Official Nashville Predators Thread

#9,326
#9,326
vol4eva said:
So I feel like somebody punched me in the gut this morning. It sucks knowing your team lost, not because of a shortage of talent, but a lack of execution and effort. This team was entitled and it showed in their play.
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They certainly appeared to play entitled and I really have no idea why. I don't quite understand how you come out in a Game 7 situation, in one of the best home environments in hockey, then get down 2 quick goals and generally fail to answer the bell. I like Laviolette and don't think an entitlement mentality came from him, and I have a hard time thinking it came from the captain (Josi) or some of the veterans on the team. I'm at a loss to explain it.

Despite their recent success, Nashville still has the perception of a "little brother" franchise league-wide and should be playing with a chip on its shoulder, not entitled. Get out of the southeast and talk to hockey fans and ask them about Nashville. They are pretty impressed with the team, but lots of fans of other teams look at Nashville kind of like how we look at UCF. A good team, but not a member of "the club" so to speak. You sometimes see entitled play from some of the blue blood franchises from time to time, not from a squad like Nashville. With the exception of last night, Nashville consistently seemed to play when they wanted to or had to; they didn't bring it consistently.

From the jump, this team looked like they weren't quite ready to play Colorado, but it didn't matter as much because the Avs had a lack of depth and mediocre D/goaltending. They appeared unwilling/unable to bring a consistent level of intensity, and it caught up with them against Winnipeg. Winnipeg played like Nashville did last year; eager, loose, nothing to lose, and with somewhat of an attitude.
 
#9,327
#9,327
vol4eva said:
So I feel like somebody punched me in the gut this morning. It sucks knowing your team lost, not because of a shortage of talent, but a lack of execution and effort. This team was entitled and it showed in their play.
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I got flashbacks of the 2000 Titans.
 
#9,328
#9,328
So I'm wondering how we plan to deal with Rinne next year since he'll be 36 and on the last year of his deal. We could go in three different directions:

1. Do what we did this year and keep him the primary starter and use Saros as we did again.

2. Give Saros a bigger role and split the starts more in his favor.

3. Give Saros the starting job and transition Rinne to the veteran back up presence.

At some point we have to plan for the post Rinne era and we also got to see if Saros can be the main guy. What hurts is I think his contract is up so we have to make decision on what type of role and contract we're going to offer him.
 
#9,329
#9,329
Burhead said:
So I'm wondering how we plan to deal with Rinne next year since he'll be 36 and on the last year of his deal. We could go in three different directions:

1. Do what we did this year and keep him the primary starter and use Saros as we did again.

2. Give Saros a bigger role and split the starts more in his favor.

3. Give Saros the starting job and transition Rinne to the veteran back up presence.

At some point we have to plan for the post Rinne era and we also got to see if Saros can be the main guy. What hurts is I think his contract is up so we have to make decision on what type of role and contract we're going to offer him.
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I think you go option #2, see how Saros performs, and if the looks good let Pekka walk. If not, bring Pekka back on a 2-year extension (he wouldn't agree to a 1-year contract). They should have given Saros more starts this year anyway, not necessarily to determine if Saros could succeed Pekka, but simply to rest Pekka.

The guy is a great goalie but he wears down over the course of the season and isn't great in primetime. He's kind of like Marc-Andre Fleury, except a little bit better.

It sounds awful, but when Pekka's days are over, the thing I'll remember the most about him is coming up short in big spots and getting yanked in many playoff games (assuming Nashville doesn't miraculously wins a Cup next year with him still as the starter).
 
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#9,330
#9,330
JFreak said:
Uh.. by most stats we have the best blue line in hockey. And good chance Peks wins the Vezina. Glad you aren't the GM!
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Pekka is not going to win the Vezina after getting pulled 3 times in that series and on top of that. His performance last night. Love Pekka for the decade plus of brilliance, but unfortunately we have likely witnessed the end of him being Nashville's starting goalie.
 
#9,331
#9,331
Tennessee Cowboy said:
Pekka is not going to win the Vezina after getting pulled 3 times in that series and on top of that. His performance last night. Love Pekka for the decade plus of brilliance, but unfortunately we have likely witnessed the end of him being Nashville's starting goalie.
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Peks is still the odds on favorite to win it according to Vegas.
 
#9,333
#9,333
Tennessee Cowboy said:
Pekka is not going to win the Vezina after getting pulled 3 times in that series and on top of that. His performance last night. Love Pekka for the decade plus of brilliance, but unfortunately we have likely witnessed the end of him being Nashville's starting goalie.
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Teams will be lining up around the block to attain his services. He's one of the best guys in the league at the position and will be highly sought if Nashville decides to move him. I don't think they do though because they see his value. He's nit the first and definitely not the last to get cold during the playoffs, it happens to the best.
 
