Tonight's Preds Game: KW Report

I'm no journalist. I don't have any creed to be fair and honest.

But I went to the Preds game with Edmonton tonight, and I don't think I've ever seen them play worse. They came out flat. Passes were the polar opposite of crisp. They weren't physical. They just played sloppy. Like Trotz has been saying...they tried too hard to be cute with their offensive plays instead of just keeping it simple.

Now I'm not one to panic, especially in an 82-game season. The Preds will be fine.

It was just a sorry display tonight, and I don't feel I can be the guy who praises them when they're awesome and then crawls into a hole when they suck. Tonight they sucked. They looked like a junior team.

At one point, one of my game-mates said to the team, "Come on, guys, you can play better than this." I leaned over and said--only half joking--"I could play better than this."

Vokoun looked good, though the stats won't show it--we lost 5-1. But three of the Edmonton goals had Vokoun trying to stop a 2-on-1 or all alone. Guys were out of position all night. After one of our lousy power play attempts, the Edmonton D shot a pass to their guy just out of the box...he walked in all alone and scored. That summed up the whole evening. You can't blame the goaltender when he has no help. Heck, you should have seen some of the stops he made. The game easily could have been 10-1. We made the Oilers look like a team of Gretzky's.

For the first time in my life...I left a Preds game early. Granted, it was with only one minute left and the game out of hand. But I cannot get behind a crap effort like that. I think the Preds saw an Edmonton team coming in that had lost 7 of 8 games, and assumed they'd walk all over the Oilers.

Every hockey team, no matter how great, has a few games each season where they play flat, uninspired hockey. The Preds will be fine.

But as a fan, I was disappointed. The effort just wasn't there. Usually, in the past, even when the Preds sucked they at least worked hard. They've always been a hustle team with great work ethic, but not tonight. I would bet our passing percentage was below 30%. Even all our skill guys had trouble making and receiving passes. If I had a dime for every missed pass, missed hit, and out-of-position player...I'd have a hell of a lot of dimes.

Just bummed. I'm not rich, guys, and I hate dropping $20 on an effort as lacking as this one.