With a combined straight-up record of 19-4 when scoring first this postseason, the Pens and Preds understand better than anyone just how important it is to get on the board . Margins in a seven-game series are incredibly tight and the momentum gained from scoring an icebreaker, particularly one on the road, can be a huge boost.
Nashville thought they had done just that in Game 1 when P.K. Subban beat Matt Murray with a wrister to temporarily make the score 1-0 but it wasn’t to be. Mike Sullivan’s bet to challenge this Filip Forsberg had been offside earlier on the drama that Subban scored on paid off and the Preds’ target — as well as all of Nashville’s momentum — was erased.
The Penguins went on to score the next 3 goals of the match to have a 3-0 lead and, eventually, the Game 1 win.
How massive was win? Well, when you consider that since 2002 the home team is 9-1 straight up in Game 2 after winning Game 1, it becomes emphatically clear just how significant that overturned goal could be to the outcome of the sequence.
Here are such Game two results:I am not here to argue whether the drama was offside — it probably was — I’m just trying to paint an image of how catastrophic that drama was to Nashville’s Stanley Cup hopes.
When the home team wins Game 1 of the Stanley Cup final, they move on to win it about an 85% clip and although I don’t believe the Preds are lifeless, the task they face is a mountainous one that not many teams in the background of the NHL have managed to summit.
Offside reviews are a book idea but as we’ve seen over and over again in the almost unlimited examples across the major North American sports-scape since reviews and challenges were introduced, stopping activity to see whether someone infracted a seemingly benign rule by an issue of millimetres can change a game’s momentum drastically and alter a group’s fortune for the worse.
As somebody who writes about, examines and bets on sports, Subban’s disallowed goal has left me with a sick feeling in my gut and I’m firmly in the camp that’s suggesting we make offside testimonials go the way of the FoxTrax glowing puck. Technological advances aren’t always great for the match — or even the viewer — which red and blue blunder by Fox was a clear illustration of why that’s true.
We’ll see what the Preds are really made of in Game 2 on Wednesday. If their play in the next period on in Monday’s series opener is any indication, they are more than up for the challenge and have a fantastic shot to beat the odds and ship this best-of-seven back into Smashville tied at ones.

Read more here: http://cirugastroguatemala.com/ranking-every-no-1-nba-draft-pick-from-the-last-30-years/