Nashville, Tenn. -- Collecting a late marker in regulation from Jason Pominville, the Minnesota Wild (46-27-8) came back to defeat the Nashville Predators (47-24-10) after scoring two goals to tie the game in a span of 31 seconds during the second period.
It was Minnesota's 12th consecutive win on the road, tying an NHL record set during the 2005-06 season by the Detroit Red Wings.
Taking advantage of a resting team
Minnesota started the night resting four of its top players: Nino Niederreiter, Thomas Vanek, Zach Parise and goaltender Devan Dubnyk. It didn't take long for the Predators to take full advantage of that, either.
Less than three minutes into the first period, Filip Forsberg glided into the offensive zone and blasted a one-timer above Wild goaltender Darcy Kuemper. Nearly eight minutes later, Seth Jones sent a wrist shot past a screened Kuemper to double Nashville's lead.
It wasn't necessarily a recipe for outright success, but it was a much needed early boost to go ahead and grab a two goal lead against a Minnesota team that's had Nashville's number since the All-Star break.
Some may look at a resting Wild team and speculate about the quality of their play compared to who the Predators are starting. However, it was more a chance for Nashville to knock itself out of a slight funk -- one that's been hanging around for a little over six weeks.
What's wrong with the second period?
Lately, Nashville's second period play has been absolutely agonizing. It's one where the Predators frequently found themselves leading by a goal or more, just to allow their opponents to march right back into the game.
In each of their previous three games -- all losses -- Nashville came into the second period with a lead and squandered it. Call it lackluster play, call it taking the foot off the gas, call it whatever you'd like. Clearly, the Predators had some type of issue to work out.
Thursday against the Wild, Nashville coughed up a lead in the second period for the fourth straight game.
"We didn't play as well as we did earlier in the year," said defenseman Roman Josi. "We got to get back to our game. For 40 minutes, we didn't play at all. We were up two to nothing, but I didn't think we deserved to be up two nothing after the first."
Minnesota forward Jason Zucker benefited from a lucky bounce in front of Rinne on the power play while Jason Scandella performed one of the most skilled spin-o-rama plays to tie the game.
Here's the thing, though: all of this happened in a span of 31 seconds. Against Colorado on Tuesday, Nashville gave up two goals in nine seconds to find itself trailing the Avalanche.
The Predators can play great stretches of hockey, but when they let up it's tearing them apart.
Why? What in the world could cause a team that played with so much success during the first three-quarters of the season to fall apart down the stretch?
"Earlier in the year, it didn't matter if we got scored on," Josi said. "We just kept playing and tried to get the next one. RIght now, we get scored on once and we can't get scored on the next shift. That just doesn't win you games.
At this point, Nashville needs to take a long, hard look at what it can do to eliminate these small lapses in focus that are ending up in the back of its net. Momentum swings like that can be overcome in the regular season, but in the playoffs they can be series-changers.
"We can sit here and talk all we want. Until we do it, it's not good enough," said Predators captain Shea Weber. "I think everyone realizes that. It's not one guy looking at another, it's everyone looking at themselves and having to be better to be successful."
With the regular season ending on Saturday, it's officially time to wonder if this could be a contributing factor to a possibly early exit.
Urgency lost and so goes the Central Division
On February 24th, Nashville led the Blues by nine points in the Central Division after a decisive 5-2 win over the Colorado Avalanche.
44 days later, that same St. Louis team can now crown itself division champs.
In that span, the Predators choked themselves into a 6-11-3 record over 20 games -- that includes Thursday's 4-2 loss to Minnesota. Whatever semblance of a dominant team that Nashville showcased itself as in the first part of the season is entirely gone.
"We were first in our league six weeks ago and we weren't flying under the radar anymore," Seth Jones noted when speaking to The Tennessean's Adam Vingan after the game. "Teams were going to come out and play us like we were first in the league and I don't think we stepped up and did a great job of accepting that pressure and that role."
Stepping into the locker room and post-game press conferences after the final horn rang out Thursday, the frustration was almost palpable. It was visible on every player in the locker room, the coaches and training staff.
Amongst every player polled at the end of the night, there was one common denominator: any urgency Nashville had just a handful of weeks ago has slipped out the window.
"Tonight I thought we just needed to be more urgent," said Weber. "I thought we did a pretty good job in Colorado; just didn't get the win. It just seemed like [Minnesota] wanted it more tonight."
If Nashville hasn't been playing with a sense of urgency, how do you fix that? Does Peter Laviolette bag skate the players during their last couple of regular season skates prior to the start of the playoffs?
Fingers can be pointed and blame can be placed, but it all starts and ends with Laviolette. He's the bench boss and he was quick to point that out.
"Everything always starts at the top. So it starts with me," said Laviolette.
With that being said, let's take a step back and see how Laviolette handles this situation. He's been in more dire straits much later in the season and found ways to climb out.
Jason Pominville -- Delivering a dagger to any hope of Nashville vying for the Central Division crown, Pominville's goal late in the third period secured the Wild's 12th consecutive road win.
Marco Scandella -- It's been a long time since I've seen a play quite like the one Scandella utilized. Spinning around Nashville's defense, Scandella launched a shot to the far post above Rinne, tying the game at two in the second period.
Filip Forsberg -- He's played great all season long and there's no reason he can't finish strongly at home prior to the playoffs. A rocket from Forsberg less than three minutes in gave Nashville a 1-0 lead, one they would double on just eight minutes later.
