Nashville Predators

The Nashville Predators have suspended forwards Alexander Radulov and Andrei Kostitsyn for Game 3 of their Western Conference semifinals series against the Phoenix Coyotes on Tuesday night for breaking team rules, according to a press release from the team.

Nashville Predators President of Hockey Operations/General Manager David Poile announced today that forwards Alexander Radulov and Andrei Kostitsyn will not play Game 3 of the team’s Western Conference Semifinals series vs. the Phoenix Coyotes as a result of violating team rules.

“The Nashville Predators have a few simple rules centered around doing the right things,” Poile said. “We have always operated with a team-first mentality and philosophy. Violating team rules is not fair to our team and their teammates.”

UPDATE: Tuesday, May 1 at 1:05 p.m. ET by Nicholas Goss

John Shannon of Sportsnet reports that Radulov and Kostitsyn were spotted in Scottsdale (AZ) at 4:00 a.m., which I'm guessing is well past whatever curfew time the Predators enforce.

Radulov and AKostitsyn were spotted in Scottsdale at 4am on the eve of Game 2. Suspended for Game 3 by club.

— John Shannon (@JSportsnet) May 1, 2012

This is a big decision by the Predators, who will now be without two of their best offensive players in a must-win Game 3, because a loss would give the Coyotes a commanding 3-0 series lead.

Although Radulov leads the Predators with six points in seven games during the playoffs, he has been awful in the first two games of the Coyotes series. 

His level of effort is embarrassing, and his play in the defensive zone has been atrocious. He's treated this series like an early regular season stretch of games.

Hopefully this suspension will wake him up and force Radulov to realize that in the playoffs, one mistake or one bad game can ruin your team's season.

As for Kostitsyn, this is not the behavior that the Predators expected when they acquired him from the Montreal Canadiens near the trade deadline to add some offensive depth to their roster.

The actions of Radulov and Kostitsyn might end up costing the Predators in Game 3, and maybe even their chance of winning the Stanley Cup this season.

Follow @NicholasGoss35

Nicholas Goss is an NHL Featured Columnist for Bleacher Report and was also the organization's on-site reporter for the 2011 Stanley Cup Final in Boston.

The world has turned upside down.  Hell has frozen over.  Pigs have flown. What has caused these statements of hyperbole?  The Detroit Red Wings have been eliminated from the Stanley Cup playoffs, in the first round!

There is a saying: “All that is guaranteed in life is death and taxes.”  Well, in the sports world there is:  The Yankees outspending every team every offseason, the Cubs missing out on the World Series and the Detroit Red Wings making it to the second round (minimum) of the Stanley Cup playoffs.

Throughout my adult life the Red Wings have seemingly been a guarantee to get past the first round.  Not this year; not in 2012.

Being a relatively short drive away from Nashville, I was not too aware of how good their team is.  I knew of Shea Weber, Ryan Suter, Pekka Rinne and the Kostitsyn brothers.  Yet, for some reason the combination of the above along with Hal Gill, David Legwand and Mike Fisher being an above average team did not register. 

Now, I see this team being able to perform in these Stanley Cup playoffs the way the Memphis Grizzlies did in the last NBA playoffs.  After vanquishing the “never to be counted out,” perennial Stanley Cup contending, San Antonio Spurs of the NHL, the Nashville Predators have announced themselves as a legitimate 2012 Stanley Cup contender.

Due to my work schedule I was not able to watch the entire Nashville-Detroit first-round series.  However, the games I did see showed how truly talented they are and how much of a threat they now are in the West.

They have top-flight goaltending from Pekka Rinne, whom has two great, young defensemen in front of him in Shea Weber and Ryan Suter.  Then there is the improbable great play of rookie, Gabriel Bourque, whom threw himself a playoff coming-out party by scoring two goals in the Game 1 then going on to out-score, goal-wise, the great Pavel Datsyuk in their first-round series.

The Predators winning the series over the Red Wings should not have been as surprising to me as it was, since Nashville was the No. 4 seed in the West as opposed to Detroit being the No. 5. 