#9,334
#9,334
Tennessee Cowboy said:
Pekka is not going to win the Vezina after getting pulled 3 times in that series and on top of that. His performance last night. Love Pekka for the decade plus of brilliance, but unfortunately we have likely witnessed the end of him being Nashville's starting goalie.
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Yep. I hate to say it, because I really like Pekka, but he just wasn't all that great in the playoffs over the balance of his career. His number overall in the 2017 playoffs were good, but everyone will remember the meltdowns in the Finals more than anything else.

His overall numbers in the playoffs for other years besides 2017 are either very pedestrian or below average, and his numbers for this year's playoffs are downright terrible (defense has a lot to do with that too).
 
#9,336
#9,336
VolsSportsFan said:
I got flashbacks of the 2000 Titans.
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That team wasn’t lazy. They just ran into the greatest defense of all time in the second round and Al Del Greco has the worst game of his life. The winner of that game was smoking the rest of their opponents.


But the similarities to the 1999 and 2000 seasons is noted. Let’s hope it turns out better for the Preds.
 
#9,337
#9,337
tvolsfan said:
That team wasn’t lazy. They just ran into the greatest defense of all time in the second round and Al Del Greco has the worst game of his life. The winner of that game was smoking the rest of their opponents.


But the similarities to the 1999 and 2000 seasons is noted. Let’s hope it turns out better for the Preds.
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Who specifically do you think was lazy? I agree that the effort was inconsistent, they only turned it on when they needed to/had to (evidence they were playing with some entitlement), but I can't really put my figure on any specific individual played that way.

Like I was saying earlier in the thread I'm not sure where the entitlement came from. I don't really see that coming from any of the leadership guys. Could it be possible that winning the Presidents' Trophy messed with their heads? They clearly played like they were committed to winning that, but once they knew they had that in their back pocket, maybe they took their foot off the gas a little bit knowing that they have home ice throughout, and their barn is one of the toughest to play, so perhaps they don't have to bring it every night?
 
#9,338
#9,338
I think u have to give the start to Saros just to see what u have for the future . Let Pekka do clean up duty if need be .
 
#9,339
#9,339
05_never_again said:
Who specifically do you think was lazy? I agree that the effort was inconsistent, they only turned it on when they needed to/had to (evidence they were playing with some entitlement), but I can't really put my figure on any specific individual played that way.

Like I was saying earlier in the thread I'm not sure where the entitlement came from. I don't really see that coming from any of the leadership guys. Could it be possible that winning the Presidents' Trophy messed with their heads? They clearly played like they were committed to winning that, but once they knew they had that in their back pocket, maybe they took their foot off the gas a little bit knowing that they have home ice throughout, and their barn is one of the toughest to play, so perhaps they don't have to bring it every night?
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I’m not gonna say they played lazy but I will say there fundamentals where pretty bad . Seems like most of the game we was over skating the puck , bad passes ,and chasing defenders .
 
#9,344
#9,344
So we're projected to have $7.470 in cap space for next year with with Hartman, Salomäki, and Saraos being RFAs and us losing Hartnell, Fisher, and Emelin. I could see us extending Hartman and Saros but do we make an offer to Salomaki? We need to prepare for 2019 when Fiala, Sissons, Ellis, and Pekka's contracts are either up or become RFAs.
 
#9,345
#9,345
05_never_again said:
Who specifically do you think was lazy? I agree that the effort was inconsistent, they only turned it on when they needed to/had to (evidence they were playing with some entitlement), but I can't really put my figure on any specific individual played that way.

Like I was saying earlier in the thread I'm not sure where the entitlement came from. I don't really see that coming from any of the leadership guys. Could it be possible that winning the Presidents' Trophy messed with their heads? They clearly played like they were committed to winning that, but once they knew they had that in their back pocket, maybe they took their foot off the gas a little bit knowing that they have home ice throughout, and their barn is one of the toughest to play, so perhaps they don't have to bring it every night?
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I was really talking about the 2000 Titans more than anything. It wasn’t really a shot at this team. I probably could have used better wording.
 
#9,350
#9,350
so James Neal is a free agent this year. With Scott Hartnell probably gone unless we do another 1 year contract. could we go after Neal to replace him.

word is salary cap is going from 75 million to 78-82 million and that could give us around 10 million in cap space
 
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