With the series tied 2-2, Game 5 takes the teams back to Pittsburgh on Thursday night, but Game 6 will be back in Nashville, where we'll undoubtedly see more catfish take the ice.
Predators goaltender Pekka Rinne might be having flashbacks after allowing two goals on the first six Penguins shots, falling behind 2-0 early in Game 5 of the Stanley Cup Final.
Schultz, Bryan Rust, Malkin, Conor Sheary, Phil Kessel and Ron Hainsey scored the Pittsburgh goals.
Predators head coach Peter Laviolette saw things rather differently.
Nashville Predators left wing Colin Wilson skates a drill during practice Sunday, June 4, 2017, in Nashville, Tenn.
It is 2-0 Pittsburgh less than seven minutes into Game 5 of the Stanley Cup Final against Nashville.
"The real hockey starts now", Subban said. Pittsburgh put together scoring bursts in both of its previous home games in the Stanley Cup Final.
The Predators are 9-1 at home in the playoffs, a place they will need to be a haven once again if they want to extend their improbable Cup run back to Pittsburgh.
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A mild rookie contributor with eight goals and 16 points in 56 games, Arvidsson came into the year with modest goals. No goal there, but the Penguins would score moments later on the resulting power play.
What the Penguins are saying now sounds an terrible lot like what the Predators were saying after coming up empty in Pittsburgh to start the final. However, the series shifting back to Pittsburgh makes me believe that the Penguins will once again find a way to win.
But Sullivan pointed out that Nashville Predators goalie Pekka Rinne also performed better at home than on the road.
The Penguins unceremoniously ushered the Predators out of Pittsburgh to start with the Final, but Nashville wasn't demoralized by the misleadingly lopsided losses. His effort, though, would get rewarded, as Ellis was penalized, and Justin Schultz made the Predators pay when he ripped a shot from the point past Rinne 1:31 into the game. Pittsburgh had averaged one goal per game in the series to that point. The team that has won Game 5 in a 2-2 series has gone on to win the Cup 71 percent (17 of 24) of the time since 1939. And while no one's taking away the two wins Pittsburgh has in the bank, the underlying numbers provide something of an ominous sign for what's to come in the final two or three games. We were "just trying to move it up to our forwards and play the way we've been playing all year".
Penguins - RW P. Hornqvist (Questionable Thursday, wrist), C N. Bonino (Questionable Thursday, lower body), RW T. Kuhnhackl (Out indefinitely, lower body), D C. Ruhwedel (Out indefinitely, concussion), K. Letang (Out for season, neck).
The third period was quiet from a scoresheet perspective, but the crowd was lively as ever as their team hung on to tie up the series and create a best-of-3 going forward.
"I know that Matt's excited to play tonight", Sullivan said, according to the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette. "Those two first games, that was the one thing we were a little bit disappointed about". "Our focus is really more concerned about just that one game in front of us". Neither looked very good on Thursday, as the two bottom-pair defencemen combined for a minus-5 rating. Whether being back at PPG Paints Arena can help them overcome fatigue and injuries and all the other obstacles before them is impossible to predict, although they surely will be glad to be there.
Out of curiosity, I looked at all games during the regular season in which (a) a team was decisively out-shot at 5-on-5, with less than 47 per cent of shots in their favour; and (b) in those games, how frequently the team managed to out-score their opposition.
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