However, Detroit has a stigma, so to speak, that tends to make believe they are always in the top three spots in the West.  Which to a hockey fan, less aficionado, gives even bigger meaning to their dismissal in the first round.

As dominant their performance against Detroit appeared to be, they have an even tougher challenge in their next series against Phoenix.  The Coyotes can offer up a goalie that is playing as well as any other in the playoffs. 

This second round series, although less appealing as a Chicago-Detroit series would have been, will provide hockey fans with an equally entertaining series with excellent goalie play. 

The upcoming series between Nashville and Phoenix has the smell of a seven-game series.  Which, as a hockey fan and a neutral viewer of this series, I hope it will occur.

Before the Chicago-Phoenix series had reached its conclusion, the series already held the interest of the Nashville Predators, as their opponent would be the winner of that series.

With the Los Angeles Kings (No. 8 seed) upset of the Canucks (No. 1 seed) coupling with the St. Louis Blues (No. 2 seed) victory over the San Jose Sharks, the No. 4 seeded Predators would face off against either Chicago or Phoenix in Round 2. All that was left to be determined was who would have home ice.

In the end, the No. 3 seed Coyotes took down the Blackhawks in six games. Against Phoenix this season, the Preds went 2-2-0. Nashville likely would have rather seen the Hawks win the series, as not only would it give the Predators home ice, they were also a near perfect 4-0-1 against Chicago this season.

As it stands, the Predators will open up their second round in the desert, traveling to Phoenix for the first two games against the Pacific Division champs.

In many ways, this will be a team going up against itself. Both teams play a hard-hitting, defense-first style of play. Both have a handful of vets with extensive playoff experience and a great goaltender to pick up the team should the defense slip up.

For Phoenix, goalie Mike Smith finally put it all together this season, living up to his potential as a bona-fide starting NHL goalie. Opposing him will be Pekka Rinne, who has been established as a top-tier goalie for a few seasons now. Both goalies have plus-size to boot.

Beyond that, it'd seem that with both teams assembling their team on the same premises, Nashville did it better. Phoenix's scoring is a little more top heavy, though both teams have only three players with 50 or more points. However, Nashville has four guys with 40-49 points to Phoenix's one.

After the masterful performances he put up against the offensive juggernaut that is Chicago, it'd be hard to bet against Mike Smith. However, Pekka Rinne is equally as capable of stealing a game. Given the rest of the roster construction, I'll have to say Mike Smith doesn't get the Coyotes out of the second round.

My final prediction: Nashville in six games. No less than two games will go to overtime.

The lowest-seeded Los Angeles Kings dislodged the Vancouver Canucks Sunday night, setting up an automatic date with the second-place St. Louis Blues in the Western Conference semifinals.

In turn, the Nashville Predators will have confirmation of their next Stanley Cup playoff adversary by the end of Monday’s Game 6 or Wednesday’s Game 7 between the Phoenix Coyotes and the Chicago Blackhawks.

One of the two possible scenarios will have the Predators facing an ostensibly inferior opponent from a decisively weaker division, but lacking home-ice advantage. The other would constitute another Central Division dogfight a la Nashville’s Western Conference quarterfinal bout with Detroit.

One of the two prospective matchups will be against a team that mirrors Nashville in that it leans on a stingy stopper in Phoenix’s Mike Smith and has had noteworthy success away from home. The other bears a relatively recent championship squad from Chicago that has arguably peaked at the right time this season.

Something else to think about: Nashville was the first team to stamp its passport to the next round, abolishing the Red Wings in Game 5 this past Friday. As a result, their next game will likely come no earlier than this Saturday, amounting to a little more than a week-long interlude.

Should the Coyotes finish off the Blackhawks on Monday, the difference in rest and/or rust between Nashville and Phoenix will be altogether negligible. Otherwise, the Preds could be looking at a new opponent, whether that will be Chicago or Phoenix, that may only be on roughly three days’ rest but also riding a wave of momentum in the wake of a Game 7 triumph.

