Predators' Streak Ends at the Hands of the Best Team in the NHL and Wednesday Wrap-Up

There is little doubt after watching the Vancouver Canucks take care of business on the way to their ninth road win in a row, that they are the best team in the NHL at this point and time.

With the 3-1 win over the Predators, they cliched the top spot in the Western Conference and home ice advantage through the conference finals. They had already locked up the division title and are now three points away from winning the President's Trophy.

The Predators had a nice run, winning six in a row and the players and coaches are ready to move on to the next game in Colorado for a shot at additional points.

Pekka Rinne was outstanding once again in net and was the only reason that the Predators remained in the game as Vancouver out shot the Preds 32-17. He made numerous highlight reel type saves and was the primary penalty killer on five Vancouver man-advantages.

Although he did not show up on the scorecard, Patric Hornqvist had an excellent game. Jordin Tootoo's five shots in 9:02 of ice time was a team high.

After the dust settled at the end of the evening, Nashville remained in sixth place in the Western Conference with 92 points. Phoenix is still in fourth (95) and LA is in fifth (94) as each team won their games.

Preds-Canucks 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.

Jim Diamond touches on the Predators power outage.

David Boclair has his story at The City Paper.

From the blog world reports come from Ryan Porth, Amanda DiPaolo, Mark Willoughby, Chris Burton, Jeremy Gover, Predatorial, Fang Faction, and Hockey Night in Nashville.

The other side of the story from Vancouver can be found at The Province, Vancouver Sun, Nucks Misconduct, Kurtenblog, The Canucks Way, and Canucks Hockey Blog.

Audio clips from the Predators include John Blum, Mike Fisher, Pekka Rinne and, Shea Weber.

Clips from Vancouver include Coach Alain Vigneault, Alex Burrows, and Roberto Luongo.

Programing Note...

Yesterday's RLD Hockey Radio featured an exclusive interview with Shane O'Brien and a live visit with Dan Rosen of NHL.com. We covered plenty of ground in an episode that is well worth a listen. You can use the following player to listen to the podcast or download at the RLD Radio site.

Listen to internet radio with Ryan Porth on Blog Talk Radio

Shameless Self Promotion...

PredsOnTheGlass was nominated as a "Stylish Blogger" by our friend Michael Langlois at his "Taking You Beyond the Game" website. Thanks again, Michael, for your recommendation.

In Preds Nation...

AJ has an informative two part post (part one, part two) about the Predators Peaking on Schedule where he takes a look at a wide range of factors including how the schedule is worked out each year.

Dirk jumps on the Pekka for Hart bandwagon in this pre-game piece from yesterday.

Steve Sullivan makes Puck Daddy's list of players he would like to see win a Stanley Cup.

Ryan Suter and Blake Geoffrion's roots can be traced back to prepping at the Culver Academy. Jimi Russell has a feature.

Predator defensive prospect Roman Josi is now on Twitter at @rjosi90.

Predators.com has the weekly Admirals Update.

The Milwaukee Admirals made history with their 40th win and 90th point which made it eight years in a row for the team. Gabriel Bourque is also coming on strong in the seasons second half.

It's still not to late to attend the Predators Foundation Wine Tasting Event on Friday night to benefit local charities. Go here for details.

Around the NHL...

The Pens are having a late surge pushing Marc-Andre Fleury for the Vezina Trophy as well as the Hart.

Kevin Allen says forty is just a number and has the proof to go with it.

Adrian Dater puts the Avalanche collapse in historical perspective.

T.J. Oshie's issues appear to be larger than missing a practice.

Patrick Hoffman looks at whether Boston will go further this playoff season.

Elliotte Friedman's thirty thoughts includes a new award and a bunch of Red Wings stuff.

Nordiques Nation is sending 2000 folks to the season ending Bruins game at New Jersey to again demonstrate their interest in an NHL team for their new, yet to be constructed arena.

Odds and Ends...

Canada is in the midst of an election campaign and Dahlia Kurtz explains how to get her vote.

More Later...

Buddy Oakes for PredsOnTheGlass