The 2nd game of the Central division is between the 4th seeded Nashville Predators and the 1st seeded Carolina Hurricanes. The Canes won the season series 6-2 but the Preds won the last 2 games of the season which were the last games of the season for both hockey teams. On Sunday afternoon, we saw the 4 seed Islanders beat 1 seed Penguins so we might have another upset. From PNC Arena on a Monday 8:00 PM EST night, the Predators visit Carolina for Game 1.
I did not expect the Predators to make the playoffs. I had thought the Dallas Stars or the Chicago Blackhawks would take that 4th spot. They played really well against a tough Central Division. Roman Josi and Filip Forsberg have been good. They are the only two players on the team who have 30+ points. They don’t give a player like Brad Marchand with 69 points but have players who can make a difference. Each player contributes and that is what makes them up. Both goalies have also been good enough. Pekka Rinne and Juuse Saros both gave above .900 save percentage. They’re not going to win the Vezina Trophy which is a trophy which the best goalie received but have played well. I will be really interested to see what Nashville does to get past the Hurricanes.
The Canes have been eye-grabbing this year. Sebastion Aho is having another great year with 57 points, defenseman Dougie Hamilton, Andrei Svechnikov, and Vincent Trocheck all with 40+ points. Jordan Staal also is right behind that mark with 38 points. All these five players are on the Power Play and you can guess why their power play is ranked 2nd in the whole league. Nobody from the Preds has more than 33 points while 7 players from Carolina have 34+ points. This shows that the Hurricanes score more goals and get more points than the Preds. They have been so dangerous this year but let’s see if that momentum will swing into the Round 1 of the playoffs.
I believe the Carolina Hurricanes will win Game 1 on their home ice by the score of 4-2. Till now, 3 away teams have won in Game 1 but the Canes have been so great. The Hurricanes might allow somewhere between 10,000 fans to 12,000 fans and that makes a huge impact. You might have seen how those 9,000 fans in T-Mobile Arena in Vegas gave them so much offense. They had 42 shots while Minnesota had 29. Home ice is huge in this time of year and in addition to their stellar team, the fans will give them an extra life.
The Hurricanes against the Predators in what will hopefully be a noisy PNC Arena. Can the Nashville Predators shock the Canes in Game 1 or will the Carolina Hurricanes steal the show with their top line? We will find out on Monday from Raleigh, North Carolina.
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