The Nashville Predators need a huge win against the Arizona Coyotes after dropping Game 1 of their best-of-five Stanley Cup Qualifier series. Puck drops at 1:30pm Central today. Below are three things to watch for in Game 2.
PERIOD 1: Stay Out of the Box
In Game 1, Nashville took seven penalties (five of which were completely unnecessary) giving the Coyotes six power play opportunities. Yes, they only scored once on the man advantage but how many goals did the Preds lose by? You guessed it. One.
This is a best-of-five series, not the typical best-of-seven where you have some time to work out a few kinks. There’s very little room for error in a series this short and Nashville basically beat themselves in Game 1.
During the regular season, they were one of the best five-on-five teams in the League. If they can stay disciplined, not only do they set themselves up for success by rolling four lines (all of which have varying levels of scoring threat on them), they can also find a rhythm to their game, something sorely lacking in the first 40 minutes of Game 1.
PERIOD 2: A Full 60
The opening six minutes and then the final 20. Those stretches on Sunday were when we saw the Predators we expected to see. A fluke bounce that resulted in a goal seemed to derail the momentum they were building — well, that and then an unnecessary penalty by defenseman Jarred Tinordi immediately after the ensuing puck drop — and it took essentially 32 minutes to wrangle it back. Hopefully Nashville learned what it takes to win in this series and they can use that as fuel in Game 2.
PERIOD 3: Attention to Detail
Arizona is not known for being a physical team. If anything, they’re more known for their skill thanks to talented players like Taylor Hall, Clayton Keller, Nick Schmaltz, Phil Kessel, Conor Garland and Oliver Ekman-Larsson. So while they did score four goals in the series opener, they also set the tone early by banging bodies, initiating contact and going hard into the corners, something it appeared Nashville wasn’t expecting. One example was Matt Duchene’s holding penalty in the first period. The prized free agent signing last summer went to the box after the center was on the receiving end of an open ice hit in his own zone. While on the ice, he grabbed his assailant’s ankle and got whistled for the penalty.
A second Game 1 example is Craig Smith on the blueline turning back toward the neutral zone while in a puck battle when his net was empty. Another is the multiple failed clearing attempts that eventually led to the Ekman-Larsson fluke goal in the opening frame. And yet another is the cross-ice pass Filip Forsberg attempted that was picked off by one of the fastest players in the League, Michel Grabner, who was off to the races and scored the eventual game-winning goal shorthanded.
If the Predators don’t want to leave the Edmonton bubble early, they’ll need to shore up these mental mistakes.
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