Nashville Predators: Winnipeg Jets Mute Music City In Game 5

The Nashville Predators sit on the verge of elimination. The Winnipeg Jets outplayed & outclassed them to take a 3-2 series lead back north.

A big win in Game 4 had Nashville Predators fans feeling pretty good heading into Saturday night. All the Predators would need to do in order to move on to the Western Conference Final? Win two out of three, with two games taking place in Bridgestone Arena. Sounds pretty easy, right?

Not with the Winnipeg Jets across the ice.

First Period

You have to love the unique interpretation on the J-E-T-S chant from the Bridgestone Arena faithful. Filip Forsberg is active early taking shots at Connor Hellebuyck‘s net. The Nashville Predators are making the Winnipeg goalie work from the start. Not that the Winnipeg Jets are letting Pekka Rinne take it easy.

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Both teams get some great chances but can’t close the deal. Kyle Turris & Kevin Fiala look better than in previous games. Mattias Ekholm is getting on various Jets’ nerves. The Predators out-shoot the Jets 11-7, but the scoreboard reads 0-0.

Second Period

The Jets get the first really good chance some six minutes into the second period, but Yannick Weber saves the Nashville Predators’ bacon.

Winnipeg doesn’t let up though, and Patrik Laine shoots the puck off of Paul Stastny at 7:44. It goes off his glove, but the referees decide it wasn’t on purpose. I’d have to agree.

Weber’s not finished making contributions though. He scores Nashville’s first goal of the evening at 11:08. He’s the top Predator so far this evening.

Kyle Connor breaks the tie at 12:30 & gets his first career playoff goal. Some good ol’ fashioned misdirection doomed Rinne on this one.

We’ve seen the Jets score goals in bunches before, and tonight looks like another one of those nights. After several Winnipeg chances in front of the net, Dustin Byfuglien gets the puck out & fires it in from the point at 14:35. That’s three goals in 6:45 for Winnipeg, and Byfuglien has been the top player of this series. Byfuglien gets a turnover & gets the puck over to Connor for another Winnipeg goal. It’s 4-1 Jets at 17:01 & things are not looking good in Smashville to say the least.

Soon afterward, the Jets go on a power play precipitated by some Viktor Arvidsson slashing. The Nashville Predators haven’t minded being shorthanded all year, & Ryan Johansen gets the turnover & a breakaway goal at 17:59.

The Predators kill off the rest of the power play & face a two-goal deficit heading into the third period. Better than a three-goal deficit, right?

Third Period

Well, it’s a three-goal deficit again at twenty-eight seconds into the third period. Connor passes it to Mark Scheifele for a relatively easy wrist shot into the net.

The Nashville Predators go on the power play at 2:52 when Josh Morrissey holds Forsberg’s stick. Power plays haven’t gone well for the offensive team tonight, and this one doesn’t go Nashville’s way either. The Jets kill it off. Ryan Hartman has a high-danger chance and came up short thanks to Hellebuyck’s skate, then gets called for interfering with Scheifele. I love Hartman but his maturity is definitely a weakness. It’s 6-2 at 6:23. P.K. Subban‘s attempt at clearing doesn’t get clear.

Juuse Saros comes in with 13:37 left. Little of note happens afterward.

It wasn’t a great performance from the Predators, but I have to credit the Jets for their play this evening. They outclassed Nashville in every aspect of the game & took advantage of any & all mistakes the Predators made. Predators fans will jump all over the team’s failings on this evening, but sometimes you just run into a better team. On this night, the Winnipeg Jets were a much better team.

The main stat in this game: Nashville doubled Winnipeg in giveaways. You can’t win games doing that.

Steve’s Three Stars

Third Star: Yannick Weber

I’m contractually obligated to give one of the Nashville Predators a star. There aren’t too many choices. Weber had his best game of the year with a goal & a save. It’s tough to deny that he’s been a step up from Alexei Emelin‘s efforts.

Second Star: Dustin Byfuglien

P.K. Subban came out strong in Game 4, but Byfuglien has been the most productive defenseman on the ice in the four other games. His goal & assist pushed the Winnipeg lead to three in the second period and stuck Nashville behind the eight ball for the rest of the evening.

First Star: Kyle Connor

The rookie got his first goal of the postseason and added another in the same period. The scary thing about the Jets (along with many other teams in the Central) is they have so many good young players. The twenty-one-year-old had his breakout game of the postseason tonight, and will be a player to watch out for.

Next: Preds need more offense from bottom six

Next Game

Game 6 goes down Monday night in Winnipeg. It’ll be another 9:30 PM ET/8:30 PM CT start time on NBCSN & 102.5 The Game. For the Nashville Predators, it’ll be Win or Go Home. Well, they’ll go home either way, but if they lose they’ll go to their actual homes instead of Bridgestone Arena.