Blues, Predators get down, dirty
The best part? There’s at least one more game of this.
And when the hostility and tension in a playoff series get to the point that the emotion can’t be contained, that’s when you better not miss a second of it. That’s where we are in this NHL Western Conference semifinal, led 3-1 by the Nashville Predators after a 2-1 win against the St. Louis Blues on Tuesday that removed all remaining filters.
The Bridgestone Arena crowd has been unfiltered all along. And unmatched. Which helps explain eight consecutive home playoff victories for the Predators, dating to last season, and has helped get them to within a win of their first-ever conference final. Friday at St. Louis will see the first of three possible cracks at it.
But everyone else is acting out, the players and the coaches, and the third-period sights alone told that story. The Predators’ Ryan Ellis punching the boards behind Jake Allen after beating him for the first goal of the game, on the power play.
Nashville coach Peter Laviolette greeting that goal with a doubled-up fist pump that was so hilariously extreme for him, it would have made noted Preds fan Rex Ryan proud. Ellis with an NFL-level tackle of James Neal, who somehow got a shot from near the blue line to flutter past Allen for a 2-0 lead.
“I think I got a little too excited there, I don’t think he expected me to jump on him,” said Ellis, whose latest spectacular performance included a diving play in front of Predators goalie Pekka Rinne to keep the Blues from scoring first in the second period.
“I didn’t see that,” said Predators forward Austin Watson, whose game-high eight hits included the biggest one of the series, on Magnus Paajarvi. “Well, I saw them laying on the ground afterward. I think we were all doing our own celebrations on the bench.”
The hits, the extra shoving, the cross-checks and the foul words flying together all were maxed out. So was the noise in the arena after the Predators survived another late Blues bid to tie and swarmed Rinne to congratulate him on another work of art.
And then we had the words of St. Louis coach Mike Yeo. He came to the podium and immediately started in on a third-period call that created the power play that saw the Ellis goal. It was as much an all-out brawl as you will see in the playoffs, but officials sent one Predator (Cody McLeod) to the box and two Blues (Ryan Reaves and Joel Edmundson), apparently because Reaves joined in late. So there was Yeo, discussing Nashville’s lobbying.
“Every stoppage they’re yelling at the refs, they’re talking to the refs, and obviously it worked there,” he said. “It’s worked all series, let’s be honest. (There’s been) one game where we’ve had more power plays than them.” Here’s more Yeo. “The way the game was going, it was a rough game. And if you want to send a message like that, that it’s going to be one guy, I think there were many opportunities in the game,” he said of that penalty. “I don’t know why that was all the sudden chosen. I’m not sure.
“But I’m not going to make excuses. Like I said, we could have killed the power play, and we didn’t. But that’s a tough one to swallow.”
The Predators had the beef after their Game 2 loss, when they had no power plays and the Blues had a man advantage for 11 minutes. They were not nearly as outspoken then as Yeo was Tuesday. But that’s what playoff news conferences are for — to work offi- cials for the next game.
And Yeo might have a point. Officials followed that sequence by calling Edmundson for roughing on a high hit on P.K. Subban — and calling Subban for embellishing after he went down covering his head and face. Subban did such a great job of embellishing, he was taken to the locker room for observation before returning.
Weird stuff, but officials can’t ruin what we have cooking. Yeo said before Game 4 that his players had discovered their hatred for the Preds, and it’s safe to say the teams have arrived at a mutual understanding in that regard.
“Yeah, it’s a war out there,” Neal said. “Best time of year.”
And the rough stuff shouldn’t detract from everything else: the world outside of Nashville discovering Ellis as a star, the goaltenders doing ridiculous things, Neal finally getting one to go after Allen and the crossbar robbed him earlier, and perhaps the greatest scoreless series in Predators history — Viktor Arvidsson ripped off 10 shots Tuesday, got six on goal, got two prime looks on insane Ryan Johansen passes, but couldn’t get one past Allen.
Also, Nashville’s opportunity to make history shouldn’t cloud the fact that St. Louis did a lot of good things Tuesday and gave itself a chance. And the Blues won’t succumb easily.
“It’s playoff hockey,” Laviolette said, and it’s hard to beat. And there might be a lot more of it to come in Nashville.