Predators Learn From Thursday's Mistakes and Move Forward and Monday Round-Up

After Thursday's 5-4 win over Anaheim, Coach Barry Trotz was as animated as he has ever been in showing his disappointment in spite of a victory. The Predators almost blew a 5-1 third period lead and the coach was not happy.

Forty-eight hours later, things appeared to have been put in a more even perspective by the players and the coach.

After Saturdays, huge 4-2 win over Dallas I asked several player and Trotz what effect the lessons learned in the prior game had on the team's performance.

Pekka Rinne had a positive response, "It almost felt like for a bit that we had won the game against Anaheim but it left a bitter taste in your mouth and you don't want to finish a game like that. We talked about it and coach talked about it and I think we were much better prepared tonight."

Ryan Suter said, "He (Trotz) didn't say much, it was more we knew we didn't play well and everyone says he ripped you guys. For us we knew we let them get too close and we knew we made mistakes. I think it was more us realizing."

David Legwand downplayed the incident, "It was good. I don't know if he (Trotz) was too upset. He might have been a little disappointed but I think if that happens again, something that doesn't happen too often in a guys career, a chance to get a hat trick. We tried to feed him, it was still a two goal lead. When it was a one goal lead, we hunkered down and they didn't get the zone for the last 35 seconds so it was something we tried to do for Sergei and it's over and done with.

Barry Trotz explained his view on the response, "We're getting close to going where we want to go, the post season. You want to make sure you are detailed. You want to make sure that you learn that lesson. You want to make sure that it doesn't happen again, and you want to make sure every second, every inch, every play could be the difference in winning and losing and play with that detail and focus and also play with that composure that you need to play in that situation and tonight that was a good response to the way we played the other night in the third."

In the end, it appears that the Predators were able to get two points on Thursday, regroup, and apply what the learned from the experience and produce a critical win against Dallas on Saturday.

The Predators' next game will be tomorrow night against the President's Trophy leading Vancouver Canucks at the Bridgestone Arena at 7 p.m. Hopefully, the lessons learned last week will continue to show dividends.

Preds-Stars Round Up...

Here is our game story from Saturday night with postgame video.

Josh Cooper had his game story, notes column, and postgame ponderings.

Jim Diamond touches on the Stars' fluke goal.

David Boclair has his story at The City Paper.

From the blog world reports come from Amanda DiPaolo, Mark Willoughby, Dirk Hoag (with his advanced stats), Jeremy Gover, Paul McCann, Predatorial, Fang Factions, Fang Finger Fever, and Hockey Night in Nashville.

The other side of the story can be found at The Dallas Morning News, ESPN Dallas, the Star-Telegram, The Dallas Stars Blog, and Defending Big D.

Audio clips from the Predators include Mike Fisher, Patric Hornqvist, Ryan Suter, and Pekka Rinne. Clips from the Dallas dressing room include Coach Marc Crawford, Brad Richards, and Brendan Morrow.

In Preds Nation...

Amanda DiPaolo spills the beans on Mike Fisher's health and the productive path that lays ahead.

David Boclair makes the case that the last two came were the biggest of the season.

Kevin Allen thinks that this may be the year for the Predators in the playoffs and thinks Pekka Rinne is the best goalie in the Western Conference.

Mark Willoughby has a thoughtful piece on Passion or Poison and looks at some of the bitterness in rivalries and what is driving it.

Robby at HNIN looks at concussions and how prevalent they have been this season.

The Milwaukee Admirals lost 3-2 in overtime on Saturday in Atte Engren's North American debut. Last night, the Ads cut their magic number to two with a 2-1 win over San Antonio.

With Sunday's win, the Admirals became the first team in AHL history to have 40 wins and 90 points in eight consecutive seasons.

Vanderbilt won the inaugural I-40 faceoff on Saturday 6-2 as each tram took a different approach to the game.

Around the NHL...

It was a horrible weekend for the Los Angeles Kings with Anze Kopitar going down with a broken ankle and the Red Wings got a scare when Jimmy Howard had to leave the ice on Saturday.

Dan Hamhuis had to leave the Canucks game with Columbus yesterday with what is being reported as another concussion. It is too bad that he will miss another game against the Preds on Tuesday.

Ryan Porth met up with Alex Goligoski on Saturday and talked about his experience in Dallas.

Andre Delsol went over the hump yesterday on his 30 cities in 29 days. His post about Tampa and the challenges on the trip is really interesting.

Patrick Hoffman has a tale of two seasons for Craig Anderson who gave up some hard luck goals in Atlanta yesterday in Ottawa's 5-4 shoot out loss.

Over the weekend I found a new Twitter account called @NHLMedia that has several lists broken down by conference featuring the best of NHL MSM and Blog Twitter accounts. This would be a good starting place for a fan new to Twitter looking for folks to follow.

Ken Campbell looks at Jordan Subban and wonders if he will eventually be better than his older brother P.K.

According to a report, it appears that Marc Savard's concussion problems have gotten worse.

Odds and Ends...

The New York Times has the most complete expose on Festival Tennessee with supporting documentation put together in one place to date.

ESPN has a nice feature on the worlds greatest surfer, Kelly Slater.

Here is a list of 15 places to travel with your kids before they are 15.

More Later...

Buddy Oakes for PredsOnTheGlass