games the Blues lost 2-1 in a shootout, and each of those were frustrating losses for Jaroslav Halak. Despite the high shot totals and multiple chances against Rinne in each of those games, only one goal was able to make it past the Predators' goaltender during regulation. Fans and press alike have been crowing for most of the season that the Blues' absolutely must convert on solid chances: no more posts, no more missed nets, no more whiffs. Insurance goals are important. Not every game will be like last night's 1-0 win against the Kings. Halak has five shutouts this season, and three in his last five games, but the Blues need to stop relying on half of their Jennings Trophy contending tandem. They have to score.
It's tougher to do so, especially on the power play, without Andy McDonald and Alex Steen; neither traveled with the Blues to Nasvhille for tonight's game (Jason Arnott, who was injured in last night's game, did make the trip and is considered day-to-day). Concussions make a solid timetable for return impossible to judge, and it's pretty much impossible to say when either one of them will return. That, of course, places the onus on David Backes and the other top guys on the ice to convert, and convert more often. Backes has been the object of many glowing editorials this season, most recently this one by Nicholas J. Cotsonika of Yahoo Sports. He's a leader on and off the ice, and unarguably one of the best all-around forwards in the game. It, as usual, falls on his top line to produce and lead by example tonight.
It's a brief three game road-trip for the Blues, but their road record isn't nearly as good as their NHL best home record of 22-3-4. A record of 8-10-3 absolutely needs to be built upon if the Blues want to keep up in this wild Central Division race.
Blues At Predators Final Score: Tight Goaltending Leads To A 3-1 Loss
Pekka Rinne knows how to shut down the Blues. The Nashville goaltender faced 42 shots tonight; coupled with the 40 shots on goal the last time the Blues were in Nashville that makes 2 goals on 82 shots. That’s amazing. You have to give Rinne his dues; he is one of the league’s elite goaltenders and deserves far more praise than he gets from the pundits in the know.
The Blues’ elite goaltender did well, not allowing any goals over the last two periods (the Preds third goal, scored by Sergei Kostitsyn, was an empty netter), while Rinne showed that he was human and actually allowed this unassisted shot by Chris Porter past him:
Aside from that, Rinne did nothing else to confirm that he is more man than machine. Quite frankly, if given a choice for a first round match-up between the Predators and the Red Wings, I’d choose Detroit. At least they can be scored upon. Nashville? That’s debatable.
The Blues head up to Ottawa for their next road game on Tuesday to square off a Senators team that’s been making a surprising run of things. Craig Anderson is no Pekka Rinne. God willing, the Blues’ll be able to get more than one puck past him.
Feb 04 9:34p by Laura Astorian