Predators Blog: On the Forecheck
And when I say "earned" first win of the season, I literally mean he worked for it. The defense didn't make it easy on him, as noted by the first goal of the game when Chris Kunitz showed he likely earned an 'F' in Hockey 101 in the area of backchecking, allowing David Legwand to walk right in and bury an easy one. But Fleury found his footing soon enough, stepping up big on odd-man rushes and making miraculous saves on somewhere around 5,243,203 Nashville breakaways.
The defense may have let him down at times, but that same defense put this game away in overtime, as Kris Letang's goal with just over a minute remaining helped the Pens earned the second point, a fourth straight win and improved the record to 5-3 on the season
Sidney Crosby was everywhere tonight, scoring goals five and six on the season and adding a helper on Letang's overtime goal. Evgeni Malkin was right behind him with a goal and an assist as well and showed some insane hustle around the Predators' net. It's been five seasons now and I'm still amazed with some of the tricks he has under his sleeves.
The power play went 0-for-5 but showed a lot of promise. It's no fault of theirs that Nashville goaltender Pekka Rinne stopped 34 of the 38 shots he faced.
Near ironic moment of the night: Nashville scored its first goal 53 seconds into the first period. Pittsburgh scored its first goal 54 seconds into the second.
The Pens are now 3-0 on the road this season and have two more to go on this one. Up next is St. Louis on Saturday night, followed by the Lightning on Wednesday. Not to jinx anything, but if the Pens come out of this road trip perfect, I'm motioning to send the Pens on the road for the remainder of the season.
Comment(s) of the night come from Chez and KatieLynn906: (click to make larger)
