Nashville Predators

Playoff Shots - His-to-ree
May 8, 2017, 10:31 AM ET [20 Comments]
Paul McCann
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Playoff shots are here as SlapShot Radio’s awesome photographer was capturing the spirit of the thing in Smashville yesterday…

Pictures are courtesy of Denise McCann Photography

From yesterday’s blog…
Game Six. Pressure begins to shift and today is the first true playoff test of this 2017 Predators team.

This Nashville Predators answered that emphatically, especially after a start that could generously called “tight” with a resounding 3-1 win to capture their second round series with the St. Louis Blues.

Pregame saw an incredibly hyped Pred Nation, they were ready from the jump, and they took the emotion to another level when Kevin Fiala made a surprise appearance as towel waiving hype man right after a stirring National Anthem from Lady Antebellum.

Then the puck dropped… the Predators rode that emotional wave, coming out strong in the first couple of minutes, skating well and getting pressure on the Blues, until a bounce went St. Louis’ way. Paul Stastny poked home a loose puck, the Blues were up 1-0 and the Predators deflated. Their skating went out the window and their puck management went down the tubes. Let’s be honest here… without Pekka Rinne, the Nashville Predators would’ve been down by 2 - 3 goals and we would be talking about a game seven right now.

But they were only down one… and whatever was said in the locker room between periods to reset the team certainly worked.

The Predators came out flying, and like we have seen throughout this playoff run it was the JOFA line setting up the defense to drive the offense. The Predators drove immediately into the offensive zone, Ryan Johansen passing to Mattias Ekholm who took it down the boards and found Roma Josi with a spectacular cross ice pass that left Blues goaltender Jake Allen helpless as Josi snapped it past him to tie the game and unleash joy at Bridgestone Arena.

Pred Nation was back into it, which is where they would remain for the rest of the game. ON their feet, cheering, chanting, urging, begging their team forward… and the Predators fed off the energy. Closing out the period tied, with momentum on their side… the penultimate period began.

A little back and forth, solid saves from both goaltenders, before Ryan Ellis stripped Vladimir Tarasenko of the puck, quick passes Ellis to Filip Forsberg to Viktor Arvidsson. Arvidsson sprinted from defensive blueline to the top of circle when he found Ryan Johansen with a perfect tape-to-tape saucer pass, Johansen deked right, and beat Allen with a backhand left to put the Predators up 2-1 and became the eventual game winner.

Smashville exploded… the thousand or so watching on the Bridgestone Arena plaza went nuts… but there was a long 16:45 to go. Once the Predators took the lead, it was the last time Smashville sat down. Pred Nation delivered three consecutive TV timeout standing ovations, each one louder than the last. As a side note… a big thank you to Bridgestone and Erie Insurance for not getting their sponsored segments last night… I’m sure they were OK with the sacrifice. :-)

The Blues began to press, but with pressing comes turnovers and it was Jake Allen’s turn to keep his team in the game, making a spectacular save on Filip Forsberg’s breakaway chance and doing the same thing to Colton Sissons a few minutes later. The Blues have discovered their goaltender in this playoff run and his name is Jake Allen.

St. Louis continued to press and Nashville held to its defensive system, counter punching at the right times, playing on their toes. Coach Mike Yeo pulled Allen with a little more than two minutes left… Smashville got louder, the Blues pressed harder and Nashville got the break it was looking for. A hard around from the back of the net went astray, Blues defenseman Jay Bouwmeester couldn’t corral it and then lost the race to the 50/50 puck with Calle Jarnkrok, who promptly deposited the empty netter and set off a celebration in Pred Nation.

The last minute passed, a brief celebration for the players then it was back to all business. By the time the press got to the locker room, the sights were set on the Western Conference Final.

So let’s get to the GBU…

The Good - Pekka Rinne seems to have a permanent place in the good category, proving all of his doubters wrong. The JOFA line hit the scoresheet in a big way, generating four points yesterday.

The Bad - The first period wasn’t good, sluggish and out of synch.

The Ugly - Nothing… absolutely nothing can be ugly after yesterday’s game.