Game Recaps

Saturday, December 08, 2007

12/6 - Preds v. Van-HOOVER

it's not as much fun some nights as it is others... wasn't that much fun tonight..

...have to keep constantly reminding myself, we are really a low 90's point type team. whenever we win a couple i sometimes tend to dream we're better than we are. but games like this one and toronto help bring me back to reality. right now we're on pace for only 88 points.

...whenever we have two or three of our top 5-6 forwards hot at the same time, we look better than we probably are. when only one or none of those top 5-6 are hot, we simply don't have the true scoring depth to win many games.

...have to keep our heads as fans, and remember we're not chasing detroit this year.. we're chasing STL, CHI and MIN to make the playoffs... sometimes it's tough mentally to re-adjust to those type of hopes.

...a strange crowd tonight. two minutes before the opening puck drop there was about 10k in the arena. looked for sure like our worst crowd of the year. but for some reason, it was a late arriving crowd, and filled up quite nicely.

...unfortunately the 70's thing was a total flop. might as well have played elevator music. don't know what was more noticable, the lack of energy on ice or in the crowd as the game wore on.

...we won't make the playoffs if our special team play doesn't improve dramatically. we have to be a team that makes fewer mistakes than our opponents and wins lots of close games on special team play. we simply don't have the raw talent to win enough games even strength on talent alone.

...the powerplay is 27th in the league. the penalty kill has now fallen to 20th best in the league. uynless both these numbers improve dramatically we're in bad trouble.

...we all know the powerplay has been miserable. and it was truly miserable last night.

... but to me, the poor performance of the penalty kill as a unit is even less understandable and probably more damaging. they crushed us with their power play not only going 2-for-3, but how easily they scored on both pp's was disheartening. 8 seconds on one. on the pyatt one they totally broke down our pk coverage and assignments.

oh well, have to simply move on and worry over the next ones. and plenty to worry about with these next 6 or 7 games.

Pred303guy writes some of the most succinct and bright observations about each of the Predators games. His nickname is "The Professor" for his keen insights and recall of details from each game. He's also fair-minded. He loves the Predators, but he calls 'em like he sees 'em.

Hope you enjoy his regular contributions.

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