The Nashville Predators are reeling from a blip in the radar as they strive towards the playoffs this season. On Sunday afternoon, the Preds welcome the Calgary Flames to Bridgestone Arena for an afternoon matinee of NHL hockey.
Nashville struggled all game to keep up with the physical play of Calgary and would fall to the Flames by a score of 5-2.
The scores for Nashville came from Roman Josi (6:17) in the first period and Seth Jones (9:55) in the third period.
Tonight, Nashville will continue their 3 game homestand as they welcome in the Vancouver Canucks at Bridgestone Arena.
The Vancouver Canucks (44-27-5) dominated the struggling St. Louis Blues last night by a score of 4-1. Since 2011, the Canucks are undefeated in regulation against the Blues with a record 11-0-2. They have beaten the Blues in six straight.
St. Louis had a chance to clinch a playoff spot last night, but Vancouver headed off all of their advances.
The 1st score of the game came at 03:54 of the 2nd period when Vancouver’s Shawn Matthias (18) got a wrist shot past the Blues Brian Elliot. St. Louis soon rebounded at 12:45 Zbynek Michalek (3) scored the only goal for the Blues on the evening.
The remainder of the game was dominated by Vancouver, with goals at 13:15 of the 2nd period by Nick Bonino (15), 07:06 of the 3rd period by Radim Vrbata (31), and the final goal at 18:29 by Alexandre Burrows (15)-EN.
Radim Vrbata leads all Vancouver scorers with a total of 31 goals. As usual, the Sedin twins are leading the team in assists and total points. Daniel Sedin has 52 assists, 68 points, where brother, Henrik Sedin, has amassed 49 assists and 66 points.
Keys to Watch
Rest is good!
This season has shown that the Nashville Predators struggle in a back to back. With only three wins this season in the second half of a back to back, the rest in between games has been good for the Nashville’s pressing offense. Vancouver comes into Nashville tonight after playing in St. Louis last night. The Preds need to take advantage of a possible tired Vancouver team.
Focus on Radim Vrbata
Vrbata has been one of the hottest players over the past five games in the NHL. In the past five games, Vrbata has nine points. In this span, he has four goals, five assists, and a +4 rating. The Nashville defense will need to focus in on the scoring ability of this outstanding player. He has been torching the Western Conference lately and Nashville will need to pinpoint on him or he will make them pay.
Ribeiro playing well
The 2014-15 season has been a bounce back season for Mike Ribeiro. This season, Ribeiro leads the Predators with 60 points and 45 assists. Over the past 5 games, the Montreal, BC native has two goals and four assists. One struggle has been his 43.0 Faceoff %. Without a doubt, the addition of Ribeiro has been one of the top offeseason pickups last offseason.
Nashville will look to get back on their winning ways tonight against the Canucks. Winners of four out of their last six, Vancouver will look to come into Bridgestone Arena to steal one from the Central Division leading, Nashville Predators. Tonight’s game can be seen on FOX Sports Tennessee or you can listen live on 102.5 The Game. Puck drops at 7:00 pm CDT.
