Braden Holtby was one of many NHL goaltenders who expressed excitement about Pekka Rinne’s goalie goal. The Predators’ netminder became the 12th goalie all-time to score and the first in six years.
While speaking to reporters after practice Friday, Holtby spoke about his own quest to score in an NHL game and revealed he had given up trying to do so.
By Ian Oland 3 years ago
Nashville Predators goaltender Pekka Rinne scored in Smashville’s 5-2 win over the Chicago Blackhawks, Thursday.
After corraling a dump-in with his pad, Rinne shot the puck from behind his net towards Chicago’s empty twine. After several fortunate bounces, the puck slid into the net, sending the Predators into a jubilant celebration that included lots of laughing.
By Ian Oland 3 years ago
Pekka Rinne had a rough start to the Stanley Cup Final, stopping only .777 percent of shots throughout the first two games. But since returning home, Rinne is a new man. Riding an electric Predators’ home crowd, Rinne has put up a .961 save percentage and has been practically impenetrable.
During Monday’s Game Four, Rinne made a series of incredible saves that left broadcasters from his home country of Finland screaming into the microphone.
By Cara Bahniuk 6 years ago
PITTSBURGH — The Pittsburgh Penguins won the opening game of the Stanley Cup Final on Monday with a dominating performance over the Nashville Predators. They controlled play almost the whole night, going up 3-0 before the first period was over. The Predators managed a power play goal midway through the second frame, but that was all they got. It’s clear Pittsburgh is heading for a quick series win after finishing off Nashville 5-3 in Game One.
“We got a favorable result tonight,” Penguins head coach Mike Sullivan said after the game.
But there is one small problem: the first paragraph is a lie, save for the score.
By Chris Gordon 6 years ago
Photo credit: Jonathan Kozub
Braden Holtby‘s 35-stop afternoon in Manitoba puts him in a three-way tie in shutouts (3) alongside Nashville’s Pekka Rinne and Phoenix’s Mike Smith.
I guess the first thing I should say is that shutouts, while awesome, are kind of a silly way to evaluate a goalie. Goalies don’t control the number of shots they face, just the percentage of that number they stop. That in mind, I thought we’d do a quick comparison of how these guys came to be the league’s shutout leaders.
By Peter Hassett 10 years ago
(Photo credit: John Russell)
The Washington Capitals began their circuit of North America with a stop in Nashville with their Predators. With Mike Green still ailing and a shooting drought in their immediate past, the Caps had something to prove.
After more than 55 minutes of play, Troy Brouwer finally beat Pekka Rinne using a defender for a screen. Like 0.874325 seconds later, Shea Weber fed Martin Erat east-west to tie it back up. With 24 seconds left, Colin Wilson beat a stickless John Erskine and a sucked-out Vokoun to make it 2-1. Backstrom lost a faceoff to give Weber an empty netter 5 seconds later. Preds beat Caps 3-1.
By Peter Hassett 11 years ago
Anze Kopitar celebrates a goal last year against the Blackhawks. (Photo credit: Harry How)
Editor’s note: You can win a 1-year subscription to ESPN Insider and a $25 gift certificate to Front Page VA by guessing Neil’s first two draft picks tonight. Check out the details on our Facebook page.
As part of ESPN.com’s NHL family, I was invited to participate in their fantasy hockey draft this past Tuesday. Just me and guys like Craig Custance, John Buccigross, and Scott Cullen.
No pressure.
Victoria Matiash has already given a bird’s eye view of the draft, but I thought I would run through my thought process on various picks and give you some ideas for your fantasy draft. Plus, you can see how I do for the season because we are making the results public.
Here were the ground rules for the draft:
Participants included, in original order, Craig Custance, Tristan Cockcroft, Tim Kavanagh, John Buccigross, Pierre Becquey, Michael Hume, Victoria Matiash, Neil Greenberg, Sean Allen and Scott Cullen. Categories include goals, assists, power-play points, plus/minus, penalty minutes, shots on goal and average time on ice for skaters and wins, save percentage and goals-against average for goaltenders. Slots to fill include nine forwards, five defensemen, one “utility” skater, two goaltenders and a five-man bench.
My philosophy was simple: grab young, healthy, talented players with upside. Let others worry if Patrick Kane would be healthy or if Sergei Kostitsyn can once again score 20 goals on less than 100 shots.
I had the eight pick. With my editor Mike Hume drafting before me (he knows which players I fancy) and Cullen having back-to-back picks behind me I knew I had to make strategic decisions.
By 11 years ago
