Tonight the Nashville Predators (0-1) will play the Vancouver Cunucks (1-0) at Rogers Arena and it is almost guaranteed that it will be a different type of game that was seen in Thursday's Canucks 1-0 victory over a Predator team that did not show up offensively for the first 50 minutes of the game.
Other than Pekka Rinne's outstanding goaltending and a Preds defense that limited the Canucks second shots and rebound chances. the highlight of the night was an upset Barry Trotz that let loose all of our favorite sayings and words. It would have been a field day for those playing "Trotzism Bingo."
The twice Jack Adams nominated coach is beloved by fans and media members alike for his assortment of colloquialisms. Not only did we get the standard "too many passengers" and "not enough people pulling on the rope," we got much more after Thursday's disastrous offensive showing.
"weren’t relentless and weren’t resilient"
"didn't skate and support the puck"
"couldn't get our legs going"
"win and lose as a group of twenty"
"didn't win any 50-50 pucks"
"embarrassing 3 and 22, are you kidding me"
"compete level has to be higher"
"determined to go deep"
"have to bring our ‘A’ game"
"someone you want to go to war with"
"behind the eight ball"
"let's be honest, we didn't deserve to win this game"
You always get better material when the team loses so I don't expect to see such an assortment tonight when the team almost assuredly will play much better. Game one was very uncharacteristic of the Preds. We have seen "no show" stretches this season but nothing to the degree of the first part of game one.
Pekka Rinne was stellar, and may have had his biggest MVP type game of the year, especially in the first period. The defense was good, supporting Rinne in front of the net. The forwards were horrible, making every trip through the neutral zone look like a Laurel and Hardy movie and going comatose in the faceoff circle in the opening period.
The Predators usually respond well to a complete dressing down by the coach and the one ofter Thursday's game made the all time top five. Tonight you will see a much more aggressive group of forwards that will skate harder and live in the dirty areas of the ice if Trotz has to put a ball and chain on them to keep them there.
It will be difficult for either Pekka Rinne (4-3-0, 2.96, .891) or Roberto Luongo (5-3-0, 2.52, .913) to match their efforts in game one so we may actually see three to five goals scored instead of the lone goal on Thursday night.
After the game, the Predators will probably stay in Vancouver make the trip back to Nashville on Sunday in order to prepare for Tuesday's game three at the Bridgestone Arena.
Other previews come from Amanda DiPaolo, Predatorial, Chris Burton, Paul McCann, The Tennessean, and Predators.com.
David Boclair got the inside word on what the Canucks hoped to do differently in game two.
Here is the complete schedule for television and all the viewing parties for tonight's contest.
For Vancouver previews and stories, go to the right hand column where Canuck media is listed.
More Later...
Buddy Oakes for PredsOntheGlass
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