If the sixth-seeded Blackhawks ultimately advance, they will do so on a three-game winning streak, having scaled a 3-1 pothole in the conference quarterfinals. And they will do so with three playoff road wins already on their tab.

In addition, the Predators owned their season series with Chicago, posting a 4-1-1 record in that matchup over the regular season. But the Hawks took their lone regulation victory in their most recent encounter on March 31, pilfering a 5-4 victory at Bridgestone Arena to clinch their postseason berth with a week remaining in the regular season.

That win spoke to Chicago’s timely turnaround after a turbulent regular season. Their playoff clincher and liberation from Nashville’s stranglehold polished off an 11-2-2 run.

Prior to that hot streak, the Hawks were 34-24-7 on the year and 1-3-0 versus Nashville, their only win being a 5-4 overtime victory in the season-series opener on Halloween. But if Chicago completes its comeback against Phoenix, it will be all the more entitled to its timely restoration of confidence against the Predators and the NHL in general.

Meanwhile, the Preds split their four regular-season tilts with the Coyotes, their last one being a 5-4 shootout win on March 12. So far, that is the teams’ only encounter since the first week of December, meaning there is not much fresh material to size up a prospective playoff matchup.

But for what it’s worth, the road team has prevailed in each Nashville-Phoenix meeting in 2011-12. And the Predators are already one of the primal contributors to this uncanny league-wide trend of road teams getting the bigger piece of the playoff wishbone.

As of Monday morning, visiting teams are 26-16 in the 2012 NHL playoffs. All Nashville has done for that is go 2-0 at Detroit Joe Louis Arena, whose tenant merely owned the league’s best regular-season home record at 31-7-3.

The Coyotes are an identical 2-0 in playoff road games and will try to make it 3-0 in the process of dropping the curtain on the Hawks. They also posted the Western Conference’s third-best regular-season road record at 20-14-7.

Of the teams still standing in the conference, none other than the Predators are the only one with a better road log at 22-16-3.

But the likes of Smith could scrape abundant ice chips over all of that if he can engage Predators counterpart Pekka Rinne in a tight arm-wrestling match. And by the looks of his 2011-12 transcript, he is far more capable of doing that than Chicago’s Corey Crawford.

In addition, the Blackhawks are indefinitely missing their top gun, Marian Hossa, who brooked a vicious hit via Raffi Torres in Game 3 of the quarterfinals.

With that dent in the Hawks' depth, the differing prospects of staring down the Chicago or Phoenix strike force are suddenly less contrary for the likes of Rinne and shutdown defensemen Shea Weber and Ryan Suter.

It is also worth noting that Barry Trotz’s pupils were the Blackhawks’ first victim in their run to the 2010 title. An injection of incentive to turn the tables could not hurt Nashville’s cause.

If one is looking for an opposing party to lend a hand in making Nashville’s road a little more favorable, Chicago is the way to go. The chief deciding factors are their lack of a goalie who would ever be suspected of stealing a series and the Preds’ determination to abolish another divisional rival and historic playoff nemesis.

Regardless, the Predators should be the logical favorite to move on to the third round and could even be considered the team best-equipped to represent the West in the Stanley Cup final.

Brendan Shanahan is a bigger bonehead than Shea Weber. 

Today, the NHL’s Senior Vice President of Player Safety and Hockey Operations reviewed the actions of the Nashville Predators' defenseman against the Detroit Red Wings' forward Henrik Zetterberg during Game 1 of the Western Conference Quarterfinals last night in Nashville.

Shanahan had an opportunity—if not a responsibility—to carefully review this incident and punish Weber severely.  His first disciplinary decision of the playoffs would set a tone for the entire postseason.  The NHL community would be waiting. 

Brendan Shanahan handed down his decision earlier today.  Shea Weber was not suspended at all, and he will be fined $2,500 (the maximum amount allowed under the Collective Bargaining Agreement).  

Now the NHL community is waiting for Shanahan's explanation.    

