Sharks Completely Dominate, Up 2-1
The Preds and their fans can completely forget about this series if this kind of play continues. This result was too painfully much like last year as the Preds lost 3-1 and had no business being in the game.
Even more painful is listening to this result on San Jose's feed and hearing first, the crowd go crazy on a goal you know has been scored even before the announcer can catch up, and then that hurtful sock to the chest as you hear, "They SCOOOORE!" I could have handled the first goal, but the second one fresh off a penalty kill made me sick.
So yeah, I had to hear all night the announcers stating what was obviously true: the Sharks imposed their will on the Predators and won every single aspect of the game. Unlike the Preds who did the same thing in Game 1, the Sharks actually won this game. That's the double-ouch of being down 2-1 at this point instead of the other way around.
Sorry to be gloom and doom folks, but that game was too eerily similar to last year and I can't help but think we'll be seeing more of the same on Wednesday. How in the world do the Preds bounce back from this? At least in the Game 1 loss, they could grasp at the straws that they dominated, and used it for a building block for Game 2. Here, just sheer absolute destruction. Vokoun can only do so much. And why are the Preds still taking stupid penalties, anyway? That's freaking murder.
So Preds fans...any hope? It's ridiculous that a team the Preds conquered in the regular season and is a 5th seed can make it look like a 1 seed is pushing around an 8 seed.
posted by Chris @ 4/16/2007 11:36:00 PM
3 comments
3 Comments:
Okay, Chris. I've got your hope right here.
Now, granted...we were owned. That game was miserable to watch. Some of the sloppiest play I've ever seen from the Preds. Just...not in sync. Except for Vokoun, who was relatively amazing. He really kept it from being 7-1 with some incredible saves.
I have hope because I saw us dominate the first two games of the series. Then they dominated last night. I know that it is possible for us to dominate them, and therefore I believe it will happen again.
But that was hard to watch. Nothing we tried worked.
Oh, also, I'm not the hate-the-refs guy...and I don't typically go into that stuff...but there were some questionable calls against us. Made me wonder if San Jose's coach's plan (complain about the refs until they start calling things your way) was actually working.
Sucks to see the team play so poorly, but I think they'll bounce back, especially after Trotz shows them footage from Game 3 for two days.
I really am a Preds optimist, aren't I?
Well, obviously, I'm a Preds pessimist, and I didn't feel great after Game 1 either, and they bounced back, even though this is a bit different.
You'll have to enlighten me on the questionable calls, because obviously the Sharks announcers think everything against the Preds is a just call and everything against them isn't. I didn't hear, even one time, those guys making any effort to break down a Preds penalty and wonder if it was just.
Meanwhile on the two Sharks penalties, it was completely the other way around. They found every reason to call those penalties suspect. So you can see, adding to my frustration of the night was listening to these guys, because I got the one-sided homer call.
I think the Preds need to ignore the "let's make nice" edict and just go out there and stir things up like they did in Games 1 and 2. This change to stoic has killed them.
Wow, I think you've hit on something there. I think the Preds might have taken the league's rebuke on the nasty style of play in Games 1 & 2, and overreacted to it. The Sharks, on the other hand, possibly ignored it altogether.
I mean, it looked like a manhandling of a game...and I kept wondering what it could be to make the Sharks suddenly that much stronger a team. Now, after your comment, I'm inclined to think it was that the Sharks don't give a crap about the league's warnings...and the Preds did. After all, we're the team that's been having people get suspended.
Ron Wilson is clearly delusional (or just acting delusional to get sympathy in the media), but I wonder if his strategy isn't working. He got the refs to call the games tighter. He got the Preds to back off in fear of a suspension and play like a bunch of limp, lifeless goofs. And he got his team believing they were being treated unjustly, and to play with some fire in their bellies.
Man, it's making me less optimistic to think that the Preds played badly last night because the league threats caused them to lose their edge. Just one off night? Heck, any team can recover from that. But second-guessing your every move on the ice for fear that you'll be suspended? That might take a while to wear off.
I'd say on average I see about three calls per hockey game that are bad. But I see the slow-mo replay, and the ref has to react in real time. They are human and it is forgivable. And I didn't really see as many questionable calls against us as I did uncalled calls against them. Make sense? I saw a lot of overly physical play (including two near-boarding incidents) where nothing was called on Sharks players. And a few of the calls against Preds were ticky-tack.
But officiating rarely decides a game. I think the Preds played like a junior team, plain and simple. What's up for debate is the why. Did they play badly out of exhaustion? Out of fear of suspension? Heads not in the right place? Who knows. But if they don't figure it out and fix it by tomorrow, then we're going down hard.
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