The officials were not to blame as the Predators lost all control and discipline and took six pointless penalties that were spaced perfectly to even allow two five on three goals. Pekka Rinne should file for divorce from the penalty kill unit for lack of support.
After the game, Barry Trotz and Shea Weber were direct with their words. These quotes came from James Mirtle at the Globe and Mail.
Predators coach Barry Trotz said after the game he blamed his players rather than the officials, who whistled Nashville for six straight minors in the second period.
"We gave them momentum by taking penalty after penalty," Trotz said. "When are we going to learn? You have a team down and out, we had them on the floor gasping for air and we let them off the mat.
"We stopped skating, stopped working and that’s where you take penalties. We deserved exactly what we got."
"Some of our top guys aren’t playing that well," Trotz said. "As a group, our defence, that was the worst I’ve seen them play all year."
Finally from @reporterchris: #preds captain Shea Weber: "We weren't working hard, we let our foot off the gas. There's no excuse for it, we just took stupid penalties."
That really says it all. The Predators now have the unenviable task of hitting the ice in Toronto for practice this morning and then heading to Montreal to face the red-hot Habs tomorrow night at the Bell Centre.
Preds-Leafs Round-Up...
Here is our game story from last night.
The Tennessean went with the AP story but Josh Cooper added his postgame ponderings.
From the blog world reports come from Amanda DiPaolo, Mark Willoughby, Dirk Hoag (with his advances stats), What the Puck and Hockey Night in Nashville.
For the happier side of the story, see the Globe and Mail, The Toronto Sun, Pension Plan Puppets, The National Post, Maple Leafs Hot Stove, and Eat, Sleep, Leafs.
Programming Note...
Yesterday's edition of Ryan Porth's RLD Hockey Talk was a fun show to be a part of. It featured Justin Goldman of The Goalie Guild and Dave Lozo from the NHL. We got plenty of good goalie talk from Justin including his thoughts on Chet Pickard's troubles and then discussed the Rangers, Islander, Devils and Caps with Dave.
If you missed it live, give it a listen with the following player.
Listen to internet radio with Ryan Porth on Blog Talk Radio
In Preds Nation...
The National Post has a unique look at the delivery of force in Shea Weber's slapshot.
Dirk Hoag has a 15 game look at the Predators season so far. It has really been a tale of two seasons, divided by the before and after losing streak teams.
Josh Cooper followed up with David Poile on his discussions with Shea Weber's agent while in Toronto and the status appears quo.
Wade Belak went in studio with NHLPA.com to discuss his favorite players, life in Toronto, scoring goals, and growing up playing hockey. He is still a favorite in Toronto.
James Mirtle was one of the first of the Toronto-centric media to come to Smashville and check it out with an open mind. His seven part series was a fair assessment of the franchise at the time and his most recent post this week was also generally positive. As a group, Pred fans need to give the guy a pass if there were a couple of points that weren't to our liking in the Preds-Leafs story. Here was his pre-game piece with Barry Trotz audio from yesterday.
Great Guy Award...
Wade Belak spoke to Mirtle yesterday and gave a great quote that speaks well for the Predators as an organization. If you recall, Wade was the first guy to sign the day after the Preds loss to Chicago in game six of last year's playoffs.
"I'm to the point now where we've made Nashville home and my kids are in school, my wife's got a business there and I'm just kind of sticking around," Belak said. "I'm just happy to be back this year. I thought maybe last year would have been my last year, but they brought me back, which was a huge honour. I only played 39 games last year and coming into this year, I knew I wasn't going to play that much and I was fine with it."
Around the NHL...
Steve Lapore reviews the first episode of NHL Overtime, the new nightly Versus show that slipped into The Daily Line's time slot.
Matt Reitz looks at the startling reality that the Boston Bruins are one of the league's least penalized teams this year.
Dennis Bernstein has a close look at the St. Louis Blues who who have see three times already and play again next Wednesday.
Adrian Dater throws out his two cents on the Islanders firing Scott Gordon. I'm glad we have the Poile/Trotz stability. On another topic, Adrian has a great piece on the reason for fighting, framed by Matt Duchene's fisticuffs on Monday.
Ryan Porth looks at the Top Five Duos since the lockout. Not much to argue with these selections.
It's never too early to start pouring over the lists of potential draftees for next summer's NHL Entry Draft in Minnesota. Here are the latest rankings.
Chris Johnson is on board with Western Conference superiority.
Don Lagreca and E.J Hradek get a little wound up on yesterday's NHL Live after a fan threatens to cancel their XM subscription over the interview with Garth Snow. This is must watch video if you like passion. (H/T to @RLDHockey)
Here's five cheap shot videos from Houses of the Hockey.
The new Ovechkin DVD is for sale. I'd like to see it one to see some of the Flip video that he shot at the Awards show (if they actually used it).
From the makers of the movie "Pond Hockey" comes a great kids book, "Ben and Lucy Play Pond Hockey." This looks like a great kids book that would make kids become a fan at an impressionable age.
Alexander Semin will be thinking "beach" while on the ice from now until Christmas. Intent to Blow explains.
Odds and Ends...
Have you ever lost your phone and don't have another one to call it to make it ring? Go to I Can't Find My Phone and have them call your number.
More Later...
Buddy Oakes for PredsOnTheGlass
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