Nashville Predators: Rinne and Saros Shine in Western Canada
By Jake Evans
Rinne At Vancouver
In game one in Vancouver, Rinne stopped 25 of 26 shots in a stellar performance. All of his effort wasn’t truly needed though, as the Predators routed the Canucks 7-1, in a 48 shot night. Although there were few high danger chances, Rinne was able to shut down Brock Boeser, Daniel Sedin, and Henrik Sedin, all of whom are very talented, dangerous scorers.
You can see from the shot heat map, that Rinne was forced to make some big saves from right in front of the net.
Similarly, the Predators tallied 30 penalty minutes, so Rinne spent a fair part of the game, short-staffed. Even though the lone Vancouver goal was on the power play, Pekka was still very solid all night.
Rinne was smothering rebounds, controlling the flow of the game behind the net, and not giving Vancouver anything to work with.