Pre-Game Talk: Predators vs Blues

[EastonBlues22]

It's a thing.

People might want to talk about it, so here's a thread.

Click to read more...

 

[Blanick]

Go Blues!! Do hockey

I am very curious to see how this turns out. I can see it going either way. I feel like if Allen can keep it up and Tarasenko finds his offense we could find ourselves in the Conference Finals for the 2nd straight year.

 

[izzy]

hockey is good

 

[shpongle falls]

I love talking about teh hockies.

This should be a really fun series and might need to go to 7 games for a winner. In recent history it seem like the Blues always play well against the Preds but this current Preds team seems pretty dangerous.
I'm really pumped for this one since these teams have never played each other in the playoffs.

 

[KingBran]

Blues are the underdog again. Even with home ice everybody and their mother is picking NAS.

Loving it. Blues will be the sneaky team again.

 

[542365]

I was much more confident facing Minnesota. I would be much more confident facing Chicago too for some reason. Nashville's defense is no joke. They have a great top line and we've seen what Rinne can do at his best. I think if the Blues are going to win it's going to be because our depth forwards outplay their depth forwards. I think the goaltending is even, the defense is pretty even with an edge to Nashville, and the forwards are pretty even with a slight edge our way. We'll likely need a big series from Vladdy as well. Go Blues!

 

[Stealth JD]

I look forward to the two teams setting a playoff record for fewest combined goals in a seven game series. I foresee seven 1-0 featuring a total of 19 overtime periods. Series finally comes to an end when one of the goalers falls asleep or dies from exhaustion just prior to the GWG being scored.

LGB

 

[STL BLUES]

I doubt we'll see the Wild's ineffective cycle with perimeter shots. Blues did a nice job against the Wild's cycle.

Peter Laviolette will have his F3 dot high in our D Zone in line with the puck. The puck will often go to F3 with a quick pass from the 2v1 board battle. They will use the back of the nets ("live for another day") in both ends. His favorite breakout out of their D Zone is a yellow paint pass along the boards behind the net in what appears to be a near blind pass to their weak side wing who is allways in position for that breakout. Strong side weak side... they practice this all the time.

I predicted last summer the Blues would go past the Wild in the first round. But, I also predicted the Preds would beat us secound round. That was before the Yo factor. It will all come down to who scores the most goals.... haha

 

[The Note in MI]

Watched Hawks Preds game one last night.

Period 1: relatively even. Preds get the slight nod here. Hawks didn't look to possess as much. Tried too many stretch passes. Preds get a lucky deflection goal on a point shot with an inadvertent screen. Basically a point shot got blocked and Ellis followed it up right after with a second shot and at that time a screen had formed. Pretty fortunate really and turned out to be the GWG.

Period 2: Preds really sat back from here on out. I wouldn't say full on trap but I will say they didn't place much pressure on the hawks until they crossed into Preds zone. Typically played one forward high and a wall of players on the blue line making hawks play puck deep. Nashville didn't have a single quality scoring opportunity this period. Hawks dominated possession. They had plenty of grade A chances but couldn't bury them. Could have been 2/3/4-1 at the end of 2 if hawks bury a shot. Feel like 90% of the time they would have done so.

Period 3: much of same as the second period. Nashville with a couple great counter attacks and a post by Arvidsson. No sustained zone time.

Conclusion from game 1: Preds stole this much like the blues during the whole minny series. Got the lead early and from there just turtled up with conservative play no risk taking and looking for counterattacks. Not really a team that generates off of sustained zone time. More look for the quick strike and slot passes.

Team of some really really good skaters. Lot of skill and quick puck movement up the ice. Dangerous if they get a breakaway.

Special teams wise, power play relatively benign. Though only one pp this game. On the kill they look exploitable they don't seem to pressure the puck as much as play with structure I can see us having more success vs this. They are excellent at shot blocking however.

In all I think based on this game the blues will fare much better than the hawks did. If we prevent counterattack opportunities. Get the puck deep. Play physical hockey and grind out zone time we will be successful against their defense. They will allow our zone breakouts much easier than Minnesota did. And in my opinion this is huge. I always feel like we struggle on breakouts and if they are going to give us our own zone and allow easy dump ins we are going to do well.

Watching this game leaves me a lot more optimistic about the upcoming series.

Second game analysis to come.

 

[BuLLeT1291]

I think this is gonna be a super fun series for me. I've always been a fan of the music city's hockey team. Glad to see they are starting to see some success but hopefully this year it stops in round 2. I like our chances if Allen can keep up his play and the offense doesn't play so passive as it did in the MIN series. Blues in 6 or 7.

 

[Gardner McKay]

Please beat Nashville!! Bloos are my second team and I would love to see both the Rangers and Blues in the conference finals!

