Canucks, Predators, Reasons to be Afraid?
About last night… boring as hell, then the last 20 minutes were a blast. And thank god I taped the game becaue I literally fell asleep assuming we’d lost the game by early in the first period. Checking out the box score afterwards I was dead shocked, and watching the game knowing the result was much more fun.
But more than the hockey being boring, the arena was boring. I don’t care if there are a bazillion people watching baseball down there right now — there is no excuse for a building to be that empty of hockey fans in a market like St. Louis. (Whatcha gonna do about it, John Davidson? )
Tonight’s game against the Predators is a crap shoot. Nashville is a better team than both Vancouver and St. Louis, imho. But I also anticipate that Vancouver will come in, ready to match their energy. Plus, they really should be a little high off last night’s win, so… here’s hoping.
Pre-Game Random Facts
Tonight’s Game Notes — Quoted from the NHL Media Guide
The Nashville Predators return home tonight after a three-game road trip to face the Vancouver Canucks at the Gaylord Entertainment Center. After starting the season 0-3-0, the Predators have won four straight and picked up six of a possible six points in a three-game tour of the Big Apple this week.The Predators have won their last three meetings vs. Vancouver dating back to March 2, 2006. Nashville’s Steve Sullivan led the Predators with five points (2g-3a) in four games vs. the Canucks last season and Tomas Vokoun went 3-0-0, with one shutout, a 1.00 goals-against average and a .969 save percentage in three games vs. the Canucks in 2006-07.
Tonight is the third game of a five-game road trip for Vancouver and the second of back-to-back games after a tilt vs. the Blues in St. Louis last night. The Canucks began the season with two wins but had just one victory over their last five games (1-3-1) heading into last night’s contest.
Nashville’s Steve Sullivan:
Predators right wing Steve Sullivan became the 13th player to record 100 points as a Nashville Predator when he tallied one goal and one assist on Oct. 5 vs. Chicago. Since joining the Predators via trade from Chicago on Feb. 16, 2004, the 5-8, 165-pound dynamo has maintained better than a point per game clip (43g-61a-104pts in 99 games).Nashville’s Kimmo Timonen:
He skated in his 500th career NHL game in Thursday night’s shootout victory at New Jersey. The Nashville captain needs just two more games to match former captain Greg Johnson’s lead in all-time games played as a Predator (502)… Timonen is Nashville’s all-time leading defenseman in games played, goals, assists and points. With his two-point game on Oct. 5 vs. Chicago, Timonen (67g-181a-248pts) passed Scott Walker (96g-151a-247pts) as the all-time leading scorer in Nashville Predators franchise history.Nashville on the D:
After starting the season 0-3 and giving up a total of 14 goals in the first three contests, the Predators have rebounded with four straight wins and have given up just five goals over that span. Tomas Vokoun, who gave up 11 combined goals in his first two starts, has made 91saves on 93 shots over his last three games. Vokoun made 38 saves on Wednesday night vs. the New York Rangers to record his first shutout of the season and the 17th of his career. Chris Mason, making his second start of the season on Thursday vs. the New Jersey Devils, made 30 saves in regulation and stopped all three shots he faced in the shootout. Mason is now a perfect 8-8 in career shootout attempts.
October 21st, 2006 at 4:06 pm
Aw, beat the living sausage out of those Preds.
October 21st, 2006 at 5:29 pm
Last night was a tough one to watch cause we had lots of offense but Sanford just ate up all our shots, pretty futile battle. Glad we came out on top - although not as glad as John… I think I caught him writing n “I (heart) Salo” on his notebook.
October 21st, 2006 at 7:36 pm
Whoa! Morrison ties the game with 2 minutes left! 3-3!
It’s about fucking time, Brendan.
October 22nd, 2006 at 12:21 am
We are one tenth of the way through the season and there is one thing I’m sure of: this team will be the death of me.
Man oh man, we can never do it the easy way, can we?
October 22nd, 2006 at 12:28 am
I was thinking the same thing: The Cardiac Kids are back, huh?!
Freakin’ officiating sucked, too. That was the first game so far this season, where I got seriously angry watching the calls. And what the hell was that with not stopping play when Willie Mitchell was injured? He was obviously in a lot of trouble — I still don’t even know how he made it off the ice.
October 22nd, 2006 at 12:55 am
The last few games have been a little tough to watch, but some amazing finishes.
Yes… I (heart) Salo
October 22nd, 2006 at 9:02 am
i don’t know if they’re so much the cardiac kids anymore. they would come back in games they totally should have dominated from the beginning but only at the last minute (hence the the name).
but this year, they’re coming back in games where they’re more or less evenly matched through tenacity and hardwork something you couldn’t say in the crawford years. steady as she goes…
October 22nd, 2006 at 10:17 am
I thought they should have stopped play when Mitchell was hurt, too. They stop for every gd commercial reason possible, after all…but no, let someone loopy struggle back to the bench unaided. Morons. Grrrrrr…..
Even with the Buffaslug redesign, Nashville still has the ugliest uniform color possible. Gross, gross, gross!
October 22nd, 2006 at 3:21 pm
[…] Because of a comment thread on Vancouver Canucks Op Ed on this post, Alanah whipped up this creation. I laughed my butt off when she emailed this to me. Too crazy to post on her site, but too hilarious to not post here. Rebecca was the one who started this, but I just perpetuated it. It’s more truth than fiction, but strictly platonic, Sammy. I’m a happily married man. […]
October 23rd, 2006 at 1:54 pm
Two overtime wins, both coming from behind and both with an unlikely equalising goal late in the third period! Surely games have got to become less exciting very soon.
I actually though the St. Louis game was a very good game throughout, imo the Canucks best performance of the season, dominating all three periods. It was frustrating that we couldn’t score, but I always thought there would be an equalizer. However when Stempniak scored to make it 2-0 I thought we’d lost for sure, and when you think your team is totally out of it those are the most satisfying wins. Absolute fairytale goal for Salo at the end, I feel sorry for you Alanah for having it spoiled by seeing the boxscore first, I just about dislocated my shoulder punching the air and jumping up and down round the room like a madman, particularly because I thought we’d be sure to lose the shootout, and that it was already going to be the shootout, then *bang*!
The game against Nashville was a great win for the team since the Canucks didn’t play so well, especially in the third period, if it wasn’t for Luongo there’s no chance we would have won. You could see how gutted the Nashville fans were, they were cheering as though they’d already won during their delay of game penalty in the third period, and an even better goal than Salo’s to take it! I set my shoulder off again after it had barely had chance to recover, not quite as dramatic as the St. Louis win, but still an awesome game and a great win.