It’s time for Music City to bring home a cup named Stanley. They made the great offseason move to trade Shea Weber to the Montréal Canadiens for P.K. Subban. The Nashville Predators are now down two games to one to the Pittsburgh Penguins in the Stanley Cup Finals. Why, not only will the Preds win the championship series, but why do they deserve it?
It’s not necessarily that Nashville is predestined to win the 2017 Cup, but it’s just that the Penguins shouldn’t. There are several teams that have won too much in the NHL: the Pens, Chicago Blackhawks, Los Angeles Kings, etc. Any of the remaining teams could deserve to win, but why is Nashville most deserving? That’s a good question, I mean, why not Sergei Bobrovsky’s Columbus Blue Jackets who had that insane winning streak at the beginning of this 2016-17 season? Why not Brad Marchand’s Boston Bruins who scraped their way into the postseason by beating powerhouses at the end of the year? Why Pekka Rinne’s Nashville Predators? Well, to begin with, they fought off the rallying St. Louis Blues and Anaheim Ducks in the last two rounds. The Blues were the second round matchup and the Ducks were their opponents in the Western Conference Finals. What’s more remarkable is their victory in the first round: The top seed Chicago Blackhawks laughed in the face of the bottom seed Predators before Game 1. How could Roman Josi, P.K. Subban, and Pekka Rinne’s feeble Nashville Predators, who had barely nudged their way past the Winnipeg Jets take on Jonathan Toews, Patrick Kane, and Corey Crawford’s Blackhawks? Well, in the Game 1 Smashville shutout on the road, the Preds’ Viktor Arvidsson scored the only goal in the first period. Game 2 saw another Rinne shutout with a 5-0 victory which brought the series to Tennessee. Game 3 started out with two Chicago goals from Dennis Rasmussen and Patrick Kane in the second period. In the third, Filip Forsberg took the game into his own hands and fired two goals, one early in the period and one late, past Crawford to tie the game 2-2 and bring us to overtime. It wasn’t until 16:44 in OT that the tie was broken by the Preds’ Kevin Fiala. The current score in the series worried the now horror stricken Hawks fans as they trailed three games to none to the eight seed. Despite the third period goal from Jonathan Toews, the two goals from Josi, one goal from Colton Sissons, and final goal from Arvidsson brought the final score to 4-1 Predators, just confirming the Windy City’s worst fear: they’d, not only lost to, but been swept by the last seed in the Western Conference, Nashville Predators. With 94 season points, Smashville would have missed the playoffs in the Eastern Conference, yet Chicago had been knocked off by them. Now, we move past the implications for who deserves what more, and to who has more skill. In this series, the defending champ Penguins are favored by 145 points to win. Now, that does not mean they’ll win Games 3 and 4 276-131; it means that if you bet one dollar on the Predators winning, and they do, you win $145. Pittsburgh is clearly heavily favored to take this series, which would be their third since 2000 and their fifth total. This year is Nashville’s first appearance in the NHL Finals. Despite the previously presented information, Pittsburgh gave up more goals than Nashville. The Preds also have won a higher percentage of faceoffs than the Pens, which, when combined with the apparent lacking defense of Pittsburgh, does not come out with a Pittsburgh victory. Now, Rinne, after yesterday’s game is 1-9 against the Pens; and his newfound momentum and complete steely-eyed nature in front of the net will almost assuredly carry Music City to their first NHL parade. The Predators have given up very few goals this postseason and are neck and neck with Pittsburgh for goals scored. That combination does not add up for the Pennsylvania side of the coin. The Predators have faced great adversity this season and they have really excelled of late. No team is more deserving of this Stanley Cup victory than the Predators of Nashville, Tennessee. Sidney Crosby and the Penguins of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania have had their fun, but like LeBron James in the NBA with his Cavaliers of Cleveland, Ohio, they will most likely lose on their quest to defend their title. Jesse A. Cook “P.K., Pekka, Preds” June 3, 2017
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