Last night's game against the young Edmonton Oilers is what happens when a team that focuses on defense and goaltending loses that focus against a team that has nothing to lose.
The Oilers got an early lead after holding off a barrage of Predator shots early, gained confidence, and then controlled the pace for the remainder of the game.
Devan Dubnyk was the star of the game in goal for the Oilers and recorded his first career shutout. He was originally a first round pick (14th overall) in the 2004 NHL Entry Draft and showed the Predators why he was worthy of the early pick.
There were a lot of complaints about the Oilers' third goal which should have been blown off but the bottom line was that the Oilers were the better team on Monday night.
In spit of the Preds' big win over Detroit, the Preds are mired in a slump, going 1-4-1 over the last six games. It is only by a miracle that the remain in fourth place in the Western Conference after this swoon.
It is only by the slimmest of margins that they are still in the top eight. They still have 63 points but are only three points ahead of the Los Angeles Kings who are in ninth place.
With the loss last night, combined with Detroit's win over the Rangers, the Preds are again seven points behind the Central conference leading Red Wings.
The Predators will practice this morning at Centennial Sportsplex at 10:30 A.M. before leaving for Detroit where they will play the Wings on Wednesday at 6:30 p.m. at Joe Louis Arena.
The next home game will be Saturday night at 7 p.m. against the Colorado Avalanche and could mark the return of ex-Pred, Peter Forsberg. Get your tickets now as they are going fast.
Predators - Oilers Round-Up...
Here is our game story from last night with post-game video.
Josh Cooper had his game story, notes column, and postgame ponderings.
David Boclair has his story at The City Paper.
From the blog world reports come from Ryan Porth, Amanda DiPaolo, Jeremy Gover, Mark Willoughby, Dirk Hoag, What the Puck, and Hockey Night in Nashville.
The happy story from oil country comes from Edmonton Journal, Edmonton Sun, The Copper and Blue, OilersNation, and Oil on Whyte.
Audio clips from the Predators include Shea Weber, Ryan Suter, and Steve Sullivan. From the winning locker room, we hear from Shawn Horcoff, Devan Dubnyk, and Coach Tom Renney.
Programming note...
I will guest host on Ryan Porth's RLD Hockey Radio today at noon Central. Ryan's guests will be Sharks play by play man Randy Hahn and Mike Colligan from The Hockey Writers. Join us for what is sure to be an excellent show.
In Pred Nation...
Ex-Pred Alexander Radulov won the "Best Player" award at the KHL All-Star game.
Rachel at What the Puck re-lives Saturday's shorty. It ended up being the NHL #1 Goal of the Week.
Derek Zona looks at the Preds vs. the Wings down the stretch.
The Edmonton Journal discusses Sergei Kostitsyn's clean slate in Nashville.
Around the NHL...
The sad news out of Boston is that Marc Savard is done for the season. Cap Geek indicates that when Savard goes on LTIR that about $4 million will open up for the Bruins cap.
Reports out of Pittsburgh indicate Sydney Crosby's earliest return could be in March.
News about Ray Emery's return from @DarrenDreger: Emery signs 2-way contract with Anaheim. Will be on waivers at noon. $500,000 (NHL). $105,000 (AhL). Emery's deal is not about the $, hence the 2-way deal. 2-way allows him to spend more than 2 weeks in the AHL if he needs to.
Phil Kessel addressed the media yesterday to try to clean up a mess that he made the day before. James Mirtle has the details. I'm not sure why anyone would want to play in Toronto.
The Motherpucker Hockey Hottie contest appears to have come to an early conclusion as the site note the Twitter accounts no longer exist. Dalia Kurtz has the story of what happened.
Brian Reynolds is running a poll on the NHL's worst rule choosing Instigator and Slashing the Stick as the competitors.
Kingscast felt obligated to add a little cheese to their site so we decided to pass it on.
Here is Adrian Daters daily update on Peter Forsberg. (Swedish version here) I can't wait until Saturday when the circus comes to Smashville. Later in the day on Monday visa issues surfaced. Dater defends against all the folks hating on Foppa at Versus.
Here is the Sports Business Journal report that showed a dramatic fall in ratings for the Blue Jackets and an equally big rise for the Blues.
The refrigeration truck is on the way to the Heritage Classic and ice man, Dan Craig says the long range forecast is calling for perfect temperatures.
Odds and Ends...
Here are some sound clips listed by manufacturer that may help you preview a hard drive crash. This is interesting since we seem to be having issues on a laptop right now.
Since I'm still trying to rent my Condo in Cocoa Beach, this isn't a good time to bring up that there are 100,000 sharks swimming in the Atlantic off the coast of Florida. Maybe I'll knock off $50 as a shark discount.
For those who have more money than sense, Victoria's Secrets has a $2 million bra.
More Later...
Buddy Oakes for PredsOnTheGlass
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