GDT Game 63: 2/25/18|11:00 AM CT|@ Predators|NBC/KMOX

[theohall]

As his NHL career continues, Nashville Predators goalie Pekka Rinne is starting to pile up the milestones.

First came his 500th career game last March in Washington. On Thursday night, Rinne notched his 300th career victory with a 7-1 rout of San Jose, making 33 saves and then shedding tears afterward when accorded a standing ovation from the sellout crowd at Bridgestone Arena.

Rinne will get a chance to start on his next 300 wins Sunday when Nashville hosts the skidding St. Louis Blues in an unusual late morning start.

"He's just been fantastic, not only (Friday), not only this year, but his whole career he's just been incredible for this organization," Predators coach Peter Laviolette said of Rinne. "The way he's backstopped it for so many years with so much consistency ... what you see on the ice is incredible."

Rinne (31-9-4, 2.32 goals-against average, .927 save percentage) has saved some of his best games the last couple seasons for St. Louis. Dating back to last season's Western Conference semifinals, Rinne has won seven of his last nine against the Blues, giving up only four goals in three contests this season.

That includes a 4-3 overtime victory Feb. 13 in Nashville, a particularly galling loss for St. Louis. The Blues, leading 3-0 with just over 11 minutes left in regulation, blew the lead and then the game, courtesy of a Filip Forsberg penalty shot early in overtime.

It was the second of a St. Louis losing streak that reached five Friday night with a 4-0 loss at home to Winnipeg. A playoff spot which once seemed fait accompli is now anything but assured. The Blues (34-24-4) enter this one in fifth place in the Central Division, two points behind Dallas.

"We're fighting for a playoff spot, that's the reality of it," St. Louis captain Alex Pietrangelo said. "There's concern. We've got to find a way to win hockey games. We've got 20 games left."

While the Blues are desperate for a win, the Predators (37-14-9) are trying to close out a long stretch of home games by banking two more points. They are tied with Winnipeg for first place and have two games in hand, but start a four-game road trip with a showdown against the Jets on Tuesday night.

Nashville has won three straight games, tightening up the defense and getting its power play going again. After allowing at least three goals in five of its previous seven games, it has ceded only five goals in its modest winning streak.

The Predators also have three man-advantage goals during their winning streak. In their prior seven games, they notched only one power play marker in 23 attempts.

"Tonight, we really showed what kind of damage this team can do," defenseman Mattias Ekholm said after the rout of San Jose. "When everyone is playing like this, it can be a fun stretch."

Six different players enjoyed two-point games for Nashville and seven players each scored a goal against the Sharks. Viktor Arvidsson continued his recent tear with a goal and an assist, giving him four goals during the winning streak.

Meanwhile, St. Louis has only seven goals during its losing streak. It's not known if the Blues will start Jake Allen (19-18-2, 2.75, .906) or Carter Hutton (15-6-2, 1.87, .938) in goal.

[gaijin]

Not looking good for this one. Maybe the Blues should skip it and go to church instead to pray for their souls...

[theohall]

Predators are ridiculously good at home: 21-7-3

Meanwhile, the Blues have played 2 more home games and have double the number of regulation home losses.

Had a thought on the Soshnikov thing. Maybe they want to make an all Russian line next season with Kostin, Soshnikov and Tarasenko. Since Tank plays his off-wing (left shooter playing RW) maybe they want to do the same with Kostin. Problem is Soshnikov isn't a 1st line center, unless he has significantly improved between last season and his short time with the Leafs this season. But they could have done this with Barbashev already.

The good news - Winnipeg beat Dallas, Edmonton beat the Kings, and Calgary beat Colorado, so no one gained anything last night.

[WaukeeBlues]

Well Calgary leap frogged us with that win, so that one hurt but it was a lose-lose situation regardless who won.

The schedule doesn't get any easier. Especially if the Blues drop this one they need to go on a run here and do it in a darn hurry.

[theohall]

Holy cow! The Blues have played one less game then Calgary. Until after today.

[gaijin]

Phantom penalty on Gunnarson. Great.

Aaaaaand PPG Predators.

[flyingnote38]

Blues showing all the heart we've come to expect.

[WaukeeBlues]

Through one period:

- Out skated and out hustled. Predators were first to almost every puck, were pushing the Blues around, just in general a much better start to the game than the Blues

- Thompson was out there for about 32 seconds and had the best chance of any other Blues player. But naturally that doesn't mean he'll get more ice time I'm sure.

- That Fiala goal was all Bouwmeester's fault. He apparently didn't know he had help coming on the backcheck to cover the passing option so decides to pull off Fiala to take away the pass, giving Fiala all day to size up Allen and go bar down far corner. Not Allen's fault at all.

- Power play never really got going. Best chance they had was when Tank just threw it to the net and tried to get Steen to just bury a garbage goal.

- Blues have now been outscored 6-0 through 4 periods of play.

[theohall]

Way too deliberate with the puck. Notice how the Predators don't dilly dally with the puck every time they touch it, but skate and pass.

Not touch, touch, touch, look to where I want to go, oh no the other team is on top of me already. The puck doesn't have to be "settled" the instant it touches your stick. That can be done while skating. Just watch the Predators.

It's like the Blues have to think before doing anything, instead of using hockey instincts and moving their feet and the puck with alacrity.

