Official Nashville Predators Thread

#9,351
#9,351
JFreak said:
Winnipeg pretty clearly the best team in hockey right now.
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Winnipeg has a great team, and it's so frustrating to know that we took that team to a game 7 while we weren't close to playing our best hockey. If our guys would've shown up on home ice we'd still be playing now.
 
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#9,352
#9,352
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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Voting is done and over before the playoffs start.
 
#9,354
#9,354
So other notes from end of year press conference:

Fisher had a meniscus injury and wouldn't have played to the Finals if we had made it.
Jarnkrok was never fully healthy but played through the shoulder injury
Hartman will need shoulder surgery will put him out of action for 4-5 months but should be back for training camp

Poile said that he plans on talking to Ryan Ellis about signing him to a long-term deal this off-season.
 
#9,355
#9,355
Thanks for the updates Bur. Wasn't able to catch the presser. Losing Hartnell and Emelin doesn't come as a huge surprise. Nor do those injuries.
 
#9,357
#9,357
JFreak said:
Winnipeg pretty clearly the best team in hockey right now.
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...yet Vegas has rattled off 2 straight wins, including one at their place.

I'd like to see the Caps win the whole thing now, although it would be the most DC sports thing ever for them to make the final and lose to an expansion team.

I'm normally not a big believer in the "team XYZ just wanted it more" explanation for why a team won a game, but I really think that might have something to do with Vegas's success this year. That and the fact that they got a really sweet deal in the expansion draft.

Every single player on their team was deemed by their old team as not good enough to be shielded from the expansion draft, and many of those guys were good, experienced players to begin with. That has to make you play with a chip on your shoulder, and Gallant seems to have done a good job at harnessing that emotion among his players and directing it in a positive way.
 
#9,369
#9,369
Burhead said:
Just a terrible look. We would be laughing at the NFL or NBA if an expansion team went to the Super Bowl or the NBA Finals their first year.
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This expansion draft was not like other expansion drafts though. It'll lead the NHL (and probably the other leagues) to rethink giving a future expansion club such a generous setup in the expansion draft. I and others were on here after the expansion draft saying that Vegas looked like a playoff team. You could see the talent and experience on paper (Fleury, Neal, etc.). I never considered they were capable of this though.
 
#9,370
#9,370
Burhead said:
Just a terrible look. We would be laughing at the NFL or NBA if an expansion team went to the Super Bowl or the NBA Finals their first year.
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I don’t think I would. I’d be jealous, but if the Texans or Bobcats are that good, good for them.

The playoffs are tough. You get that far, you had to earn it
 
#9,371
#9,371
NashVol11 said:
I don’t think I would. I’d be jealous, but if the Texans or Bobcats are that good, good for them.

The playoffs are tough. You get that far, you had to earn it
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I don't think any expansion team in any sport looked as good on paper as Vegas. They have overcome huge odds, and the "Golden Misfits" term is good marketing, but that roster isn't a bunch of misfits. On paper, before the season started, they looked like a team that absolutely could make the playoffs.

It's a bad look on the surface, but it doesn't look as bad once you see the deal they got in the expansion draft. Future expansion teams in other sports I'm sure will ask for similar terms. That deal allowed Vegas to end up with several experienced, talented players.

Playing in Vegas has done wonders for Fleury in particular; he's still a talented player, and getting out of Pittsburgh I think has allowed him to play more loose. Most of his issues in there were between the ears.
 
#9,372
#9,372
If Vegas was a "normal" expansion team and made it, then yeah it probably would look bad. But given how they were given their players, you knew they were going to likely be pretty good. Maybe not Stanley Cup Finals good, but you knew they wouldn't suck.
 
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#9,373
#9,373
05_never_again said:
I don't think any expansion team in any sport looked as good on paper as Vegas. They have overcome huge odds, and the "Golden Misfits" term is good marketing, but that roster isn't a bunch of misfits. On paper, before the season started, they looked like a team that absolutely could make the playoffs.

It's a bad look on the surface, but it doesn't look as bad once you see the deal they got in the expansion draft. Future expansion teams in other sports I'm sure will ask for similar terms. That deal allowed Vegas to end up with several experienced, talented players.

Playing in Vegas has done wonders for Fleury in particular; he's still a talented player, and getting out of Pittsburgh I think has allowed him to play more loose. Most of his issues in there were between the ears.
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It's a roster full of good players! Vegas got to take either a top six forward or a top three defenseman from just about everybody. You may not get any stars that way but even an idiot like George McPhee [1] couldn't screw it up so badly that he didn't end up with four good lines and three good defensive pairs. Depth is how you win in the playoffs and Vegas had it gifted to them from the start.



[1] (Vegas's GM is the same genius who traded Forsberg to the Preds for Martin Erat)
 
#9,374
#9,374
VolsSportsFan said:
If Vegas was a "normal" expansion team and made it, then yeah it probably would look bad. But given how they were given their players, you knew they were going to likely be pretty good. Maybe not Stanley Cup Finals good, but you knew they wouldn't suck.
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Yep. From day 1, they were very clearly already better than several NHL squads. Could tell just from the roster.

I'm really curious to see how this effects future expansion, not just in the NHL, but it other sports. Seattle is going to ask for the same deal Vegas got, probably get it, and as insane as it would have seemed several months ago they will actually have expectations of being very competitive as an expansion team.
 
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