Yes, yes, we are only two days late on this post, but hey, it’s almost Christmas and we are running on little sleep and rushing to find last minute Christmas presents. We deserve a little slack! Any who, besides our excuses, the Predators almost had to come up with some excuses for themselves Saturday night. Although they got away with the two points, it was clear (even though this makes me cringe to the BONE to admit) that the St. Louis Blues came out the stronger team Saturday night. Lucky for the Predators, Pekka Rinne came out to play and blocked 39 of 40 shots taken at him. In the first period alone, the Blues out shot the Predators 14 to 2. Okay honestly, what Predators fan was surprised by this? As of late, the Predators had been upping their shots on goal, but Saturday was reminiscent of old times. However, any way you look at it, the Predators got away with the win, ugly or not. Here are the highlights from Saturday night’s shutout win for the Predators:

KEY POINTS:

• This in no way pertains to Saturday, but both Jonathon Blum and Blake Geoffrion have returned to Nashville from a very, very short stint in Milwaukee. Blum scored a pair of goals while in Milwaukee and Geoffrion made an assist in three games. Looks like Geoffrion has mended well.
• No injuries or scratches for the Predators Saturday night, but former Predators player and captain Jason Arnott sat out his first game of the season for being “under the weather”. As Pete Weber mentioned on 102.5 The Game’s 1st Quarter this morning, Arnott may have came down with the “Nashville flu” Saturday night.
•  Let’s discuss the first most obvious incident of the night: the six PP given to the Blues. Yes, six. And what’s worse, the Predators didn’t have a single power play opportunity. Okay, they had one at 5:00 in OT, but it wasn’t any use. If you think the “Fang Fingers” are bad, hopefully you were not there to witness the St. Louis “Power Play Dance”, which appears to be the signal refs in football use to symbolize a touchdown. The Predators tend to take silly penalties, but the refs missed a few for the Blues as well. We’ll get to who saw the box in a few.
• Although the Blues pounded the puck at Peks throughout the game, both teams were scoreless until 12:32 of the third when Martin Erat put the first number on the board. Shea Weber and Mike Fisher helped Erat with the assists.
• St. Louis was able to tie the game at one their fifth PP of the night, sending the game into overtime.
• With neither team able to score during OT, David Legwand made up for his slashing penalty by slipping the puck passed Blues goalie Jaroslav Halak, sealing the shootout win for the Predators.
• The Predators only had 20 shots the entire game, with St. Louis having 40. Again, Pekka was a master of his game Saturday night, possibly saving the Predators from seeing their first loss in this recent home stretch. And, as stated before, the Predators gave the Blues six power plays, luckily with the Blues only gaining a goal from one. Granted, the Sergei Kostitsyn penalty was a fluke, when he bounced off Chris Stewart while returning to the bench. Sergei didn’t see him, for his head was turned, but he did knock the kid over in the process. Oops? Here’s who all got to visit the nasty, spit-filled penalty box:

1. Jack Hillen – 8:23 1st Period – Tripping
2. Jordin Tootoo – 15:45 1st Period – Roughing
3. Ryan Suter – 8:35 2nd Period – Slashing
4. Sergei Kostitsyn – 10:27 3rd Period – Interference
5. Entire Team – 15:26 3rd Period – Too many Men on Ice – Colin Wilson to the box (T.J. Oshie scores)
6. David Legwand – 18:31 3rd Period – Slashing

Again, sort of a slow, ugly penalty-taking game for the Predators at first, but what matters is the big W belonged to the home team. Like the Detroit game Thursday night, Saturday’s game against the Blues was played before a sold out crowd. That’s always music to Nashville’s ears, even if most of the tickets went to Blues fans.

The Predators are off to Washington D.C. to visit Tomas Vokoun and Joel Ward (oh, and that Ovechkin guy) tomorrow night at 6PM. The Predators will be back home Thursday night to welcome back Columbus. GO PREDS.

Oh, and just for a little laugh, here is a 2012 Predators calendar we came across on Amazon.com today:

As stated above, this is a 2012 Player Calendar. On the bottom, you can see Kevin Klein and Colin Wilson, who are still on the team. However, above are J.P. Dumont and Cody Franson… both not on the team. Franson was traded to Toronto with Matthew Lombardi and Dumont now plays for S.C. Bern. We have to give the calendar maker some slack, since they probably made this available by midsummer, but still – Major boo-boo here. These two weren’t gone this summer, before the 2011-2012 team was finally together (even then, it’s ever changing). We don’t dislike Franson or Dumont in any way, just pointing out an obvious fail on the calendar-maker’s part. It’s on sale for $12.47 on Amazon.