All-Star promise: PK Subban says Preds will win Game 3 vs. Pens

The series now shifts to Nashville for the next two games, starting with Saturday night’s Game 3.

The Nashville Predators will take on the Pittsburgh Penguins tomorrow at Bridgestone Arena.

Up 2-0 in the series, the Pens find themselves in the exact same position as they were during last year’s Final and wound up losing Game 3 in San Jose to let the Sharks back in the series.

Pittsburgh’s 4-1 victory over Nashville in Game 2 of the Stanley Cup playoffs carried by cable’s NBCSN Wednesday had a higher local rating than Game 1 did on a broadcast network Monday night. However, as they prepare to take the ice in front of their fans for the first time in the Stanley Cup Final, the Predators sound more confident than ever.

“There’s no question”, Subban told The Associated Press on Thursday.

As the Nashville Predators continued their improbable quest for the Stanley Cup, the team’s decision to keep printing banners and signs locally provided an added boost of business for a number of local companies.

It’s not much. Unless you’re playing the Pittsburgh Penguins.

“No matter how often we explained it, no matter how we tried to explain it, they couldn’t figure it out”, Crisp said. Ultimately, we have to be realistic with where we’re at.

“But we have to do a better job of not letting them come with the pace that they want to put pucks on our net and have their [defensemen] jump into the play, and when we can do that, that’s going to lean the ice back in our favor and hopefully have a better outcome when we go out for Game 3. So it starts Saturday”.

The fresh-faced, 22-year-old rookie who leads the National Hockey League in playoff goals – a hot streak that has him in the middle of the Conn Smythe Trophy conversation given to the postseason MVP – was once too embarrassed to shoot the puck. The 34-year-old netminder has a.778 save percentage in the Final after posting a.945 mark over the first three series. At 3:13 Phil Kessel sent a shot toward the net from the right wing that glanced off teammate Scott Wilson, then hit the skate of Nashville’s Vern Fiddler and went under Predators goalkeeper Pekka Rinne’s pads for a 3-1 lead. Against the quick-strike Penguins, it’s just.778.

Should the country music superstar and wife of the Predators’ appropriately-named captain, Mike Fisher, get in on the act – she said on Twitter she wouldn’t – it would be the culmination of several years of Music City developing its own unique hockey culture by turning to its cherished local traditions. Or will Saros, whose lone surrendered goal in Game 2 was negated by an offside call, get the call in hopes of sparking new life at the goalie spot?

“This could be the next Titletown that if we hold our end of the bargain and the Preds finish it up man, this could be a really special place for sports”, Lewan said.

Returning home should provide a boost for both Rinne and the Predators. That’s not going to be easy but they do have two games at home and the old adage goes, you are never in trouble until you lose at home. “It’s a fun atmosphere to play”. The Penguins lead the series 2-0. That includes the last three such situations with the Kings winning in 2012 and 2014 and the Penguins a year ago.

There was a legitimate chance of the Penguins being sold during the ’91 Stanley Cup run: the Post-Gazette ran a story above the article celebrating the team’s Game 2 win with the headline, “Pens to stay even if sold”.

Guentzel has 12 goals and 19 points through the playoffs, despite going through a production lull during the seven game series against the Ottawa Senators.