 

[kypredsfan]

Let's have a great series blue notes. I am always terrified when Tarasenko has the puck and will be all series long. Both goalies playing great so it should be a tight series that could go either way. I don't hate you all, yet. So good luck.

 

[MissouriMook]

Blues are the underdog again. Even with home ice everybody and their mother is picking NAS.

Loving it. Blues will be the sneaky team again.

I'm scratching my head about why so many people seem to think were going to get steamrolled, and the only answer I can come up with is recency bias. Yes, Nashville looked much better in sweeping the Hawks than the Blues did dispatching the Wild in 5 games. And I agree that if we play as passively against the Preds as we did against the Wild we could get worked. But the Blues were 15-3-2 in the regular season in March and April and the Preds were 9-7-3 during that same stretch. Our schedule was easier, but the Preds' schedule wasn't exactly brutal and, at the end of the day, you still have to win the games.

I think the keys will be to come out to start every game with the energy we did in Games 3 and 5 of the Wild series, and just don't let up. Play on our toes and not on our heels. Personally, I'd like to see more energy and jam with a one or two goal lead and leave the turtling for the rare occasions that you may be up by three goals or more. It just seems so hard to get the energy back that you need to have to get a lead back if you squander it. I'd just really like to see them leave a little more on the ice to let the opponent know that we are not going to back off, we're going to finish them.

 

[Robb_K]

Go Blues!! Do hockey

I am very curious to see how this turns out. I can see it going either way. I feel like if Allen can keep it up and Tarasenko finds his offense we could find ourselves in the Conference Finals for the 2nd straight year.

IF those things happen, The Blues could not only beat Nashville, but also The Ducks or Oilers. They could make it to The Stanley Cup Finals.

 

[BleedBlue14]

Hot Prediction for game 1.. DP 57 is tripped and his stick goes flying in to the Nashville bench where it unpredictably strikes Arvidsson on the wrist. Arvidsson then falls over in agonizing pain and is taken to the ER where they find out he has a minor scratch on his wrist. DP 57 is ejected by Garret Rank and the Blues go shorthanded for 5 minutes. No penalty called against Nash for the trip.

 

[Filip Forceberg]

I'm scratching my head about why so many people seem to think were going to get steamrolled, and the only answer I can come up with is recency bias.

I completely agree with you. I fully believe that the Blues will be a much bigger challenge for the Preds than Chicago was. This series is going at least 6 games, IMO.

I'm excited to finally see these two teams match up in the playoffs. It's been a long time coming. Good luck!

 

[Twisted Blue]

So... do you think the chicago fans are going to cheer for us or Nashville?

 

[MissouriMook]

I just had an alert from my NHL app about the "expert" predictions for the next four series. Out of 21 contributors, 19 of them picked Nashville and only 2 picked the Blues. I'm sure the Preds respect the Blues as an opponent, but I sure hope the Blues are able to use this widely held belief that we won't win this series as fuel and motivation to play with more urgency and jam in Round 2.

"That's how you're gonna beat 'em, Butch. They keep underestimating you."

 

[KingBran]

Watched Hawks Preds game one last night.

Period 1: relatively even. Preds get the slight nod here. Hawks didn't look to possess as much. Tried too many stretch passes. Preds get a lucky deflection goal on a point shot with an inadvertent screen. Basically a point shot got blocked and Ellis followed it up right after with a second shot and at that time a screen had formed. Pretty fortunate really and turned out to be the GWG.

Period 2: Preds really sat back from here on out. I wouldn't say full on trap but I will say they didn't place much pressure on the hawks until they crossed into Preds zone. Typically played one forward high and a wall of players on the blue line making hawks play puck deep. Nashville didn't have a single quality scoring opportunity this period. Hawks dominated possession. They had plenty of grade A chances but couldn't bury them. Could have been 2/3/4-1 at the end of 2 if hawks bury a shot. Feel like 90% of the time they would have done so.

Period 3: much of same as the second period. Nashville with a couple great counter attacks and a post by Arvidsson. No sustained zone time.

Conclusion from game 1: Preds stole this much like the blues during the whole minny series. Got the lead early and from there just turtled up with conservative play no risk taking and looking for counterattacks. Not really a team that generates off of sustained zone time. More look for the quick strike and slot passes.

Team of some really really good skaters. Lot of skill and quick puck movement up the ice. Dangerous if they get a breakaway.

Special teams wise, power play relatively benign. Though only one pp this game. On the kill they look exploitable they don't seem to pressure the puck as much as play with structure I can see us having more success vs this. They are excellent at shot blocking however.

In all I think based on this game the blues will fare much better than the hawks did. If we prevent counterattack opportunities. Get the puck deep. Play physical hockey and grind out zone time we will be successful against their defense. They will allow our zone breakouts much easier than Minnesota did. And in my opinion this is huge. I always feel like we struggle on breakouts and if they are going to give us our own zone and allow easy dump ins we are going to do well.

