Predators' Filling The Arena Dispite Streaky Play and Friday Findings

The streaky Nashville Predators extended their current losing streak to three games with last night's 2-1 offensive no show at the Bridgestone Arena.

The fans did their part by selling out the rink but the Predators' slow start gave them little to cheer about. In a rarity, it was reported that fans were being turned away from the box office and being sent to the streets to negotiate with scalpers for tickets.

Tuesday's game with Dallas is also reported to be close to a sell out so planning ahead to attend a game is starting to be the rule rather than a rarity.

The Predators marketing department is doing an exceptional job of bringing fans to the arena this season. The Predators need to play with more consistency in order to keep the new fans coming back.

Last night's lost left the Predators with 40 points and in in eighth place in the tightly bunched Western Conference. Three points separate fourth place San Jose and the ninth place Anaheim Ducks heading int the two day Christmas break.

Predators - Senators Wrap-Up...

Here is our game story from last night with post game video.

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

From the blog world reports come from Amanda DiPaolo, Mark Willoughby, Chris Burton, Dirk Hoag (with his advances stats), Jeremy Gover,and AJ at PMFF.

The Predators provided audio clips from Pekka Rinne, Codey Franson, and Marcel Goc. From Ottawa came Brian Elliott, Chris Phillips, and Coach Cory Clouston.

Folks in Ottawa are celebrating the road win by reading the Ottawa Citizen, The 6th Sens, Sens Chirp, Silver Seven, SensShot, and Sens Underground.

In Pred Nation...

Barry Trotz sent Pekka Rinne into the net last night and also has him penciled in for the next two games. Sergei Gonchar had good things to say about Trotz before the game.

Ex-Pred good guy Scott Walker has been named head coach of the Guelph Storm of the OHL. Pred prospects Taylor Beck and Michael Latta will be a couple of his top players.

Paul McCann's SlapShot Radio goes to Sirius/XM's NHL Home Ice Channel this weekend. The play schedule is today at 2pm, Saturday at 5am and 10pm and Sunday at 1pm all times Central. Paul also has a gift list this morning.

Chris Burton has the Breakfast Links this morning at OnTheForecheck

Shea Weber and Ryan Suter hosted a party and skate session for underprivileged kids earlier this week.

Eric Shuff at Predators.com has a look at prospects and participation in the World Juniors. Ryan Ellis (Canada), Patrick Cehlin (Sweden), and David Elsner (Germany) will represent the Preds at this year's tourney.

Bleacher Report has a article that is critical of the Predators lack of scoring.

The Milwaukee Admirals have a big week of promotions coming up after Christmas.

Winter Classic Updates...

The transformation of Heinz Field from football field to NHL hockey rink started last night moments after the Pittsburgh Steelers beat Carolina 27-3. PHT has another look at the build.

The NHL and NBC announced their social media initiatives surrounding the television broadcast of the Winter Classic.

Here is the schedule for the Winter Classic Public Skating Rink that opens today at 3 p.m. For all local information about the WC, the Penguins have a site set up here.

Around the NHL...

No hockey tonight but The Program will have a special Christmas Eve Edition.

The Devils fired John MacLean in what had to be an oddly timed move. Jacques Lemaire will take over the Devils for the third time. Adrian Dater also comments on the firing and points the finger at Lou.

Here is the whole story from the latest waffle thrower from Toronto. What he says makes sense to me.

Chris Botta feels that the imperfect salary cap/floor is working to keep the NHL competitive.

Ryan Porth looks at the loss of Pavel Datsyuk and the effect it will have on the Wings during a tough part of their schedule.

Matt Reitz uses the mid season to project what the rest of the season may look like.

The rosters have been released for the Home Hardware CHL Top Prospects Game that will be held January 18-19 in Toronto with Don Cherry and Doug Gilmore serving as coaches.

Odds and Ends...

Justin Bieber leads the top ten fails of the year. I would actually put his fans that have been sucked in by the marketing of the no talent little brat at the top of the list.

Sky watching in the Christmas sky yields some interesting things aside from Santa Clause.

More Later...

Buddy Oakes for PredsOnTheGlass

Predators Stymied By Ottawa in 2-1 Loss

The Nashville Predators extended their losing streak to three games as they were frustrated by the Ottawa Senators in a 2-1 loss in a sold out Bridgestone Arena. Ottawa's game plan was to clog up the neutral zone and slow the speedy Predators way through center ice and it appeared to work to perfection.

Ottawa received a goal from Alex Kovalev and the game winner from Nick Folingo. The Predators lone goal came Marcel Goc.

Bryan Elliott got the win as he stopped 25 of 26 Predator goals. Pekka Rinne played his first game since December 3 and shook off the rust, stopping 28 of 30 of Senator Shots.

In spite of the loss Rinne was pleased to be back, "It felt good being back, obviously. I missed being with the boys and playing games. It's always tough to be injured but it felt good and I was well prepared for the game but unfortunately we didn't get the win."

Rinne continued, "We had a lot of chances and a lot of penalties on both sides. Part of it is that we have to be better on power plays and part of it was their good defensive play and their goalie was pretty solid. As a team when we give up two goals we should get at least a point."

The Senators came out fast and furious and had nine shots in the first 2:32 of play. They connected on their first goal by Kovalev at 9:35 in the first period. Kevin Klein was knocked down behind the net and lost a battle for the puck. Peter Regin passed the puck to an open Kovalev in the slot and Rinne was handcuffed and unable to stop the short shot.

Ottawa struck again at 4:58 in the second period when Kovalev scored on the power play when a Milan Michalek shot was blocked by Ryan Suter and it bounced to Kovalev who put the puck past Rinne into the net to make it 2-0 Senators.

