Can the Predators steal home ice away from the Pittsburgh Penguins in Game 2 of the Stanley Cup Final?
| Predators vs Penguins ML +130 / -150 O/U 5.5 |
Here are tonight’s starting goaltenders, courtesy of LeftWingLock.
Hockey can be great. Hockey can be cruel. Hockey can be abjectly infuriating.
Hockey was all three of these things and more in Game 1 of the Stanley Cup Finals.
A quick note before we begin. I happen to be in London on vacation at the moment. Seeing as I had a long flight (airplanes were not designed with people who are 6’0″ and above in mind), I did not stay up until the wee hours of the morning to watch the game live on my laptop. Instead, I decided to watch a condensed version and get updates from my elite crew of trusted scouts (my brother and father).
So when I heard that the Pittsburgh Penguins went nearly 40 minutes without a shot on goal, I figured it was a rough opening for them in the Stanley Cup score unseen.
Oh, they won 5-3. Huh.
Nashville had Mike Fisher and Craig Smith back in their lineup, but Collin Wilson sat the contest out with a lower-body injury. The Hockey Gods giveth and taketh. The first period was fairly even, but the Predators were clearly outplaying the Pens. At one point, Filip Forsberg fed P.K. Subban for a beauty of a goal, but an excruciatingly long challenge showed that the play was offside…barely.
Subban goal waved off hours after Bettman defends offside challenges https://t.co/reNlZpJPzX
— NHL on NBC (@NHLonNBCSports) May 30, 2017
For the record, this call is correct under what is an absurd rule. I would love for offside challenges to record whether or not a foot/leg/majority of the body is over the blueline rather than measuring fractions of millimeters to see if the skate blade is still touching the ice. But that’s another article for another day.
At 13:50 of the first frame, Calle Jarnkrok and former Penguin James Neal were both called for penalties, giving Pittsburgh a full two-minute 5-on-3. With the Penguins buzzing, Evgeni Malkin eventually would bury a slapshot that caught a big piece of Pekka Rinne’s glove. Subban and Nashville’s bench were furious that a Sidney Crosby stiff-arm on the set-up went uncalled.
The refs had a rough game. I rarely comment on officiating, but they ought not to show game footage from Monday night on any highlight reels.
Less than a minute later, the Penguins re-entered the Nashville zone. Yannick Weber’s clearance attempt was picked off at the blueline. In the blink of an eye, Pittsburgh went tic-tac-toe with Conor Sheary potting the puck in a yawning net. The goal was Sheary’s first of the postseason.
Sheary goal pic.twitter.com/1l7iN9McH3
— steph (@myregularface) May 30, 2017
But Pittsburgh was not done. With time winding down, Bryan Rust and Nick Bonino were aggressive on the forecheck while a tired Predators team played for the intermission. Bonino carried the puck in with a defender on him as he drove to the net, and a one-handed try deflected off the stick of defenseman Mattias Ekholm and in.
It was shaping up to be one of those nights. Nashville looked dreadful in the final five minutes.
But then the drought started. Nashville ramped it up in the second period. They put nine shots on Matt Murray and had a pair of powerplay chances. On the second, Ryan Ellis got the Preds on the board.
Midway through the third period, with the Penguins still searching for their first shot since Bonino’s “goal,” Colton Sissons notched his sixth of the postseason by deflecting a shot from Roman Josi. Nashville was on the powerplay and a Jarnkrok pass to the slot was sent out of reach of James Neal. Josi took a chance and threw one on net. It paid off.
Then, three minutes later, it happened. The Predators tied it up. Thanks to a goal from…who else…
Frederick Gaudreau.
Who? Exactly.
Gaudreau, playing in his 12th NHL game on the Predators’ fourth line, was in the right place at the right time, crashing the net while Austin Watson did work behind it. After Watson muscled off two defenders along the boards, he wrapped around and fed Gaudreau for the one-timer.
Heck of a time to net your first goal in the league, eh?
Awesome work by Austin Watson down low, sets up Frederick Gaudreau’s game-tying goal pic.twitter.com/HX93DHrKY8
— Pete Blackburn (@PeteBlackburn) May 30, 2017
It was finally happening. The ship was righting. Nashville was being rewarded for their stellar play, and Pittsburgh still did not have so much as a shot on goal to answer for it.
But at 16:43, after 37:07 of ice time without a shot on goal, Jake Guentzel wired a wrist shot past Pekka Rinne after a neutral zone turnover.
Pittsburgh would grab an empty netter to seal the deal.
Hockey is great. It is also cruel. It largely depends on perspective.
I will say, while there is certainly no way that Pittsburgh will replicate their anemic performance- at least, not to that extent- they will not win three more hockey games playing that way. They have survived quite a number of games, 10 straight at one point, being outshot. Often times the margins would be enormous. But sustainability is key.
They may have bested Washington relying on their ability to score on the rush, but Nashville allows so few that it simply is not safe to rely on that skill.
Pittsburgh did however look stellar late in periods. They pounced on Nashville’s mistakes late in the first and still had plenty of energy at the end of regulation to overcome a blown 3-0 deficit. That speaks to their leadership and their experience as well as their skill.
Nashville has to lick their wounds and come back hard. Who knows, if Subban’s goal counted we may be looking at a different hockey game.
Also, credit the Nashville fan that threw a catfish on the ice at the start of the second in Pittsburgh. That fan was ejected from the game. Imagine paying that much money and seeing one period of the game?
Then again, imagine being that dude who hexed the Penguins into not getting a shot for 37 minutes?
Catfish guy Jacob Deveral’s charges: 1) disorderly conduct 2) possessing instruments of crime 3) disrupting meetings and processions.
— Sean Gentille (@seangentille) May 30, 2017
Mike Fisher looked better than his normal self this postseason. He had a pair of assists. About time he found the scoresheet. Also, the slew of Predators players with an irrelevant number and no name showing up when it counts continued with Frederick Gaudreau, Austin Watson and Colton Sissons. Seriously, who sold their soul to who to get here?
Evgeni Malkin was a rude dude all night. The few times the Pens did shoot, it was from high-danger areas.
Pekka Rinne is 1-6-2 lifetime against the Pens. If the team in front of him is able to dominate possession like they did in Game 1, however, I’ll bet on them every time.
Prediction: Take the Preds to rebound and win Game 2. Play the over.
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