NASHVILLE, Tenn. — This was Saturday Hockey Night in Nashville.
Within a few steps of Bridgestone Arena, fans in Predators jerseys wandered around jammed Broadway both before and after Nashville’s hard-earned 4-2 victory over the Avalanche, sampling the famous barbecue food and the mostly waiting-to-be-discovered musicians in the honky tonks.
Entrepreneurs with “I NEED TICKETS” signs made their pitches within a few steps of both Legends Corner and the Elvis statue and the live Elvis impersonator on the sidewalk.
An “American Idol” finalist, Josh Gracin, sang the national anthem, and the husband of “American Idol” winner Carrie Underwood, Mike Fisher, played his 14th game for the Predators since his trade from Ottawa allowed him to join Underwood in Nashville.
And an announced sellout crowd (17,113) got to see Nashville deal the Avalanche — which deserved credit for not folding after falling down 2-0 and for ultimately outshooting the usually close-to-the-vest Predators 38-29 — its 18th loss in 19 games. The Avalanche got goals from Ryan O’Reilly, who seems to be awakening offensively of late, and Daniel Winnik in the loss. It took Martin Erat’s empty-netter with two seconds left for the Predators to get the margin to two goals, and this was one of the Avalanche’s best games during the slide.
“We played a great game,” captain Adam Foote said. “It was our game. We keep playing like that, and it was the same against San Jose in San Jose, the little mistakes end up in the back of our net. We have to keep building on this. We played a really good hockey game.”
Said center Matt Duchene, who had four of the Avs’ shots on Pekka Rinne: “You look at our effort tonight and we did make some mistakes, yes, but at the same time we played a hell of a game. We put a lot of pucks on a great goal-tender. Couple of bounces here and there, we tie it up or win the game.”
Avalanche coach Joe Sacco termed it “one of the better efforts we’ve had in a long time.” He did note that giveaways — one by Kevin Porter and the other by Jay McClement — led to two Nashville goals, and that the other key point was when Colorado didn’t capitalize on a 43-second, 5-on-3 advantage in the second period.
Among the Predators’ faithful, nobody seemed to mind that with Paul Stastny (back) and Milan Hejduk (shoulder) joining the list of Colorado players out after suffering injuries against Anaheim on Friday, the Avalanche roster even more closely resembled the Lake Erie Monsters than before.
The Predators got power-play goals from Shea Weber and Matt Halischuk in the first period against Avalanche goalie Peter Budaj, and won their second straight at the opening of a five-game homestand. And it meant the Avalanche still has won only once since Jan. 25.
