The road trip ends tonight in Nashville, home of the Grand Old Opry and decidedly less grand Bridgestone Arena, which looks like an AHL rink, sounds like an AHL crowd, and hosts largely AHL players.
I freaked out about the Coyotes being a Stanley Cup contender last time and I'm not wavering from that. They just beat the Sharks 1-0 in the shootout yesterday, so when they get their goaltending and grinding going, they're dangerous, to say nothing of the league being uniquely vested in their success.
I do not feel that way about the Nashville Predators. This team blows goats (I have proof). Shea Weber is allegedly playing "Norris-level defense" according to remarkably human-like coach Barry Trotz, but only has one assist and a +1 through 11 games, which certainly isn't indicative of a Norris-level defender to me. Pekka Rinne is their only saving grace, pun intended, because
good lord is this a bad roster. Our scoring threats are Toews, Kane, and Hossa. Theirs are Martin Erat, Colin Wilson, and Brandon Yip. In the words of GOB,
COME ON. They're averaging an even 2 goals scored per game, and that's
with a 6-1 outburst against the Blues, who magically can't goaltend anymore. Remove that outlier and they have 18 goals in 10. Of course, they're at 1.818 goals allowed, tied with the Sharks for the league lead, so they can get away with that, but our goaltending ain't too shabby right now.
The Preds are sitting in 5th place in the West through the magic of point inflation. Bettman Math has them at 5-2-4 for 14 points, but when you adjust for overtime losses and shootouts, they really only have 3 wins, 3 losses, and 5 ties, a perfect .500 record that owes itself largely to dragging games past 65 minutes and hoping for good luck in the shootout. It's hardly the profile of an impressive team. The only thing that impresses me is that they can keep dredging up bodies from the Milwaukee Admirals and getting them to fit The System. Now that they're down to Weber, Erat, and Legwand as star players, and we really shouldn't be calling David Legwand a star player, it's time for this whole thing to end.
They went to overtime in Minnesota last night and lost; hopefully they're fatigued and demoralized.
This never happened.These guys fuckin' suck. Go Hawks,
please.
_________________
Molly Lambert wrote:
The future holds the possibility to be great or terrible, and since it has not yet occurred it remains simultaneously both.
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