Shea Weber should have been suspended six games.  That would equal the remainder of the series, if it goes the distance. If Nashville advances before that, the suspension would continue into the next round.  If Nashville is eliminated before that, the suspension would continue into next season.

A suspension of that length would have shown the league that violent acts such as Weber's will not be tolerated, especially in the playoffs.  

Another notorious incident from the playoffs provides context for this incident, and the appropriate level of suspension.

In 1993, during Game 7 of their Eastern Conference Quarterfinal series, Washington Capitals forward Dale Hunter blindsided New York Islanders forward Pierre Turgeon after Turgeon scored the series-winning goal in overtime.  Hunter hit Turgeon high and drove him into the boards after the red light had turned on, the Islanders crowd had begun cheering and Turgeon had raised both arms above his head in celebration.

Hunter received a suspension of 21 games—roughly a quarter of the following season—which at the time was a record for an on-ice incident.  

The end result of Hunter's act was far greater than the end result of Weber's.  Turgeon missed the next series, whereas Zetterberg will play in Game 2.  Consequently, Weber does not deserve a 21-game suspension.

But the intent of the two acts was the same.  Both were malicious acts with the intent to harm, and neither occurred in the flow of the hockey game.  A more significant suspension for Weber would have sent a better message.   

Instead, Brendan Shanahan’s decision sends an entirely different message.  Shanahan seems to be telling the league that this incident is just like the hit by Colorado Avalanche forward Claude Lemieux against Detroit Red Wings forward Kris Draper during the 1996 Western Conference Finals.

Lemieux was only suspended two games, even though Draper suffered multiple fractures to his jaw, cheek, and orbital bone and required reconstructive surgery.  Not surprisingly, the incident ignited a blood feud between the two teams.  Shanahan is seemingly encouraging that same type of retribution once again during the playoffs. 

As a Detroit Red Wing, Brendan Shanahan drew some blood while participating in that bitter rivalry between Detroit and Colorado.  After today's disciplinary decision, he may have a lot more blood on his hands. 

Nashville Predator Shea Weber’s hit on the Detroit Red Wings' Henrik Zetterberg was a chance for the NHL to protect player safety, but the league failed miserably.

A $2,500 fine and a slap on the wrist does not bring the postgame hit to justice. Weber’s actions were reckless. They were uncalled for. They happened when the final buzzer sounded.

The NHL should have borrowed a page out of Roger Goodell’s playbook and dropped the hammer.

Player safety has been a topic of discussion in not only the NHL, but at the apex of the sports world. With new research suggesting that blows to the head can be detrimental to a player’s health after his playing career, it seems obvious the NHL should step in and take necessary action.

It’s not just necessary action. It’s the right thing to do. Gary Bettman and Brendan Shanahan blew one worse than the Pittsburgh Penguins did last night.

Let's take a step back and break down the play. Zetterberg and Weber are tangled in the corner. Shoving occurs and both players know the game is over. Only then does Weber put on his best Mike Tyson imitation and hits Zetterberg in the kisser. Then Weber goes for more, slamming the Red Wing player’s head with full force against the glass.

Did that sound as ridiculous as it did when I wrote it?

The NHL needs to punish hotheads and award consummate professionals like Zetterberg. Instead, they protected the violence of the game rather than the well being of its players.

Also, didn’t Weber’s team win the game last night? Shouldn’t it have been Zetterberg releasing his frustrations on his opponent after a disappointing loss?

That’s why the whole incident seems so screwed up. Only in the NHL can a player slam their opponent's head into glass and play in the next game. In baseball, basketball and soccer, a hit like that would result in an immediate ejection. The NFL has begun to do its part, banning helmet-to-helmet hits and teaching players about concussions.

The NHL will always be highly regarded as a tough league. Fighting, hitting against the glass and players losing teeth are commonplace and accepted in the sport.

The league, however, continues to avoid drawing a line in the sand. Without setting a precedent for its players, soon enough the violence will be impossible to control.