Good timing, Pete

I was encouraged over the weekend not only by Peter Forsberg's excellent play and game-winning goal against Detroit, but also by reading the following further explanation in The Tennessean about his decision to decline Coach Trotz's request that he participate in the shootout at the end of Thursday night's game with Montreal:

Forsberg explained Friday why he told Trotz he'd prefer not to be one of the top three shootout participants in Thursday's game against Montreal. Forsberg wound up shooting fourth and slipped to the ice before getting off a quality attempt. "To be honest, I don't think I'm the best goal-scorer in the league," Forsberg said. "If you look at the statistics, I've got more (assists) than goals. I think this team has a lot of breakaway guys."

I was admittedly being a little hard on Forsberg, but I suppose that's because of the level of expectations that superstars tend to generate. As I mentioned on Friday, we're all human, even athletes and other people who excel at a high level of performance, but one thing that distinguishes superstars is that they tend to outperform the rest of the field sooner or later and on a regular basis. Two things that distinguish great athletes from great leaders is the ability to acknowledge one's strengths and weaknesses and the ability to see how one's skills can best align with the rest of the team's talents.

Forsberg broke out of what might be considered a mini-slump and recorded his first two points as a Predator as Nashville downed the Red Wings 4-3 in overtime in front of a sellout crowd. Keep in mind that this is the second consecutive week that Forsberg has downed the Red Wings by scoring the clinching goal:

In his final appearance with the Philadelphia Flyers last week, Peter Forsberg scored the game-winning goal in a victory over the Detroit Red Wings. It might not have been a showdown game — the Flyers long had fallen out of playoff contention — but it did provide yet another example of Forsberg sticking it to the best team of the last decade.

Keep in mind that this appeared in an article that ran in Saturday's paper, prior to that night's heroics by Forsberg. I'm not expecting that Forsberg--or any other Pred--will score every game, but I'm glad to see him begin to contribute. I imagine that we'll see a lot more assists, goals and, hopefully, wins in the near future, thanks to Forsberg and the rest of the Preds.

Wings shut Preds down, out

The Red Wings were the better team on the ice last night in Detroit, period. They defeated the Preds 3-0 and effectively answered the bell in this first matchup of the young 2006-07 season.

Detroit came out flying in the first period while Nashville looked a half-step behind. The Wings carried the play for much of the period, and the Preds took too many penalties. Robert Lang tallied on the power play to give Detroit the only score it would need. Nashville gave up an unnerving 20 shots in the opening frame, too. The Wings also heavily outperformed the Preds in winning faceoffs, which never helps.

Niklas Lidstrom added a score early in the third that gave the Wings an extra cushion. Though the Preds never tallied, they did sustain increased pressure during the period before allowing an empty-net goal late.

Here are a few isolated observations I had during the game, too:

• Martin Erat continues to play extremely well. He is as physical as ever, and his stickhandling is spectacular at times.
• Josef Vasicek had his first ice time in a few weeks returning from injury. I didn't notice him in the first period, but he was aggressive in the second. It's good to see him healthy again.
• Henrik Zetterberg is blazing fast. He blazed past Paul Kariya in one stretch, and that's a tough thing to do.
  

The Preds finally return home tonight with a chance to bounce back against the Colorado Avalanche. Nashville's overall and road winning streaks had to end eventually, and here's hoping that the team can get back on the right track quickly after this setback in Detroit.

Preds, Wings say hello

The Preds (9-3-1) and Red Wings (10-4-1) meet up at Joe Louis Arena tonight for what promises to be a great early-season matchup. Both teams are red hot and among the heavyweights in the NHL's Western Conference, but for maybe the first time, they are truly equals. Statswise, they look awfully balanced, and their rosters are much more comparable than at anytime in the pre-salary cap era. Tonight should be the first in what will likely be eight exhilarating games that will help decide the Central Division.

I'm wondering how the Preds will come out after a long six-day break. They were playing extremely well through Saturday's road win in Minnesota, and I hope the time off will not change their momentum. The Wings have arguably the two purest scorers who will take the ice tonight in Henrik Zetterberg and Pavel Datsyuk, but the Preds are a balanced offensive force these days playing a much more physical game. This is another measuring-stick game for the young Preds, even though the players will likely deny that. Go Preds!!