The Predators returned home Monday night to kick off their Thanksgiving week home stand to take on the Steven Stamkos-less Tampa Bay Lightning.
This was one of the better starts the predators have had this season. Viktor Arvidsson continued to remain red-hot, scoring his sixth goal of the game on a beautiful pass from Roman Josi. The Preds were able to keep the pressure on the Lightning, as Tampa Bay was not able to get much going offensively.
Pekka Rinne continues to baffle opposing defenses. He has turned away some pretty good chances by the Bolts in the second period. P.K. Subban unloads a slap shot, and Ben Bishop has no chance there and Nashville takes a 2-0 lead. Moments later, Subban strikes again, his first multi-goal game since October 2014. Ryan Ellis quietly has three assists, the third three point game of his career, and first three assist game.
The game started getting chippy in the third period. Arvidsson rode Namestnikov kind of hard into the boards and drew a penalty. J.T. Brown returned the favor knocking Roman Josi into the boards fairly hard as well. Josi had to leave the ice and get checked out. Not too long after that, Brown pounced on Ryan Ellis, unloading a barrage of punches WWE style. The Lightning added a goal after Ellis and Brown were handed misconducts. The shutout is gone but luckily this one ends before any steel cage matches break out.
The refs deserve most of the blame for that 3rd period, as they severely mishandled the physical play that led up to the final melee. Brown is definitely culpable, as is Ellis, but the refs had chances to call penalties for obvious infractions and didn’t.
Pete Weber’s Postgame Report
