Nashville, Tenn. -- Up by a goal entering the third period, the Nashville Predators (29-9-4) rattled off three straight goals after the loss of goaltender Pekka Rinne to dispatch the Vancouver Canucks (23-15-3) for their fourth straight win.
Sporting a multiple goal lead in the first period
For the third time in the past eight games, Nashville ended the first period sporting a two goal lead. It's not something the Predators do often this year but have gained points in every contest they've accomplished that this season.
With their two first-period goals, Nashville also inched closer to breaking into the top ten in the league for goals registered in the first. They're also one of the stingier teams in the NHL through the first twenty minutes, already in the top five with only 26 goals allowed in the opening frame.
"I thought we came out and we played really good," said Predators defenseman Seth Jones. "We got a [power play] goal and we sustained most of the pressure in the first period. Whenever we get the first goal of the game, that's huge."
Another impressive fact is one of the two early goals coming via Nashville's power play. Scoring a home power play goal for the first time since netting three against the Flyers on December 27th, the Predators special teams are slowly rising out of the NHL's basement.
"The power play was good," said head coach Peter Laviolette. "We came out good. [Wilson's] goal was a beautiful goal. Vancouver played hard. You lose a couple of games and your urgency to win ratchets up. They played an ultra-aggressive game. Their forecheck and their time and space on pucks was really tight. After the two goals to start, there wasn't a lot of room out there."
Not putting the pedal to the metal
It's not very often the Predators have done something worthy of being criticized this season, however the second period had a healthy dose of frustration. Nashville has easily been one of the better teams this year at dictating the pace at which the game is played, however they've taken a couple of licks when opponents begin to surge back.
"We may have just lost a little bit of our mojo for the first ten or twelve minutes," said Jones. "For about half the period actually, they controlled the play. They got a lot of shots. They got us up in our own zone. We played pretty solid defensively, but they had a lot of [offensive] zone time. We may have turned the puck over a few times in the neutral zone and helped their attack a little bit."
Entering the middle stanza with a 2-0 lead over Vancouver, the Canucks pushed Nashville back into their own zone for the majority of the period. Allowing an Edler goal on a delayed penalty just minutes into the second, Vancouver outshot the Predators 11-9 while nearly tying the game.
"[Vancouver] didn't do anything different, they kept playing hard," said Laviolette. "We went to sleep a little bit in the first five minutes. We talked about it after the second period going into the third period because that was the only stretch of the game where I didn't really like it.
There was a couple of shifts where we had to play defense for maybe a minute or a minute and 20 seconds where they were in our end cycling the puck, but I thought we did a good job of staying inside in front of our net and keeping things to the outside. I didn't like the first five or six minutes of the second period."
Rinne leaves the game early. Should Nashville be nervous?
The first half of Nashville's season has been all Pekka Rinne. Easily one of the favorites for the Vezina Trophy, Rinne has been absolutely amazing playing some of the best hockey in his career.
After two separate incidents involving Canucks winger Chris Higgins, Rinne took an awkward hit after stopping a partial breakaway and slid into the boards behind his net during the early stages of the third period. Leaving for the remainder of the game, Predators goaltender Carter Hutton manned the reins and stopped all 10 shots he faced to collect the proverbial save for Nashville.
"[Rinne's] been a huge part of our team this year," said Jones. "It's no secret. His numbers don't lie. He's a good guy in the locker room to have. No one's sure what's going on right now, but Hutton came in and did a fantastic job. We have a lot of confidence in him; he's been working extremely hard all year. I don't think his record shows how good he's been for us."
While Nashville recorded three more goals for insurance as the game wound down, the status for Rinne remains in the air. Listed as day-to-day with a lower body injury, the Predators plan on re-evaluating the star goaltender later this week.
The injury looked fairly innocuous. After taking his time getting up, stretching it out and even stopping at the entrance to the Predators bench to try it again, Rinne was pulled for the night.
What could largely have been just a precautionary move by Laviolette, Rinne still collected his league-leading 29th win. Nashville's biggest test of the season could come if he misses any time due to injury.
Colin Wilson -- Two goals, two assists and four points. Wilson has been on an absolute tear with points in four straight games. He's come a long way from the player that was perennially stuck in Barry Trotz's doghouse.
Craig Smith -- Another goal and assist for Smith who's quietly climbing Nashville's leaderboards. Now seventh in points, his 13 goals tie him with fellow forward James Neal for third on the team.
Carter Hutton -- Coming in after Rinne left in the third period due to a lower body injury, Hutton survived a flurry of Canucks shots as soon as he entered the game. Although he was only credited with 10 saves, his demeanor and play between the pipes was a solid vote of confidence for the still-winless goaltender.
