After failing to win in St. Louis, the Nashville Predators look to end the series at home against the Blues.
The Nashville Predators have arguably been the best team in the playoffs. Peter Laviolette’s team opened the playoffs with five straight wins before splitting their past four. A win at home would see Nashville advance to their first conference final in the club’s 18-season history. A season ago, St. Louis found themselves in the conference final, this year the Blues are in serious trouble of their season ending earlier than they want.
St. Louis has received surprisingly strong play in net from Jake Allen. Entering the playoffs, Allen was considered one of the weaker goalies among the 16 playoff teams. However, Allen has proved to be one of the best goalies in the playoffs, posting a 93.7 save percentage. Offensively the Blues have not shown enough to beat Nashville in two straight games. Outside of their top two lines, St. Louis is getting very little offensively. In St. Louis’ first 10 games, winger David Perron and Jay Bouwmeester have combined for one point despite combining for almost 40 minutes of ice time per game.
Pekka Rinne is one of the leaders for the Conn Smythe Trophy. The longtime Nashville starter has a 95.1 save percentage and is playing arguably the best hockey of his career. In front of Rinne, the Predators top three defenders, P.K. Subban, Roman Josi, and Ryan Ellis are getting the job done at both ends of the ice. The trio is providing Nashville will strong shutdown play defensively, but have also contributed 22 points.
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In front of one of the NHL’s loudest and most underrated crowds, the Predators eliminate the Blues behind another strong performance in net from Rinne. Subban, Josi and Ellis again find their way onto the score sheet. After going pointless in Nashville’s first nine games, center Mike Fisher delivers a strong performance that helps elevate the Predators to the third round of the playoffs.
Prediction: Nashville 3 – St. Louis 1