Monday, February 05, 2007

Game #53 - vs Nashville Predators

Nashville Predators (37-14-3, 76 pts) at Pittsburgh Penguins (26-17-9, 61 pts)

Be glad the Pens aren't playing in Nashville. The Preds are a different team on the road. Their record is still good (18-11-0), but it's certainly not indicative of the best team in the NHL. They have that standing mostly because of their work at home, where they've lost three times in regulation all season.

It's not just the records either - the Preds have allowed more power play goals than they've scored on the road, and their overall goal differential on the road is just +10. They still draw penalties on the road, but their power play clicks at just 13.1% away from Nashville. That's pretty poor - just 26th in the league. Their penalty kill percentage is about the same no matter where they play.

The Preds lost two road games last week before taking it out on the Ducks at home on Saturday.

The Pens have earned points in 10 straight games, and their power play has been on fire, going 21 for 59 during the 10 game stretch. They'll need to keep it going to have a shot to earn two points.

Weber and Tootoo are out for the Preds for the game. That's a break for the Pens. Weber is a good young defensemen, while Tootoo doesn't play much (less than 8:00 per game), and fills the Ruutu role.

Predators blog - Not much here to talk about - I'll point you to Go Predators!, which isn't really a blog, but rather a LiveJournal. It's better than anything else I could find.

I'm looking for a strong home effort from the Pens. They should be up for the game, seeing as how Nashville is #1 in the NHL. Have to beat the best to be the best.

Let's Go Pens!

5 comments:

Anonymous said...

The Pens played Buffalo really well when they were #1 or #2 in the league so I think they have a chance. They'll need another great effort from Fleury, and Sid or Malkin to step up with some big goals. The 3rd and 4th lines just need to keep doing what they've been doing. Hopefully the fans bring the same energy they had against Montreal last week. I think just getting 1 point would be a good confidence booster.

Pat said...

Yep - and you don't mind going for broke against the Preds since they're in the other conference. That means if they get to OT, you might see them try to open it up a little bit in an effort to get the second point.

Anonymous said...

Definitely a benefit of playing a Western Conference team - winning in OT would mean just as much as winning in regulation.

I'm excited for this one, since Paul Kariya is another one of my favorite players; my respect and admiration for him went up 10-fold when Scott Stevens sent him to the earth's core in the 2003 Cup Finals, yet he still managed to come back a few minutes later and score on a rocket slapshot, helping the Ducks to the win.

Also eager to see the goaltending duel between Fleury and Mason (save percentage of .929... are you kidding?)... that is if Vokoun doesn't start.

Anonymous said...

i've been looking forward to this game. i think this game will be good for the pens, so they can judge where they are at compared to a top playoff team.

anthony bremond said...

Dear Mr,

I'm an intern with startup widget 1000 and I created a news widget for Nashville Predators News.
It's updated every hour with Nashville Predators headlines from several different sports websites like ESPN, FOX Yahoo,etc. (Take a look: http://www.widget1000.com/)

Can we add Nashville Predators blog to the widget,too? That means that every time you post to your blog the headline of the post will show up on the widget and link directly to your post.
Anyone who puts this widget on their start page or on their website will see your Nashville Predators posts too. It's a powerful and free way to publicize your site.

Finally, would you add your Nashville Predators News Widget to your site so that others can see it?
Everyone who grabs the widget will automatically link to you so it's great for your search engine rankings. Plus, it shows a lot of stories about Nashville Predators and since it's updated every hour it is fresh and will make your site even more appealing than it already is.

What do you think?

Go Nashville Predators

Anthony Bremond