The Blues power play - Nashville is seriously over-playing the wings. Quick puck movement, not slow deliberate puck movement, is what's needed to collapse them back to the middle and get the pressure off the wings.

And, they aren't communicating in their own end. Two examples - Both Blues D deep in their own end, forwards coming back, Allen gets the puck and fires it straight to the Predators high on the wing where no Blues players are even skating to.

The 2nd goal against. Bouwmeester isn't even trying to play Fiala even though the 2nd man was covered. Which is likely on Schenn who should have been yelling he had the other guy. Also, Allen wound up way too deep in his net when Fiala released that shot. Even if it's a 2-on-1, challenge the shooter and trust the D to take the pass.

There is a 3rd communication example after the power play when Parayko had vacated the point for a line change and no one in the offensive zone knew it.

These are basic things the Blues aren't doing and coaching should be fixing it. But isn't.

[flyingnote38]

aaaaaaaand Cut! That's a wrap.

[flyingnote38]

and a SHG. Where have I seen this before? Oh right right. Watching the Blues....

[theohall]

And look at that - The 3rd turnover at the blueline by Pietrangelo while on the PP that led to a SHG this season from what I remember. There are probably more. Too soft on the entry by 27.

[gaijin]

Wow. Blues give up another SHG. Our power play has got to have a minus rating by now.

[Robb_K]

Watching The Blues' last 6 games has been like a terrible nightmare. I hope I can wake up eventually, and not find out that I'm being punished for having been a mass murderer in a past life!

[theohall]

And to think, the Blues could have had Gerard Gallant as head coach if they hadn't committed to Yeo in advance. We are seeing Yeo lose yet another team. 3rd time in 4 years.

[gaijin]

We all wondered what Yeo could do when he had an entire year with the team.

Starting to look like the answer is "miss the playoffs."

[theohall]

Let's look at some stuff from Allen's last 17 starts.

Shutout 4 times.
Scored 1 goal 5 times
Scored 2 goals 4 times
Scored 3+ goals 4 times.

That is absolutely horrible in this skill era and lack of offense has nothing to do with the goaltender. Something is broken in the system and the coach seems clueless how to make some kind of change. As good as the Blues were to start the season, they have stopped doing the things which were so effective then. Way too hesitant with the puck, which they were not at all over the first two months of the season.

They need practice, not meetings. What do they need to practice? Moving the puck quickly. ie firing pucks at them and practicing moving it without having to settle it first. Same thing only make them skate as soon as the puck touches the stick and move the puck. If there is any dilly-dallying (settling the puck crap), start the drill over. And keep doing it over and over and over again. IMO, practicing this one thing could improve things, because it is what the team was doing to start the season in games. Don't do the standard practice. Don't do the bag skate BS. Do something which corrects a deficiency.

The other thing to practice - firing pucks at the net regardless of whether or not there is a shooting lane. Deflections count just as much as clean goals. A couple of times in this one during power plays, the Blues had Rinne down and out when they could have just thrown the puck towards the net and chanced it going in. Instead, they passed out to someone in the slot or back to the point, which gave Rinne time to set and square again. Quit looking for the perfect play.

On the 1st or 2nd power play, when Tank took a shot which was blocked and he retrieved it, he eventually got the puck to Steen. Steen was open FOREVER and the puck should have gotten there much sooner. With Steen in that position, throw the low shot at the pads. By the time Tank got the puck to Steen, the Preds defense had recovered. Again - looking for the perfect play, instead of just getting pucks to the net.

There are some excellent drills for both of these type things on Team USA's website, but I doubt Yeo will even bother having them practice. They'll just keep talking about things.

[gaijin]

If the LA Kings win tonight (Monday, 26 Feb), they will jump over the Blues in the Wild Card standings as well. But they play Vegas, so it isn't likely.

Colorado plays tonight as well, against Vancouver. If they win, they will be within 1 point of the Blues, with one game still in hand.

[Irish Blues]

Let's look at some stuff from Allen's last 17 starts.

Shutout 4 times.
Scored 1 goal 5 times
Scored 2 goals 4 times
Scored 3+ goals 4 times.

That is absolutely horrible in this skill era and lack of offense has nothing to do with the goaltender. Something is broken in the system and the coach seems clueless how to make some kind of change.

More perspective: in this 2-13-0 stretch, Allen has a GAA of 3.44 and a SV% of .890 in the 13 losses. I don't care if the Blues have scored 16 goals in those 13 games (15 when Allen has been in net), when your goaltender is "performing" at that level, you're not winning games unless you're putting up 4+ goals a game. (Current league average: 2.94 GPG)

[theohall]

Let's look at some stuff from Allen's last 17 starts.

Shutout 4 times.
Scored 1 goal 5 times
Scored 2 goals 4 times
Scored 3+ goals 4 times.

That is absolutely horrible in this skill era and lack of offense has nothing to do with the goaltender. Something is broken in the system and the coach seems clueless how to make some kind of change.

More perspective: in this 2-13-0 stretch, Allen has a GAA of 3.44 and a SV% of .890 in the 13 losses. I don't care if the Blues have scored 16 goals in those 13 games (15 when Allen has been in net), when your goaltender is "performing" at that level, you're not winning games unless you're putting up 4+ goals a game. (Current league average: 2.94 GPG)

Counter point. I don't care who is in goal. You can't win on any consistent basis in the NHL today scoring less than 2 goals per game.