Nashville/Vancouver Scoring Chances (Game 20749)

Right before the ASG sideshow break Vancouver played what many called a boring game against the Nashville Predators. Boring or not, the Preds are a solid team and played a very even game until about the halfway point when they appeared to dictate the play more and Pekka Rinne wasn’t giving Vancouver an inch.

A miscue early in the third allowed the Preds to jump on the board, but Alex Burrows and Lee Sweatt – in his first NHL game on his first NHL shot – would score in 90 seconds of each other to put the good guys ahead. Roberto Luongo was clutch in the final minutes, including a huge toe save on Joel Ward in the waning seconds.

After the jump, a look at the chances.

 

 

EV was very close, neither team gave the other much to work with and both cranked the meter up in the third. The Canucks took five calls, but the Predators PP is atrocious (27th in the league) so Vancouver’s kill bottled them up. The Preds themselves have a strong PK, but the Canucks managed to fire off more chances with the difference again being Renne. He really did have a solid game.

Credit the Preds for handling the Sedins and Kesler lines with relative ease. In return Vancouver played admirably without Edler and two rookie defensemen hovering around the 10:00 minute mark. The fact the game was decided by the one player the Preds had no book on makes perfect sense.