Wednesday, April 4, 2012

WHOA! We're back! And Preds beat Minnesota.

Yeah yeah it's probably odd to see no posts between November 5th and April 4th but it is what it is. It's not important.

Anyway. A nice little win by the Preds on Tuesday night at the Bridge.....I suppose. Every point is meaningful, but no one can argue that something just looks a little bit off with the team lately. I can't put my finger on it but it's something. And this isn't the time of the year to be out of your rhythm.

On the bright side, good ole' 'Ders Lindback played pretty awesome in net, as he got the start because Pekka was apparently quite sick. The only goal he gave up wasn't gonna be stopped by anyone unless they just happened to be in the right place at the right time. Great game by Ders and he rightfully received first star honors.

With the win the Preds (temporarily) move into 4th place, yet again leap-frogging the Wings, although Detroit has three games left compared to our two.

Nashville ends the season with two winnable games. One at home Thursday against Dallas and the last in Denver against the Avs to end the season. Both games could be potentially interesting, as we are looking for the 4th seed above both Detroit and Chicago, but Dallas will be coming into the game in a must-win situation.

The Stars currently trail 7th place Phoenix (and 3rd place Los Angeles) by four points and 8th place San Jose by three. Dallas screwed themselves on Tuesday by losing at home to the Sharks, but the bottom line is if the Stars beat us they'll still be technically alive with losses by any of the three aforementioned Pacific teams.

Colorado is currently four points behind 8th place, so any point by San Jose will eliminate them from contention. However if the Avs beat Columbus on Thursday and San Jose loses to LA, the game Saturday would presumably decide Colorado's post season fate, as a win over us and another Sharks loss to the Kings would send them playoff-bound in the most unlikely of scenarios.

Either way, all great postseason possibilities aside, the Preds are a better team than either Dallas or Colorado, so honestly anything less than four points in the final two games will be a disappointment.

Bottom line: Winning our final two games and Detroit failing to sweep their final three (@ St. Louis, home vs. New Jersey and Chicago, respectively) and we will be 4th place, with home ice in the playoffs for the first time since 2007.

Bring it on.