Nashville scars

Back in the days of Nashville-San Jose annual playoff series (at least seasons in a row, in 2006 and 2007), I joked to my then roommate that Predators Coach Barry Trotz reminded me of Igor, Dr. Frankenstein's faithful assistant (not that I would pass for handsome either, but that's another story for another day!) and played brilliantly by Marty Feldman in "Young Frankenstein". Here, you decide for yourself if you can picture Trotz reading Igor for Mel Brooks :)

Just kidding, Coach. And let me say this about Barry Trotz: He may be the best coach in the NHL, and kudos to the Predators for recognizing that season after season. In this era of teams changing coaches faster than Taylor Swift jettisons boyfriends, Trotz is the only bench boss in the 14-year history of the organization. His teams have now made the playoffs six of the last seven seasons, despite not having much offensive firepower to work with. Nashville wins games by playing it conservatively and in recent seasons relying on its outstanding defense and goalie Pekka Rinne. The Predators aren't as loaded on the blueline with Ryan Suter now making obscene money to skate in his home state of Minnesota. But the Predators remain a difficult team to adjust to, and they ended the Sharks' season-opening streak of seven consecutive victories. San Jose, playing its third consecutive shootout, went 0-for-Rinne in three rounds and lost 2-1 on Saturday. Trotz and Co. simply dictated how the game was going to be played...

...And the Sharks never seemed to get in a comfort zone. A scoreless tie after two periods, and little end-to-end action was exactly how Nashville could script it against a San Jose team that's scored a lot of goals in the first seven games. And then in a tie game in typical Nashville fashion, the low-scoring Predators couldn't get the overtime goal despite essentially finishing the five-minute period on a four-on-three power play. That's tolerable when you have Rinne protecting your net during a shootout, and two days before Nashville won a low-scoring 2-1 shootout, which lasted eight rounds, at Los Angeles. Sure enough, Michal Handzus, Ryane Clowe and Joe Pavelski were all stymied in the shootout by Rinne, and his Finnish counterpart Antti Niemi got outfoxed by Craig Smith for the only successful attempt in the three rounds. Which brings us to the Sharks' most influential player for the game  -both good and bad-...

...And that was Marty Havlat. First things first, let's all hope Havlat stays healthy, because when the Czech is 100 percent, he's a dangerous weapon who's been buzzing around the ice and creating scoring chances. Havlat has been moved around on different lines and usually been an effective player on the offensive end regardless of who he skates with. But he would love to have back one moment midway through the second period. Clowe got a rare puck past Rinne toward the far post that looked destined to tuck itself across the line. Only it hit the post and trickled back into the crease with nothing but blue between puck and goal line. Havlat had sneaked in behind Rinne, but rather than tap the puck back in raised his arms in apparent celebration of a Clowe goal that wasn't across. By the time Havlat realized his premature reaction, Rinne figured out where the puck was. It was an unfortunate moment and a costly mistake by a veteran player. But everything happens so quickly in this game, it's a forgivable offense. And in true redemption form...

...Havlat salvaged the Sharks a point in the third period with the game-tying goal. On a power play the Sharks had been struggling to convert on recently, Scott Gomez fed the puck to Havlat, who controlled it off his skate and then beat Rinne with a backhand to tie the game with 6:21 left in regulation. It was promising both for Havlat's psyche and the second power play unit that included Justin Braun and Clowe to take some pressure off the first PP group that's done the bulk of the damage for San Jose with the man advantage. The Sharks got a beautiful kick save from Niemi off David Legwand in the overtime period, and then the resurgent penalty kick made it 21 consecutive penalties killed to send the game to a shootout where Nashville survived. So news flash...

...San Jose will be not be going 48-0, and don't feel too morose about it. But keep an eye on this team in the next couple weeks, with a difficult back-to-back assignment at surging Anaheim Monday and then hosting league-leading Chicago Tuesday. The Sharks are right at the Blackhawks' (16 points) bumper with 15 points of their own. And the teams will meet three times over a 17-day span beginning with Tuesday's showdown at HP Pavilion. But on to Orange County first.