Three Preds lingered in the underbelly of PPG Paints Arena afterward. The question is what, if anything, the Predators learned in their 5-3 defeat Monday night.
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Charges against a man who threw a catfish on the ice during Game 1 of the Stanley Cup Final will be withdrawn. The first shift in the third period, we score. He was solid, yet unspectacular, but it was enough to put his team in a position to win.
The floodgates are open in Pittsburgh.
He delivered in the last two games and will have to deliver again on Wednesday in order for the Predators to even the series before they go home for Game 3, to be played Saturday at Bridgestone Arena. Wilson was credited with his third of the playoffs just over 3 minutes later when a centering pass caromed off Nashville’s Vernon Fiddler and by Rinne.
Maybe that was why he was beaten by Guentzel’s shot.
P.K. Subban and Malkin dropped the gloves for a fight after all the scoring. The over is 4-0 in the last 4 meetings and the home team is 4-0 in the last 4 meetings while the Predators are 1-5 in the last 6 meetings in Pittsburgh. Save for a bumpy stretch near the end of the first period where the Penguins scored three times, Nashville did exactly what it wanted to do. “If they want to go down that road, we can”.
Nashville was leading Pittsburgh in shots at the time 8-3.
The Nashville Predators are a ideal 6-0 in their last six games coming off a loss.
Pittsburgh now has a shots plus/minus of -59.
Not that it means the Preds can duplicate their effort and expect to win Game 2.
The Penguins failed to record a shot on goal during a 37-minute span on Monday, setting a dubious team playoff record with just 12 shots on goal on the night. But here they are, just three wins away from another Stanley Cup championship.
Pontus Aberg scored for Nashville, which has 18 shots, and Jake Guentzel scored for Pittsburgh, which has 12. With the way Murray has been playing, it was a goal Rinne needed to have.
And no catfish have been thrown on the ice so far.
There is simply no way ANY team should be held shot-less for nearly 40 minutes, and yet last night Nashville looked every bit a better version of Ottawa in stifling the Penguins.
The 23-year-old Aberg beat Pittsburgh defenseman Olli Maatta to a puck in the Penguins zone, passed it through Maatta to himself and then patiently drew Murray out of the net before flipping it by the sprawled goaltender. It’s Guentzel’s playoff-leading 11th goal. The Penguins lead the best-of-seven series 2-0. With 17 seconds remaining in the period, Rinne tried to poke-check a Nick Bonino pass out of harm’s way, only to have it bounce in off defenceman Mattias Ekholm’s leg.
The Most Pittsburgh Game Ever?
After the game, head coach Mike Sullivan was livid with his team’s run-and-gun twelve shot mentality.
“Some guys have played in different things”, Crosby said. He put Chris Kunitz on the second line with Evgeni Malkin and Phil Kessel. “Obviously, 1-1 would be a lot better feeling in this room than (down 2-0)”.
Catfish watch is on for Game 2 of the Stanley Cup Final.
This apparently is a tradition among Nashville fans that dates to 2003, according to the Tennessean.
Waddell went to a fish market in Nashville and bought an “entirely too big” catfish and brought it with him on the drive. “You could see some plays, especially as he got more and more comfortable to make those plays, you could see it came pretty easy to him”.
“They won the game”, he said.
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“Obviously, it’s a mental thing”, said Rinne, who entered the Stanley Cup final with a 1.70 goals-against average and a.941 save percentage. It’s a Nashville take on a Detroit Red Wings tradition of tossing octopus onto the ice in MI.
