WHO SHOULD NASHVILLE PREDATORS FANS ROOT FOR IN THE NHL TONIGHT?

April 4th, 2013

As of this afternoon, sportsclubstats.com lists the Nashville Predators’ chances of making the playoffs at 15.1 percent. A win tonight against the Columbus Blue Jackets would boost those chances by five percent, and a few other things going right could improve their chances overall. So, beyond the obvious need for a Preds win, the Music City faithful should be hoping for three teams they instinctively despise to win their games.

Preds fans should hope Chicago beats the Blues tonight. (PHOTO: Rob Grabowski-USA TODAY Sports)

First up are the Chicago Blackhawks (27-5-3, 1st in the West), who take on the St. Louis Blues (18-14-2, 9th). It feels a little bit gross to hope the Blackhawks will beat anybody. Not only are they the Blackhawks, and thus evil, but they’ve had so much success this season that cheering them on feels like rooting for the Yankees. The thing is, the Blues are tied with Nashville at 38 points apiece – with three games in hand. A St. Louis loss would add 0.9 percent to the Preds’ chances of making the playoffs.

Put the past behind you and cheer for the dark side tonight. (PHOTO: Anne-Marie Sorvin-USA TODAY Sports)

Next are the Vancouver Canucks (19-11-6, 4th in the West), who play their Northwest Division rivals the Edmonton Oilers (16-13-7, 8th). This is another case that ought to give you chills since the Canucks knocked Nashville out of the Western Conference Semifinal two years back and give them hell every season. Edmonton, though, destroyed the Calgary Flames 8-2 in their last game to leapfrog the Preds and Blues into 8th place. They have a game in hand on the Preds, so an Oilers loss would add 1.0 percent to Nashville’s chances.

A Coyotes win would slow down the Red Wings. (PHOTO: Matt Kartozian-USA TODAY Sports)

Finally there’s another old playoff foe, the Phoenix Coyotes (15-15-6, 12th in the West), who face the Detroit Red Wings (18-13-5, 7th). Not only is there the playoff animosity from last season, but the Coyotes destroyed the Preds the last time they came to Nashville. But a Phoenix win would be a bump in the road for the Red Wings, who are three points ahead of the Preds with one game in hand. Getting the right result here would add 0.9 percent to the Preds’ playoff hopes.

A Nashville Predators win along with these outcomes could boost the Preds’ chances of making the playoffs as high as 22.9 percent by the end of the night – still a long shot, but 22.9 percent better than zero.

Though it wasn’t all his fault, it was a poor night in net for the Nashville Predators’ Pekka Rinne. (PHOTO: Don McPeak-USA TODAY Sports)

Martin Hanzal opened the scoring for Phoenix at 1:46, and by 8:26 the Coyotes were up 5-0. Nashville responded with two goals to tie their franchise record for the most goals in a single period by both teams. Then both teams scored one more to make the score 6-3 by the end of the first, and the Preds had set a new record. (For a full breakdown of the first period, check out our post about the new franchise record.)

As I thought he might, Pekka Rinne came back in to start the second period – and made a glove save on the very first shot against him just 10 or 15 seconds in. But the score became 7-3 at 2:44, on an Antoine Vermette goal off a rebound given up by Rinne from a Paul Bissonette shot.

The shots were 17-13 for Nashville heading into the second period. The Preds once again outshot the Coyotes, this time 11-9, but they went without a goal in the second. They did pick up a goal from Shea Weber at 10:02 of the third period, from a nice drop pass by Fisher, but Jason LaBarbera turned away the rest of the Preds’ shots and the game ended with the score 7-4.

Some observations:

• Just for fun, here’s that first period scoring summary.
  

  Yes, this is a real one-period scoring summary from an NHL game.

• Steve Sullivan’s 1,000th career game was certainly a memorable one, even if he somehow managed not to pick up a point. He said during one pre-recorded interview segment that he hopes he’ll be remembered as a Predator. I don’t think he has to worry about that one. He’s one of the team’s all-time greats.
• As if this dark cloud of a game needed a pitch-black lining: after blocking a Derek Morris shot with his right hand late in the third period, Mike Fisher left the ice and skated straight back to the dressing room. There’s no word yet on how serious the injury is, but he didn’t return for the rest of the game and he looked to be in quite a bit of pain.
• Just to make sure all the things happened tonight, Shea Weber broke the glass behind the Phoenix net with a slap shot on the power play in the second period.
• Pekka Rinne gave up three goals on four shots in 3:50 to start the game. Chris Mason relieved him and gave up three on nine shots in 16:10. Then Rinne re-entered the game in the second period and gave up one goal on 16 shots in his last 40:00. Several of the goals both Nashville Predators netminders gave up were flukes, so it wasn’t all on them, but this a night they’ll both want to forget.
• Not a lot else to say about this one. Time to shake it off and focus on the road ahead, which begins in Colorado on Saturday.