INQUISITR.COM / Sports

Predators Tin The Fins In A Lop-Sided Loss For San Jose

By Skinner Bachs
Published on: 10:17 PST, Feb 7, 2016

San Jose’s mighty bitey fish learned a few hard lessons about southern hospitality last night. Nashville may enjoy the cache of being the latest hipster heaven with plenty of gently produced hemp milk to keep everyone east of the Cumberland River happy, but last night’s meeting of the grinds in Bridgestone Arena was must have made the more literary fans from San Jose wonder if they’d wandered from a volume of Vanderbilt Agrarian musings to the final pages of James Dickey’s best known novel. To wit: things went from “Howdy!” to “Let’s beat down the California team with the pretty mouths.” in less than three minutes. It was also a study in contrasts, when sagacity and experience on both sides created minutes on the ice that caused existential flips between the balletic beauty and surgical precision of mastery and the electric charge of the youthful, energetic urge to make things go.

Let’s take a look at the highlights.

First period was an on-ice production of the good, the bad, and some goonery that would have been ugly if it hadn’t been perpetrated by two players who looked like they just finished posing for the 1956 ice sports edition of Boys’ Life. The good was Nashville’s James Neal, who couldn’t let first period end without lighting the lamp. San Jose outshot them, but all it took was one good tip of the stick from Neal with assists from Johansen and Jackman to put Nashville in the lead.The bad? There’s always that one kid who has to get the shenanigans started. Last night it was Mikka Salamaki, who paid a visit to the sin bin just after the two minute mark for hooking San Jose right wing Joonas Donski. Maybe Donski didn’t have enough consonants in his name to suit him. Whatever the reason, that first arm gesture from the officials was all it took to ratchet up the tension at event level. Most of the rest of the period served as a precis to former enfante incredible/current Nashville D-Guy Ryan Ellis and San Jose center Tommy Wingels dropping the gloves. Nobody put an eye out, but they both ended up getting major penalties for fighting at 16:57 into first period.

Three minutes, three seconds later, the clock wound down and everyone went out for a beer and some $10 nachos.

Someone must had spiked the kids’ peanut butter during intermission. Everyone on the ice seemed to have double the energy when the buzzer sounded and the lights went up. Ryan Johansen cemented his place as one of the stalwarts on Nashville’s roster with his second assist of the night. This time he was right where he was supposed to be when Jarnkrok pushed the puck between the pipes. San Jose was flailing with nothing to show for it until the old guard made their presence known. It was a brief moment in the sun for San Jose, but it was enough for fans to see Jumbo Joe finally deny the Big Cats a shutout with assists from Vlasic and Couture. A minute and change later, the Predators made it a trifecta with a goal from Arvidsson with assists from Forsberg and Ribiero.

And then the clock wound down and everyone went out for Dippin’ Dots or Jaeger or Dippin’ Dots and Jaeger.

Arvidsson and Forsberg invoked the undead twang of Tim McGraw two more times. At the thirteen minute mark, it looked like San Jose might rally. Unfortunately for the Sharks, it was just another reminder from Couture and Thornton that they were there. If anyone was suspecting it might be too little too late, Nashville team captain Shea Weber’s unassisted slap into an empty net confirmed that the game was truly over. Does the final score matter? Of course it does. San Jose scored twice while Nashville netted six goals.

Third period felt like one of those movies where everyone has read the book and we all know Lincoln dies in the end. The Sharks just seemed to wind down. Was San Jose trying to walk off second period? Did they lose track of the time? The question on anyone’s mind who is familiar with both teams had to be, “Where is San Jose?” They were playing, but they just seemed off. Outshooting Nashville the first two periods netted little for San Jose. Another, shorter answer was evident. Rinne was there. Okay, let’s try that again, Rinne was there, in the moment, present, and on his game. Out of thirty shots, he gloved all but two. Even though the Nashvlle media had other ideas when they named the stars of the game, it was definitely Rinne’s night.

By the books, the Nashville kids hooked the night away from the San Jose Sharks, but it was the old guard on both sides who made the game that thing you had to watch.

[Photo by Frederick Breedon/Getty Images]

Share this article: Predators Tin The Fins In A Lop-Sided Loss For San Jose
nhl Nashville Predators San Jose Sharks
More from Inquisitr