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Post-Game Talk: Nashville @ Minnesota 7:00

AtlantaWhaler

AtlantaWhaler

Thrash/Preds/Sabres
Jul 3, 2009
19,705
2,927
PREDATORS (25-23-9) at WILD (30-21-7)

TV: FS-TN, FS-N

Last 10: Nashville 6-2-2; Minnesota 5-3-2

Season series: This is the fourth of five games this season. The Minnesota Wild are 2-1-0 and have won the past two meetings. Wild goaltender Darcy Kuemper made 23 saves in earning his first NHL shutout in a 4-0 win against the Nashville Predators on Jan. 12.

Big story: In their final game before the Olympic break, the Wild will look to win the season series against the Predators and, at the same time, put more distance between them and the Vancouver Canucks in the wild-card standings in the Western Conference. The Wild (67 points) lead the Canucks by four points for the first wild-card spot.

Nashville is in last place in the Central Division, but a win against the Wild on Thursday would pull the Predators to within six points of Minnesota. While the Wild are done for three weeks following the game, Nashville will have one more chance to gain even more ground on the Wild when it returns home to play the Anaheim Ducks on Saturday.

Every team in the Central is above .500, and Nashville's 59 points are seven better than any other last-place team in the League. The Predators have won four of their past seven games but have taken at least a point in six of them, keeping them on the fringe of the Stanley Cup Playoff picture.

http://www.nhl.com/gamecenter/en/preview?id=2013020865&navid=sb:preview

Cullen and Stalberg back. Spaling and Poile out.

This one is huge. Need the points to keep coming.

Go Preds!!!
Click to read more...
 
Last edited:
Phototropic

Phototropic

Registered User
Feb 4, 2012
511
0
Chattanooga
Glad Cullen and Stalberg are back. This game feels like the make or break point even if it is technically possible to go on a run after the Olympics.
 
utkpred

utkpred

Registered User
Mar 12, 2012
131
0
Apparently Poile was hit in the head with a puck during skate around and was taken off on a stretcher. Seems to be responsive though.
 

AEM6729

Registered User
Mar 1, 2010
1,053
0
Nashville
Phototropic said:
Glad Cullen and Stalberg are back. This game feels like the make or break point even if it is technically possible to go on a run after the Olympics.
Click to expand...

It definitely feels like the make or break point because winning this and the Ducks game would put us within a respectable distance of the playoffs before the break, and because this is a four-point game and historically the Preds have **** the bed in previous do-or-die games this year. Seems like every time we're in a position to be within 4-5 points of a playoff spot with a win, we lose.

If we win tonight I might start to believe just a little bit. If we lose, I don't think we'll be making the playoffs. Maybe that's too dramatic, but at some point they need to put up or shut up.
 

drwpreds

Registered User
Mar 19, 2012
7,821
2,912
Birmingham
AEM6729 said:
If we win tonight I might start to believe just a little bit. If we lose, I don't think we'll be making the playoffs. Maybe that's too dramatic, but at some point they need to put up or shut up.
Click to expand...

This is a big game for sure, but I don't think its make or break at all. It is probably a must win if we want to catch Minnesota, but they are not our only target anymore.

We are 4 points back of Vancouver WITH a game in hand. We will still be in the hunt even with a loss tonight.

Again, not saying its not big- the problem we have is we also have Winnipeg, Phoenix and Dallas ahead of us, so we need every point we can get.

To me, at the very least, we have to split the Minn/Anaheim games.....
 
kypredsfan

kypredsfan

Smashville Subban
Jan 20, 2011
5,166
4
Mt. Juliet, TN
I think we need to beat Minny tonight to make a statement. Either we are gonna contend for a playoff spot or we can't. I hope we bury suter and his company.
 
Armourboy

Armourboy

Hey! You suck!
Jan 20, 2014
19,246
10,582
Shelbyville, TN
kypredsfan said:
I think we need to beat Minny tonight to make a statement. Either we are gonna contend for a playoff spot or we can't. I hope we bury suter and his company.
Click to expand...

I tend to agree. A win here maybe makes the teams above us worry that we are coming and with Rinne possibly getting better things get a bit scary. Lose the two going into the break and I don't think anyone is worried coming out of it.

Yeah we aren't playing with a full deck right now, but at some point the group we do have has to put up or go to the house. In my mind this is one of those games.
 
thecloser

thecloser

Registered User
Jun 29, 2012
2,369
46
NASHVILLE, TN
Smitty's 17th. on a tear this year, proving something.

any one wanna speculate on the healthy scratch of stalberg. being shopped?
 
101st_fan

101st_fan

I taught Yoda
Oct 22, 2005
13,948
5,172
Near where sand and waves meet.
Hutton should have that goal, but Brodin with the type shot we need to see more often from our players ... around two feet off the ice, over the pad, to the side of the goalie. Too often what we see from our guys is the puck into the pads, the goalie's crest, or wide. EDIT - See Josi's shot for an example.

Smith playing hungry still.

Not sure about Stalberg. Maybe healthy enough to come off IR but still not the healthiest choice so he sits ... shopped ... or the effort from Beck over the past few games pushing him up the depth chart over Stalberg.
 
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