The Predators came back quickly at 7:16 when Codey Franson fired the puck wide of the net and Goc made a perfect deflection to put it into the open side of the net to cut the lead to 2-1.

Franson explained the Preds' goal. "I was trying to make a pass. He (Goc) was standing there almost all by himself and I was moving backwards and wouldn't have been able to get enough on it so I tried to put it in an area where he could get his stick on it."

That would be the end of the scoring for the evening as Ottawa successfully kept the Predators off kilter for the remainder of the contest.

Colin Wilson gave Ottawa credit, "I don't know if it was as much as what they were doing or what we were doing not executing. They were in the right spots and knew what we were trying to do.

The Predators' power play was o-4 and Wilson explained, "There were some mix-ups on the power play. Again that was execution and focus of the team. We couldn't get the puck in and we will work on that."

Barry Trotz was frustrated with the loss, "I was more concerned about the defense the last two games when we gave up four and six. We only scored one goal in each of the three games. Tonight we were better defensively. We had a lot of things thrown at us in terms of penalties and guys getting bumped up and missing the rest of the game so it was a bit of a challenge and try to do things and we didn't have any finish tonight."

The Predators lost Marty Erat and Steve Sullivan to injuries during the game. Erat left with an upper body injury at 11:54 in the second period after he fell and crashed into the wall after a breakaway attempt. Sullivan left with an unknown issue with 2:53 left in the game. Both were listed as "questionable" for the next game.

Jordin Tootoo left the game late in the second period after he was run over by an Ottawa player but was able to return and finish the game.

The one silver lining on the injury front is that for the first time, Trotz indicated that the target date for David Legwand's return is Tuesday against Dallas.

In the usual Christmas scheduling anomaly, the Predators will have two full days off before leaving early Sunday morning to travel to St. Louis for a 6 p.m. game at the Scottrade Center and then a quick return back to Nashville after the contest.

More Later...

Buddy Oakes for PredsOnTheGlass

Predators Burned by Senators

Pekka Rinne, David Legwand and Barry Trotz

The red hot Ottawa Senators came in to Nashville and burned the Nashville Predators by a score of 2-0 on Monday night. The Sens scored two goals in the first period and never looked back in route to Ottawa's fifth straight road victory. They are now 5-1-1 under new head coach Cory Clouston who replaced Craig Hartsburg on Feb. 2.

The game started with a special "Canadian" feel to it as it is one of the few games that have been beamed into Canada from Nashville via TSN. Pierre McGuire was perched in his normal center ice position and added humor to the game when he jumped onto the ice during the first period startling Steve Sullivan, Barry Trotz and others.

Nick Foligno first scored at 5:20 of the first period when Pekka Rinne tried to clear a pass to the blue line and it was intercepted by Mike Fisher who quickly passed to the closing Foligno who wristed it past Rinne. Rinne claimed credit for the miscue, "I didn't get it off of the ice and they had it on a two-on-one, and they put it in the back of the net. That is my mistake. It should not have happened." Rinne clearly was not completely to blame as the Pred defenders were out of position due to a line change leaving one side of the ice wide open.

At the 13:56 in the first, Dany Heatley came from the side at an angle and lifted a shot up that hit Pekka Rinne in the shoulder that then flipped up and over into the net. When asked if he thought he had stopped it Rinne said that he thought he had and really seemed dejected, claiming credit for both Senator goals. Again, Rinne was not the problem as Heatly should never have been allowed to be by himself with the puck in that position. Barry Trotz quickly called a timeout which seemed to help the team regroup somewhat defensively, but the Predators never really got it going offensively.

The two first period goals were all that Ottawa needed on a night when the Predators were unable to generate any offense. The Preds first line of Jason Arnott, J P Dumont and Steve Sullivan only generated 2 shots with Arnie and Sully having one each and J P getting the donut. The Preds second line of Legwand, Erat and Jones had the most scoring chances with eleven shots but could not convert.

Pekka Rinne again was the player of the game for the Predators stopping 22 of 24 Senator shots, many of which were odd man situations because Ottawa spent most of the night skating past the sluggish Predators. Oddly enough, the Predators had more hits (27) than shots (24). Another oddity was that the game was free of fisticuffs which was surprising with two of the games bigger agitators in Jordin Tootoo and Jarkko Ruutu being on the ice on the same shifts for much of the night with no incidents.

Ottawa was clearly the best team on the ice playing with much more hustle and jump than a Predators team that looked somewhat weary and out of sorts. Scheduling may have played a part as this game against a non-contender was nestled in between games with two of the best teams in hockey, Boston and Detroit. That in itself makes the loss a tough one to swallow. The Preds ended the four game home stand 2-2 with both victories coming in overtime shootouts.

Barry Trotz was unhappy with the poor play during the first period saying, "We came out and stood around and watched a team that is playing very well right now and we've done that four of our last five games. We are 1-3 when we have done that and that's not a good recipe."

The loss leaves the Predators in 12th place with 57 points, five out of the last playoff position. After a morning practice on Tuesday they will travel to Detroit for a 6:30 CST match up on Wednesday before returning home Thursday for the first half of a home and away with St. Louis.

As much as last Thursday's come from behind victory was the kind of games that you have to have when making a run for the playoffs, this game was the opposite. This is the kind of game you have to show up for and be ready to play if you have hopes of playing in the post-season. If the Predators are still close at the end, this will be a game that they will point to as being one that they would like to have another shot at. Realistically, with 25 games left, and the race in the west as tight as it is the Predators will now need to win at a three of four clip for the rest of the way if they are to have a good shot at the postseason. That hasn't happened thus far in the season and appears unlikely that it will start now.

Buddy Oakes for PredsOnTheGlass