***I'd like to go ahead and say that, regardless of what happens in the game, if you are a Preds fan and wish to vent your frustration please, PLEASE, keep it in this thread or somewhere on the Predators forum. I don't care if Perry pulls someone's pants down, and we get called for it. Keep it here. For visiting Ducks fans consider this your one and only warning. You are guests, and are expected to act as such. If you think what you are going to post would not be taken kindly if posted by a Preds fan on your board DO NOT POST IT. If you think what you are going to post is going to be in violation of the rules DO NOT POST IT (and check the rules so you know for sure in the future). If you read something on these boards to which you take offense, report it, but keep in mind that greater leeway is extended to fans posting in their own team's forums. Just because something could be considered trolling/flaming/offensive if it were posted outside of this forum does not mean it is trolling/flaming/offensive inside this forum. Still, we would rather you report it and the post be deemed acceptable by a mod than you respond negatively or at all. There have been some heated matches between these two clubs since April. I'm sure there will be enough trouble on the ice.There is absolutely NO need in stirring up trouble around here tonight.***
Moving right along...
I hope to see a more disciplined hockey club tonight. The Ducks have guys who will get under your skin, and perhaps the most frustrating part about that is the best Duck at agitating is one of the best Ducks at making you pay when they get a man advantage. Ignoring stupid crap and picking battles will be key.
Rinne gets the start tonight. He hasn't given us a reason to worry so far this season (hang on... I need to go knock on wood). Our forward corps will be particularly thin, so playing a fundamentally small game is going to be our best bet. And have I mentioned that they have to stay out of the box yet?
Anaheim hasn't quite found their groove yet. The team is underachieving right now. Let's not let them use us as a road map to finding whatever it is they have been missing. Hiller's stats are not very good right now, but the one time we have played Anaheim this year I was at a Halloween party and unable to watch so I have not seen them outside of highlights. I don't know if that's because of poor play on his part or just bad defense. Maybe both. Either way, we have to contain their already struggling offense, and exploit any weakness they give. Let's bring back a 3-1 record from this road trip!
Coach Barry Trotz said forward Sergei Kostitsyn (lower body) would be in tonight against the Ducks. This is important for Nashville because David Legwand (upper body) will be out.
Thank Jebus. Really need Sk to get on a bit of a roll here.
Anybody have lines from practice? I assume Smith gets to center one of the top 2 lines with Legs out.
What exactly happened to Leggy? Pete and Terry replayed the last contact last night and it wasn't really clear, at least to me and I think to them too. Upper body is exactly that... what is injured and how?
i would guess smith centers horn and wilson, fisher centers sk and erat, smithson centers tootoo and halischuck and geoffrion centers mcgratton and bergfors with erat or wilson taking every other shift from mcgratton during long ES stretches.
Thank Jebus. Really need Sk to get on a bit of a roll here.
Anybody have lines from practice? I assume Smith gets to center one of the top 2 lines with Legs out.
Not a good thing to have SK in tonight. I'd rather let him heal more instead of letting the ducks target him for injury all night long. Yes the ducks will do this: Its who they are.
I actually have money bet on this (that I hope to lose). I just hope McG doesn't have the same hangup as Belak did about bashing in non-heavyweight heads.
Even though they're not in our division, the Ducks are certainly making a bid to become our most hated rival.
After this past playoff run, they've defiantly become my most hated team in the west. Detroit is still there as direct competition, but they don't make my blood boil like the Ducks do.
"We keep talking about all this stuff and changing rules and head shots and all that kind of stuff," Getzlaf said. "That's not the stuff that's hurting our game. It's the lack of respect on the ice. I'm tired of watching Jordin Tootoo out there, a guy who runs around and hits and does everything else but the first little slash, he's laying on the ice and he's out the next shift.
Quote:
"When you have their top guys off their game, mentally, they're frustrated and bad things tend to happen when you're frustrated like that," Tootoo said. "For me personally I know I'm doing my job, and I'm definitely going to bring that tonight."
Quote:
"They have some guys who aren't exactly lilywhite, some of their tough guys," Trotz said. "You watch them behind the play when the ref's not looking, they do a lot of (stuff). That's just whining to me. Go on the ice, play and if you have a problem with someone, take care of it. Don't go through the paper. That's all."
All this trash talk in the paper is hilarious! Toots is obviously in their head already...and he definitely does dive from time to time, but so do they. At least he doesn't spear people in the crotch! I'd probably hate Toots if he wasn't on my team though.
I hope things don't get too nasty tonight. I didn't like what their coach said about going after our better players. Toots doesn't "target" anyone. He targets EVERYONE. You are going to get hit, and you're going to get hit hard, but I think he's honestly gotten a lot better about cutting down on the late hits and high hits and things like that. I don't think a coach should ever be telling his team to "go after" our better players. If that means playing them hard, fine. If that means spear them, stomp on them with your skate, slash them like crazy, etc then I'm not down with that at all.
Quote:
"From my standpoint, it's not a question of ignoring the individual," Carlyle said. "You recognize what he's doing and then you combat that by doing the same things against their players. If David Legwand or Shea Weber or any of those players that are targeted, as Tootoo does target some of our players, then that should be the response.
"Go after their better players. Don't go after Jordin Tootoo. If you go after him, in a lot of situations, he's not going to respond the way (you) want. When he responds, he knows what he's doing. He's done this a long time and he's an effective player doing so."
Ducks, y'all don't wanna go after Shea Shea. He will crush you!
i find the disclaimer in this thread quite hilarious considering how before the playoff series last year everyone was talking about how there was really no history between these teams and there was no previous ill-will or hatred going into the series... and now we have a 10 line bolded disclaimer in an early season gdt. funny, no?
