Morning Player Notes in the Playoffs (May 13)

I don't know about you, but I thought that was an anti-climactic Game 7.  Sure, it's great for the San Jose Sharks and their fans and such, but there was no drama, no intrigue, just one team rolling over for another in a fairly important game.

The Nashville Predators were merely shells of their former selves in this game, as they could only muster eight shots on goal through the first two periods of the game, while their superior opponents were not only putting a barrage of shots on Pekka Rinne, they had managed to pot three goals past him as well.

By the 4-minute mark of the 3rd period, the Sharks had found another pair of goals and that was it.  There was no coming back and their fate for the Summer was all but sealed.

It was the same cast of characters doing all the damage for the Sharks in this one as well, as Logan Couture finished with a 3-point game, while Joe Pavelski, Patrick Marleau, Joe Thornton and Marc-Edouard Vlasic were all 2-point players in the 5-0 win.  Martin Jones made 20 stops in total, earning 4 points for the shutout, but you really didn't see him very much, especially in the first 40 minutes.

The Predators could have really been pool spoilers this year, one win short of a couple of big upsets in the hockey pool, but their 17 selections this year have been wiped from the active duty rosters.  Defenseman Ryan Ellis, taken six times, was the most popular player to drop out.

The highest scoring Preds in these playoffs were Rinne and Colin Wilson, neither of which received any love from a pool team, rather the highest scoring Nashville player that was taken was James Neal in Box 4, taken three times and picked up 9 points.

The Western Conference Final will kick off on Sunday night, with the Blues playing host to the Sharks in St. Louis.