Observations XXI

[TitansVolsPreds615]

Just curious, why was the crowd the best all season?

Felt like a playoff game. Loud and involved in the game from puck drop. It was deafening for the last minute and a half of the game and no one was sitting down. Can't remember another home game like it so far this season.

 

[FossilFndr]

I was on the edge of my seat at home but did not really pay close enough attention to the crowd.

 

[Adz]

It was a very energetic crowd. They were engaged from before puck drop. Every seat wasn't filled but it was full and sounded like it. I think it was because it was a Monday night. Only people who really want to be there are going to come to a game on Monday night during Thanksgiving week.

 

[Roman Yoshi]

Yeah the loudest it has been in the building so far this year.

I was surprised at dominate we were the first two periods. Crazy.

 

[Pred303]

about Rinne, it sorta demonstrates what type of statistical year he has had in that after that great game, where he gave up 2 goals on 31 shots (a .935 save %), that both his season goals aganinst average and save percentages got worse, lol.

add in that he is now 9-0-1 against TB in his career.

 

[GoldOnGold]

I think the past two games have been exceptional in terms of crowd noise. Among the best I remember.

 

[GoldOnGold]

And Smith is so much better on the 1st than every other option we've tried.

 

[Armourboy]

And Smith is so much better on the 1st than every other option we've tried.

Smith brings pretty much the same style of game just not as fast. Joey and Forsberg need someone to play hard and shoot when given the chance. I think that's why Fiala is kind of meh with them, he looks to create too much and that's not what they need in that spot.

You saw it on Joey's goal last night, he knew if he let it go Smith would shoot, so he just went straight for the net and was there for a tip.

 

[NoNecksCurse]

not enough ekholm love around here.

2 assists last night. had a huge keep in the zone on the PP right before turris' goal. huge defensive plays including a late save himself.

leads all NSH defenseman in +/- and trails only josi by 2 points for the team lead in points for defenseman too. thats despite seeing only 30 seconds of PP time on average a game (garbage time when the PP is ending) compared to subban seeing around 3 1/2 mins and josi, ellis seeing around 3 mins of PP time a game.

*i know our PP is horrible but it's still worth noting the usage. it may be worth considering putting ekholm on a unit and with a big body like watson in front.

 

[101st_fan]

How many franchises can claim Peter is the 2nd best Forsberg to play for them?

 

[NoNecksCurse]

looks like subban will be out more than 3 games. got to hope it's not his neck acting up again.

 

[drwpreds]

looks like subban will be out more than 3 games. got to hope it's not his neck acting up again.

Yeah, that Poile quote is a little worrisome.

 

[drwpreds]

Just looking ahead at our schedule for the next few weeks.

We have a pretty favorable one coming up. We are in the middle of a stretch of 8 out of 9 games at home, and schedule is not bad at all:

Next 15 games:
ST LOUIS
@ St Louis
ANAHEIM
COLORADO
ARIZONA
CHICAGO
BUFFALO
@ Vancouver
@ Calgary
OTTAWA
VANCOUVER
NEW JERSEY
@ Ottawa
@ Chicago
@ Philadelphia

Not one game against an elite team. And only 3 of the 15 games are against current playoff teams. That is pretty crazy.

Of course, there are no guarantees and no easy wins in the NHL. And the Preds quite often play down to the competition (see Arizona/Carolina).

But this stretch of schedule comes at a pretty good time with the Arvy and Subban injuries.

Hopefully we can take advantage of it.

 

[Armourboy]

We need to pile up wins in that stretch or it's going to come back and haunt. Frankly that schedule is about as lucky as it gets to work through injuries and keep winning.

 

[wadesworld]

..don't ever remember a team dominating faceoffs any more than we did. every stoppage was like a turnover to us.

The guys on XM NHL radio said that's the most lopsided face-off percentage they can ever remember reporting in the history of their program (I think it was "FaceOff").

 

[Pred303]

Just looking ahead at our schedule for the next few weeks.

We have a pretty favorable one coming up. We are in the middle of a stretch of 8 out of 9 games at home, and schedule is not bad at all:

Next 15 games:
ST LOUIS
@ St Louis
ANAHEIM
COLORADO
ARIZONA
CHICAGO
BUFFALO
@ Vancouver
@ Calgary
OTTAWA
VANCOUVER
NEW JERSEY
@ Ottawa
@ Chicago
@ Philadelphia

Not one game against an elite team. And only 3 of the 15 games are against current playoff teams. That is pretty crazy.

Of course, there are no guarantees and no easy wins in the NHL. And the Preds quite often play down to the competition (see Arizona/Carolina).

But this stretch of schedule comes at a pretty good time with the Arvy and Subban injuries.

Hopefully we can take advantage of it.

hard to comprehend, but those 15 games will take us to almost the halfway mark of the season.

 

[Pred303]

now what we need to do is go about 12-3 these next 15, what with 9 of them being home games and looking at the strength of schedule. that would put us at a torrid 27-8-1 after 36 games, which would be a 125 point full season pace, and that much closer to arvy coming back.

honestly, it's doable, if not very likely. but one can always look ahead and hope....

 

[Pred303]

It wasn't our best hockey, but it was good enough. Some sloppy turnovers, and Bonino's cost us a goal. Too many passes intercepted. But. Our compete level was high and Rinne was on point and that made up for it.

3 unassisted goals. You sure don't see that often and sort of shows how individually we played hard, but not always well by line.

You take this and celebrate the win of course. Friday's game will almost surely have a real edge to it and be much tougher for us. We will need to play better than tonight.

 

[sparkle twin]

Have we ever scored a 3-on-5 goal before?

 

[PredsV82]

Have we ever scored a 3-on-5 goal before?

Yes. Many, many moons ago I think Skrastins(RIP) did.. and the goalie wasnt pulled either.

 

[FossilFndr]

First game of the year with 7 penalties against. At same point last year (22 games) there had been 6 games of 7 or more.

Preds have successfully killed the last 19.

 

[triggrman]

Fiala had his best game as did Bitetto. Loved the nastyness in his game.

 

[BigFatCat999]

Rinne has the highest win percentage among goalies with 300 wins or more...HOF?

source: List of NHL goaltenders with 300 wins - Wikipedia

 

[Scoresberg]

Rinne has the highest win percentage among goalies with 300 wins or more...HOF?

source: List of NHL goaltenders with 300 wins - Wikipedia

If he wins the Cup, then maybe. Without it, no dice.

 

[BigFatCat999]

If he wins the Cup, then maybe. Without it, no dice.

If he wins a cup, I'm saying he's a lock. He's 35 wins from passing 3 HOFers and entering top 20 for goalie wins.