vs.
FACEOFF: 7pm Central
TV/RADIO: CSN, NBCSN, Sportsnet, WGN 720
WHERE YOU GOIN’, CITY BOY? On The Forecheck
The Hawks hit the home stretch before the All-Star break with a trip down south. It starts in Nashville before doing the Florida swing later in the week. They’ll see a Predators team that last week thought it had solved its biggest problem, and this week may have figured out it has one it can’t do anything about.
This ran in last week’s C.I. program for the Preds’ game.
It’s hard to fathom that for pretty much their entire existence, the Nashville Predators have never had a true #1 center. They drafted David Legwand to be that with their first ever pick. You know how that went. Their highest scoring centers over the years are names like Greg Johnson, Yanic Perrault, aging and one-footed Peter Forsberg, and Rich Peverly. The team that lost to the Hawks in 2010 was trotting out Jason Arnott at 35. Colin Wilson as a rookie was the team’s best center the first time they won a playoff round. Mike Ribeiro was as close as they came last year. So you can see what the attraction is for acquiring Ryan Johansen at this age to finally lock down that spot. When you haven’t had something in so long, you’ll drink the sand.
We have Kristopher Martel from OnTheForecheck.com (@kmartel_sports) and JRLind from NashvillePost.com (@JRLind) to answer our questions about the Preds before tonight’s game.
Easy enough to know where we’ll start. Your feelings on Johansen-Jones? We know the Preds have never had a #1 center and Johansen is very good, but Jones looked to be a future Norris winner and it seems at least a little steep.
JR: Obviously Seth Jones is already amazing and is going to be amazing for years to come. What this trade tells us is A) David Poile is comfortable with Ellis and Ekholm long-term and B) Shea Weber isn’t for sale. The trade upset me for a lot of non-hockey reasons – Seth was great with kids, good in the community, really committed to growing the game and really easy to deal with – but from a hockey standpoint, the Preds obviously felt like Jones was going to get in a traffic jam and the franchise has needed a center for 18 years now. With Johansen at 23, under contract for a couple of years and headed into another RFA period, it’s a good deal to make.
Martel: Plenty of folks weren’t bothered at all that Nashville gave up Jones for Johansen, however I may be one of the few that felt as if the price was steep, but necessary, for a player of Johansen’s caliber. Johansen has already shown Nashville what he’s capable of and how dynamic of a center he is, but was it worth giving up Jones? Right now, it’s impossible to tell. Jones had a definitive ceiling with Nashville in the name of Shea Weber — as long as he was around, Jones would never see his true potential realized with the Predators. Now with Columbus, he’ll be able to play those top minutes. Ultimately, I think Nashville wins the trade now, but it could even out as time goes on.
vs. 
PUCK DROP: 7pm
TV/RADIO: CSN, WGN Radio
GIMME GIMME GIMME THE HONKY TONK BLUES: On The Forecheck
The ol’ home and home. This used to be a staple of the NHL schedule when you had to play everyone in your division 12 times or whatever it was back in the day. They were usually on Saturday and Sunday nights, and the Sunday nights at the Old Stadium against either the North Stars or Leafs generally became something our Lord Jim Ross would describe as “Looks like a Saturday night on a payday weekend in Muskogee!” Why yes, I do have a requirement of how many times I use that phrase per season. And yes, I did go the long way round to get to it today. And I don’t care!
One or two more and this could a habit! Anyway, sorry for the delayed wrap. A flat tire cost me the urge to do it last night. I need that Bond auto-inflate tire from Tomorrow Never Dies. Or all of them. All those cars probably had that feature. Anyway…
The Hawks once again got a win with their do-it-all second line merely adding an empty-netter, though they were the best on line on the ice for either team most of the night. Unlike Sunday’s win though, this one is thoroughly pinned on Corey Crawford, who might have had his best game of the year. And not only that, he made it look easy at times. Without him, this probably looks a lot different.
The Hawks got goals from other lines as well, if you can believe that, to keep the spiraling Preds… well, in a spiral. Downwards. Though it is possible to spiral upwards. But we rarely use that term for that motion. Whatever. Let’s get to it:
Now that we’ve laid out what we think about the Hawks, it’s probably time to peruse the other squads they’ll actually be competing with in the division and the West. And looking around, it’s hard to find a team that has taken a huge step forward to a point these Hawks can’t reach (assuming everything goes right for them). The only one that looks poised for a major leap, while knowing that one or two teams will get one through luck or weirdness, is Dallas. But Dallas looked like that last year, and it doesn’t look like they’ll take a big enough jump to overtake the Hawks. Let’s get through it all.
The talking point of the Hawks “turning it on” had become just about as tedious as “Good Rex Bad Rex, “Good Jay, Bad Jay,” “Why no one goes to Comiskey Park, ” and “The Wrigley Bleachers.” It had gotten silly, and I fell into it, because the Hawks aren’t selectively playing well or not based solely on their whims. They’re inconsistent because that’s the team that they are.
And then of course they went ahead and turned it on.
Ruh-Roh:HockeeNight
Welcome to my nightmare:Lets Go Hawks
7 PM on Saturday:Blackhawk Up
Steeg in a nutshell:Second City Hockey
Time to regroup:CSN
No Fairytale:Daily Herald
A process made far longer and more laborious than usual that eventually reaches what usually is a satisfactory ending marred by the miles it took to get there that at that point both participants are just happy it’s over. But one side is much happier with the ending than the other. There’s last night for you.
I saw a lot of people saying that Game 1 was Nashville’s best punch and that the series was over because the Hawks only took a standing eight count and then won anyway. I wasn’t sure. The Preds had the first of three horrible 2nd periods that night, Rinne wasn’t very good, and they still almost got it. Last night/this morning felt like a better right hook that still didn’t connect. The Preds actually won the 2nd period for once, Rinne was much better than he’d been all series (though still not looking totally comfortable), they’d kept Kane quiet, and had a lead in the 3rd.
Now they’re faced with winning three in a row, which they’ve done once since February, including one here which they haven’t managed this season yet. Now you might consider whether they’re deflated or not. Let’s get to it all.
