Hockey Thoughts: The Slide

After a surprisingly strong start to the season the Preds have begun their obligatory slide.  Last season it lasted through the entire month of November but didn't end in earnest until after the Olympic Break.  I have hope they can turn the ship around faster this year, but not much faith.

After all, this team is actually a good team.  There aren't any glaring deficiencies like there were last season and they've deserved to win the games they've won (and even some that they've lost) while last season their early string of wins looked more like luck.  There have been some injuries to key players, but they did not affect the ability of the team to win in the games immediately following those injuries, so I'm reluctant to say that missing those players is the key.  Possibly in combination, at this point, it could be a factor but I don't think that is the reason.

Due to a previous commitment I missed the game at Detroit last night but from the highlights I saw and the final score it's clear I didn't miss much.  The Preds never had a chance and it isn't surprising.  Every Detroit game is difficult and even though the Preds posses what it takes to beat Detroit (even in bad years for the Preds) somehow each game is like a new season in and of itself.  Sometimes the Preds just really have their number and frustrate the Detroit offense enough to give their goalie the opportunity to win.  It is always a shooting gallery, though, and last night Rinne disappointed.  Goals against Detroit are always messy and dirty, and we didn't get enough of those to overcome the five scored by the Wings.  It is always clear by the end of the first period how Detroit games are going to fall.  It will be a Preds blow out, a Detroit blow out or a close, tough game to the end.  Enter last night into the Detroit blow out column.

At the St. Louis game on Thursday night the Preds came out very strong, but so did the Blues.  The shots on goal remained fairly even, or slightly favoring the Blues, but the Preds had better scoring chances.  Halak kept the Blues in the game and by midway in the second period it looked like the game could go into OT as a 0-0 contest.  We kept wondering when the Preds would wakeup and see that slapshots weren't going to fool Halak and unfortunately they didn't come to that realization until after the Blues had scored two very flukey goals.  Halak held off the Preds and the game ended 3-0 in favor of the Blues.  The entire Preds team seemed discombobulated and out of energy in the third and didn't really have a chance to come back with that attitude.  It was just another game, of what is sure to be many, where the officials weren't on our side.  Despite that the Preds should have done better in that contest than they did.

What is upsetting to see is that the Preds played well--moving the puck, completing passes, getting shots--and still lost miserably.  They were not able to get many offensive rushes together, which was a hallmark problem last season (and pretty much every season prior).  The ability to carry the puck into the offensive zone was one of the noticeable improvements in this year's performance to date.  When the Preds play hard and still can't pull out a win the entire mood of the team disintegrates and leads to a prolonged slide that becomes difficult to overcome in the late season playoff-push. 

I have no clue what has led to this state of play by the Preds.  I want to blame Trotz, of course, and I'm sure some of it has to do with his sub-par coaching.  On the other hand, the team comes out strong at the beginning of every game, which is something that can't be said about previous seasons.  For whatever reason, though, the team still hasn't gotten the memo that a hockey game is 60 minutes, and you have to be present and play every last second.  I'm also worried by Rinne's performance.  Not that it has been bad in any identifiable way, but with the Preds' goalie curse I'm already wondering if Lindback won't end up being the starter by the time the calendar rolls around to 2011.

It sounds stupid to say, but the losses come down to an inability to keep the other team from scoring and the Preds inability to score.  That sounds like a totally "duh!" statement, but there isn't much more going on down on the ice to describe the problems in the last several contests.  The defense is not as successful as it needs to be in clearing the puck from the defensive zone and Rinne is giving up too many rebounds that his D-Men aren't helping get rid of.  When the Preds do manage to clear it is after a long spell in the defensive zone, so a line change is due and the offensive rush is lacking.  When they can get set up in the offensive zone they aren't getting past the goalies.  The goalies they have faced are excellent goalies, no doubt, but there have been too many missed opportunities, as well, and too many rebounds that go to no one.  Halak was a rebound machine on Thursday but the vast majority went unattended.

Most of the November games are on the road.  The Preds had an excellent road record last year, and are doing well on the road so far this year, so let's hope that they can keep that going and bring home some points because this year is shaping up to be an exceptionally tough one in the Western Conference, and the Central Division in particular, and a bad November might be all it takes to keep the Preds out of the playoffs this year.  There may be no room to come back in March like usual. 

The next game is against Phoenix on Tuesday night, which I'll be able to watch in Vegas since it is carried locally (and in the sports book in the casino, as I learned last year!) and I'll even get to watch it in my time zone rather than staying up all night like I'd have to do at home.  Phoenix is struggling a bit this year, so with any luck and a strong effort by the Preds they should be able to turn this road trip around and beat the Coyotes relatively easily.  The MUST win that game to salvage any hope of a successful road trip because the game following Phoenix is LA on Saturday and LA is playing beyond even the high expectations everyone head of them entering the season.  Next up would be the Ducks who are also struggling, even more so than Phoenix, and might be the worst team on the ice this year.  Finally, they head into St. Louis, which again, should be a win for the Preds but it won't be an easy win.  They come back home on November 13th to face Chicago, which should be another barn burner.