Game 2 Of The Nashville vs Winnipeg Series Was A Goddamn Masterpiece Of Playoff Hockey
I know the rest of the world probably gets sick and tired of hockey fans around this time of the year. I mean if you follow Hockey Dave, you’re probably exhausted from hearing about how great playoff hockey is and this and that, yada yada yada. Now sure, hockey fans like Hockey Dave can be pretty in your face about how great this sport is, but the one thing you can never take away from them is the fact that they’re right. The Stanley Cup Playoffs are the best playoffs in all of sports, and last night’s game 2 between the Preds and the Jets had absolutely everything needed to prove that.
We had a h*ck ton of goals, highlighted by the beautician himself Ryan Johansen stuffing this one top bunk on Hellebuyck.
This little move right here from RyJo to get around Toby Enstrom was pure filth.
And then the fact that he was able to roof it on Hellebuyck from that spot, a goddamn Vezina finalist. There aren’t many pick ups better than Ryan Johansen to Nashville over the last 5 years or so.
The game also got plenty physical and chippy. Exactly what you’re looking to see in the Stanley Cup Playoffs. Considering these two teams will most likely take each other to 7 games, it’s great to see them already hate each others’ guts just 2 games into the series. You had PK doing Villain PK things.
Which eventually led to Dustin Byfuglien proving to everybody that he’s still the best bouncer in the league.
Just manhandling Austin Watson and Roman Josi. I fucking love Big Buff. Such a bully at all times. Surprised he didn’t start making Roman Josi hit himself while pinning down Austin Watson threatening to hock a loogie on his face.
We eventually had the Jets pulling Connor Hellebuyck in the final moments of regulation and it was Mark Scheifele with the goal to send this bitch into overtime with just a minute left on the clock.
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Lost in all that madness was Paul Statsny proving why the Jets picked up the veteran at the Trade Deadline in the first place. Just look at this awareness here.
He takes out the ref who he then uses as a pick to get that loose puck on the boards and keep PK Subban just far enough away that he can keep the play going. The puck then goes from Stastny to Wheeler to Byfuglien, back to Wheeler, over to Scheifele and it’s in the back of the net. Without Stastny taking out the ref there, Subban is probably able to tie him up along the boards and kill out the rest of the clock.
So then the game goes to overtime. One overtime period isn’t enough to come up with a winner for this game. So then it heads to double overtime and in the 2nd overtime period, it’s Kevin Fiala tying this series up at 1-1.
A lot of people forget that if Kevin Fiala didn’t get injured in the playoffs last year, there’s a good chance the Predators could be your defending Stanley Cup Champions this year. He’s only 21 playing in his first full NHL season. But he rounds out that Nashville top 6 nicely, had a couple of big time playoff goals last year before getting hurt and then obviously had the biggest goal in Nashville’s postseason so far this year.
But yeah. This game had it all. It had 9 goals. It got nice and chippy. It had a game-tying goal with just about a minute left in regulation. It had a double overtime game winner. And then, of course, it had the Tennessee Titans O-Line putting on a show as well.
Playoff hockey, baby. Playoff hockey.