A few thoughts (long):
There isn’t much left you can say after that unbelievable finish. I mean, the puck was still behind our net with a little over 1 second showing on the clock. The odds of us scoring at that exact moment had to be about a million to one. What is interesting is that was almost the exact same thing that happened to us in the Vegas loss earlier in the season. Vegas tied the game at the buzzer and won in OT. Amazing that there have been 2 games like that in one building the same season. (And we also had the Halloween Calgary loss where they scored in OT with 2 seconds left)
Granlund is getting all the love today, and completely deserved and justified. But that winning goal was all Forsberg. The goal never happens without his incredible play behind the net. I honestly don’t think Forsberg is playing quite as bad as many are making it out to be. Also made a game winning play on the late St Louis win a couple of weeks ago when Turris scored the GWG. He just needs to get a couple of goals to go in and I think he will be fine.
I honestly think had we lost that game 3-2 and the way it happened- that our season may very well have gone down the drain. To suffer another gut punch of a loss like that would have been hard to recover from.
Can anyone remember the last time we tied a game late with the goalie pulled?- I can’t remember the last time- I think last night may have been the first time all season. Anyone remember the last time we did it?
Hard to believe, but we are now actually 5-1 in our last 6 home games.
This is another one that blows my mind, but right now the Preds are just 6 points from being a top 10 team in league. And 9 points from being top 5. Just shows again how thin the line is from top to bottom in the NHL. No other league has that kind of parity, and it’s the major reason why once you get in the playoffs anything can happen.
This is kind of crazy, but 11 of our last 12 wins have been by one goal. The only exception was the 5-0 NYI win. We had 9 wins by 2+ goals in October/November. Have only had 7 since then.
Finally, I don’t mean to be a party pooper or be too negative after a great win, but I am still pretty concerned about our play. We are 3-0 on this homestand but I don’t think we have played a really good, complete game in any of them. And in fact, we have been flat out bad for large stretches in all 3 games. For over 2 ½ periods last night that was flat out not a good game by the Preds. We were hemmed in our zone for large stretches, gave up a ton of odd man rushes, and were outshot, and out chanced. For the game, according to NatStatTrick, the scoring chances last night were 32-18 Flames and the High Danger Chances were 17-9 Flames. That is bad- completely lopsided. The only reason we had a chance to win that game late was Juuse Saros. And that has been a pattern lately. We are routinely outplayed and out chanced even in games we win. With the roster we have, it makes absolutely no sense that we almost never just come out and solidly outplay and dominate an opponent. I mean, just by accident it should happen at least every now and then. Just last night, Minnesota, Chicago, Winnipeg and even Ottawa all had comfortable wins by 3+ goals. We almost never have games like that anymore, even during this good streak we are on. Here’s hoping that a win like last night’s will be a springboard to more confidence and even better play.
There isn’t much left you can say after that unbelievable finish. I mean, the puck was still behind our net with a little over 1 second showing on the clock. The odds of us scoring at that exact moment had to be about a million to one. What is interesting is that was almost the exact same thing that happened to us in the Vegas loss earlier in the season. Vegas tied the game at the buzzer and won in OT. Amazing that there have been 2 games like that in one building the same season. (And we also had the Halloween Calgary loss where they scored in OT with 2 seconds left)
Granlund is getting all the love today, and completely deserved and justified. But that winning goal was all Forsberg. The goal never happens without his incredible play behind the net. I honestly don’t think Forsberg is playing quite as bad as many are making it out to be. Also made a game winning play on the late St Louis win a couple of weeks ago when Turris scored the GWG. He just needs to get a couple of goals to go in and I think he will be fine.
I honestly think had we lost that game 3-2 and the way it happened- that our season may very well have gone down the drain. To suffer another gut punch of a loss like that would have been hard to recover from.
Can anyone remember the last time we tied a game late with the goalie pulled?- I can’t remember the last time- I think last night may have been the first time all season. Anyone remember the last time we did it?
Hard to believe, but we are now actually 5-1 in our last 6 home games.
This is another one that blows my mind, but right now the Preds are just 6 points from being a top 10 team in league. And 9 points from being top 5. Just shows again how thin the line is from top to bottom in the NHL. No other league has that kind of parity, and it’s the major reason why once you get in the playoffs anything can happen.
This is kind of crazy, but 11 of our last 12 wins have been by one goal. The only exception was the 5-0 NYI win. We had 9 wins by 2+ goals in October/November. Have only had 7 since then.
Finally, I don’t mean to be a party pooper or be too negative after a great win, but I am still pretty concerned about our play. We are 3-0 on this homestand but I don’t think we have played a really good, complete game in any of them. And in fact, we have been flat out bad for large stretches in all 3 games. For over 2 ½ periods last night that was flat out not a good game by the Preds. We were hemmed in our zone for large stretches, gave up a ton of odd man rushes, and were outshot, and out chanced. For the game, according to NatStatTrick, the scoring chances last night were 32-18 Flames and the High Danger Chances were 17-9 Flames. That is bad- completely lopsided. The only reason we had a chance to win that game late was Juuse Saros. And that has been a pattern lately. We are routinely outplayed and out chanced even in games we win. With the roster we have, it makes absolutely no sense that we almost never just come out and solidly outplay and dominate an opponent. I mean, just by accident it should happen at least every now and then. Just last night, Minnesota, Chicago, Winnipeg and even Ottawa all had comfortable wins by 3+ goals. We almost never have games like that anymore, even during this good streak we are on. Here’s hoping that a win like last night’s will be a springboard to more confidence and even better play.
