Whether it was a “turkey hangover” or just a bad night, the Nashville Predators will want to put Friday night’s match far in the past.
Facing St.Louis in the second of a home-and-home series, the Nashville Predators couldn’t find their footing early and never recovered. From the start, the Blues looked to push the Predators around physically, and the result was better than they could have imagined.
Austin Watson and Patrick Maroon dropped the gloves off the opening face-off, Brayden Schenn and Ryan Hartman threw hands at the 1:15 mark and Kyle Turris left with 8:37 left in the 1st period after a hit from Schenn. Before Turris left, though, the Blues were up 1-0 from an Ivan Barbishev goal. Shortly after, they were leading 2-0 from a Ryan O’Reilly snipe.
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Juuse Saros was playing in relief of Pekka Rinne and was left out to dry . Shot after shot came from the slot and the Preds couldn’t generate any pressure on the other end. Their one bright spot in the 1st period came from Nick Bonino, when the veteran put the Preds on the scoreboard with a power play marker at 14:12 in the period. Just 57 seconds later, though, Brayden Schenn restored the two goal lead and the Blues went into the locker room up 3-1 with a 10 to 3 shots-on-goal advantage.
The second period didn’t get any better. Zach Sanford scored 53 seconds into the period and Robby Fabbri would score St.Louis’ 5th goal of the night at 11:53. That would end Juuse Saros’ night and bring Pekka into the game in relief.
The Preds would just want to get out of the Lou at that point. Alex Pietrangelo made it 6-1 at 14:50 of the third and Ryan Hartman finally added a consolation goal for Nashville at 18:13.
The Preds left licking their wounds from the 6-2 loss and now look ahead to Sunday when they face the Anaheim Ducks, hoping to get back to their winning ways. The Preds were 1/3 on the power play, continuing their improvement in that area, but now they may be without Kyle Turris, as we are still waiting to hear about his injury that caused him to miss the final two and a half periods.