Watching this game leaves me a lot more optimistic about the upcoming series.

Second game analysis to come.

Thanks for the analysis. I agree they look beatable and I personally think CHI lost that series more than NAS won it. Yes, Rinne has played great but lets not kid ourselves, Dubnyk was no slouch and even losing the series made Crawford look like an AHL'er. Blues should get a few more pucks in the net this series and as long as the D and Allen keep it up, we got a real chance.

I'm scratching my head about why so many people seem to think were going to get steamrolled, and the only answer I can come up with is recency bias. Yes, Nashville looked much better in sweeping the Hawks than the Blues did dispatching the Wild in 5 games. And I agree that if we play as passively against the Preds as we did against the Wild we could get worked. But the Blues were 15-3-2 in the regular season in March and April and the Preds were 9-7-3 during that same stretch. Our schedule was easier, but the Preds' schedule wasn't exactly brutal and, at the end of the day, you still have to win the games.

I think the keys will be to come out to start every game with the energy we did in Games 3 and 5 of the Wild series, and just don't let up. Play on our toes and not on our heels. Personally, I'd like to see more energy and jam with a one or two goal lead and leave the turtling for the rare occasions that you may be up by three goals or more. It just seems so hard to get the energy back that you need to have to get a lead back if you squander it. I'd just really like to see them leave a little more on the ice to let the opponent know that we are not going to back off, we're going to finish them.

Everyone is so amped on the Preds sweeping CHI. That's really the only good stretch they have had the past 2 months. Meanwhile, the Blues have been playing lights out for 3 months including the playoffs.

It should be a good series.

 

[fishsandwichpatrol]

Hot Prediction for game 1.. DP 57 is tripped and his stick goes flying in to the Nashville bench where it unpredictably strikes Arvidsson on the wrist. Arvidsson then falls over in agonizing pain and is taken to the ER where they find out he has a minor scratch on his wrist. DP 57 is ejected by Garret Rank and the Blues go shorthanded for 5 minutes. No penalty called against Nash for the trip.

don't forget New Jersey getting a first round pick

 

[wannabebluesplayer]

"That's how you're gonna beat 'em, Butch. They keep underestimating you."

I love this in Pulp Fiction.

 

[wannabebluesplayer]

don't forget New Jersey getting a first round pick

No, they'd get 2 first round picks and Colton Parayko

 

[AjaxManifesto]

Preds will have turtle soup every time the Blues play turtle mode.

Blues need 60 minutes of focused hockey every game. That being said, I understand Yeo's desire to control emotions and not run around with our hair on fire. Of course, the flipside us to not play 'casual' as we did in period 1 of game 4 or period 3 of game 5.

 

[Jonesey]

I don't think the Preds should be favorites in this series, especially without home ice.

Allen is a game breaker, much like Rinne can be. Tarasenko is magic to watch and it's going to take more than just 1 defenseman to shut him down. Perron is a Preds killer as is Steen.

Reaves is going to put a body on everyone and it will be up to Watson to lead the Preds in the physicality department.

St. Louis appears to struggle in the FO dot looking at raw numbers and that was a strength for Nashville against Chicago so if that carries over to this series that could be an issue that STL would need to overcome to advance.

Either way, I'm glad we are finally meeting in the playoffs. We've both been around too long for this to be the first meeting! I'll say this goes in to double OT in game 7. I'll call Steen for STL or Wilson for NSH with the series winner.

Good luck guys!

 

[wannabebluesplayer]

I don't think the Preds should be favorites in this series, especially without home ice.

Allen is a game breaker, much like Rinne can be. Tarasenko is magic to watch and it's going to take more than just 1 defenseman to shut him down. Perron is a Preds killer as is Steen.

Reaves is going to put a body on everyone and it will be up to Watson to lead the Preds in the physicality department.

St. Louis appears to struggle in the FO dot looking at raw numbers and that was a strength for Nashville against Chicago so if that carries over to this series that could be an issue that STL would need to overcome to advance.

Either way, I'm glad we are finally meeting in the playoffs. We've both been around too long for this to be the first meeting! I'll say this goes in to double OT in game 7. I'll call Steen for STL or Wilson for NSH with the series winner.

Good luck guys!

I think that depends. St. Louis didn't have Stastny for much of that series and he is around 55% FW usually. Sobotka was around 62% before he left for the KHL, but you can see him getting better as time is going on. Losing those faceoffs against the Wild are what really drove possession numbers in their favor. I think that will be a different story in this series.

I'm super excited for Nashville vs St. Louis. I was growing tired of the same teams all the time. This could really foster and take this rivalry to the next level.