Otta-wha? The Power Play! Otta-who? Shea "Friggin'" Weber & Ryan "Shooter" Suter!

Readership,

Done catching your breath?  Your heart rate back down to a healthy level yet?  I didn't think so!!!

The Preds have broken the losing streak, the Power Play came to life, the D is big once again - the Preds defeated the Ottawa Senators 6-5 in OT.  What seemed certain at the end of the 1st (thanks to Picard and his immaculate positioning) was shot to hell in the 3rd when the Senators scored just as many as the Preds had and then some: 3-3 at the middle of the 3rd.  It then became a battle for the final goal, and it seemed as if the Preds buried that hatchet when Suter scored the Preds' 5th goal, 5-on-3 with one minute left to go in regulation.  2 seconds to go (though NHL.com's online score counter ended with the Preds winning in regulation - had me cheering due to lag time between the counter and the radio broadcast) and the Senators tie it up short-handed.

How? HOW?!

Enter Shea Weber and Ryan Suter.  They showed up earlier in the game and stepped up, showing by example what all of the Preds need to keep doing with every other game this season: play the full game, play 60 minutes and more if you have to, do whatever you need to do and do it well.  My hat is off to you, #'s 20 and 6.  Thank you, kindly.

A tweet I made during the game: "Ham-who?".  I rather enjoy the way we've been playing since Hamhuis has been sidelined.  What kind of deals are we trying to make again?  Do it, #2 it!  The D has got a rug to tie the room together, and that rug is Cody Franson (a bad analogy, I know, but Franson got his first point in the last close game and his first goal in tonight's nail-biter)!  Perhaps I was wrong in assuming that "the depth of young D" we've heard about all these years was a crock at the beginning of the season when nothing was coming together (cos seriously, for all the years we've heard about that tasty Kool-Aid, we haven't seen it until recently).  All we had to do was send down and bring up and bench.  I still have a strange feeling that Laakso will become something great (similar to the feeling of great defensive loss I get when seeing our old pair of Z's in Minnesota)...but not just yet.  Perhaps we'll see him later this season or at least at the beginning next pre-season.

We've got a few rumors going on for more O, and I still think we need it.  Tonight was a game that HAD to be won, and the remainder of the season can't always be this great.  We are still in need of O and however we can get it, I hope we do.  Despite that, the team is finally stepping up and playing as a team.

*heart rate is back to normal; sighs of relief*

Finally.

Cheers.