"There's still thirty seconds left, we can win." - Pekka "Yea, I think you're right!" - Suter "WTF" - Weber

There’s an old saying about if you’re on top, when you fall, you fall hard and the Preds definitely fell hard back to Earth last night during their home opener against the Phoenix Coyotes, 5-2.

The Predators were almost a shoe-in for a win last night, due to the fact they wiped the Blues and the Blue Jackets in both their home openers in the first two games of the season. The Coyotes, on the other hand, hadn’t won a game during the new season, losing one game and tying the other. Of course, as anyone knows, shoe-ins for a win usually go in with a big head and end up losing.

The Coyotes came out scoring first, getting four goals on Pekka Rinne before the Preds could even score one on their goalie, Jason Labarbera. Finally, Ryan Suter was able to slip one passed and the Predators were finally on the board. The final goal was by Colin Wilson in the third, giving the Preds fans some hope for the remaining of the game. Unfortunately, after pulling Pekka during the last few minutes of the game, the Coyotes slid it right down the ice into the empty goal, sealing the final score 5-2.

Pekka Rinne definitely had a game he’d like to forget, but the blame cannot all be placed on his head. In fact, the team sort of looked like a minor league hockey team. The Preds were definitely off their game last night and it showed…bad. It also goes back to our last post about the injuries facing last night’s game. Patric Hornqvist was enviably scratched from the game last night, along with the usual suspects Martin Erat, Mike Fisher and Francis Bouillon. The mysterious happenings of Kevin Klein were put to rest last night as he took the ice. However, he looked (like most of the team) completely out of body and clueless.

However, there are a few players that are standing out this season for the best. David Legwand, the first Predator drafted, has already started the season out with a bang and is currently the leading scorer in the league. As we all know from the first two games, rookie Craig Smith is making a name for himself in the NHL, although he was relatively quite during last night’s game. Colin Wilson is another player showing his skills this season, whereas last season, he barely had any ice time.

Although they looked unnaturally rough last night, the team is quite aware of how they appeared and are planning to make a comeback against the New Jersey Devils on Saturday night here in Nashville. We all have bad days and last night was one of them and (sadly you cannot control when they happen) it just so happened to be the home opener.

Saturday is a new day so let’s cheer our Nashville Predators back into a winning streak! The puck drops at 7pm!