Nashville Predators Fall Again

Once again, the Predators lose in the playoffs. And once again, they lost for the same reasons they always do.

I still don't understand why the Predators have so many people who are tentative about shooting towards the goal. How many times do you see a perfectly good shot that is not taken in order to pass, which is inevitably broken up?

And seriously, did Chris Osgood play that great for the Red Wings? How could we know with the amount of pressure he got on him ever since he replaced Dominick Hasek in Game 4? He had one goal scored against him over that span.

As much as I'm angry about the crazy-ass goal Lidstrom scored from his own blue line, short-handed, and yet another goal allowed after the Red Wings were offsides, it didn't matter. The Predators cannot score. And they can't score because they just don't learn the lesson, year after year. You have to shoot to score. You would think the lesson was learned in Games 3 and 4, but it wasn't.

And this game was just a frustrating one to watch. Not only because they never shoot, but because of poor puck handling and a Red Wings defense that played much harder and disrupted play in every way.

It's an uncertain future for the franchise, as always. If they want to make noise, they'll have to stop this bull-headed bide-your-time nonsense that seems to rule every game.

Look at this: they played the Red Wings in 2004 and the results were the exact same then as they are this year. They lost 2, they won 2, they lost 2. And we all know that the previous years, 2006-2007 were 5-game dominations by the San Jose Sharks. Just too similar for all 4 years in the playoffs. You can say the same thing about each of the series. There is no progress, and I still wonder if Barry Trotz is the guy who needs to coach this team.

Speaking of the Sharks: had Nashville won they would probably have had to face them again in the next round. Now that Nashville has lost, congratulations to the Calgary Flames for pulling out the next two games against the Sharks. Because it would figure that a playoff scenario in which Nashville no longer had to worry about the Sharks would be one in which they were eliminated.

I'll just continue pulling my hair out for awhile.