Yle Sporten broadcasts: “Toasitsen” Nashville against promising Florida in a four-point game – do the Finns continue to do well?

Both Nashville and Florida still have every chance to reach the playoffs. Now every point is worth its weight in gold – who is sharper when it comes down to it tonight? At least there is nothing wrong with the Finns’ form.

At 21.00 Nashville–Florida, TV2 and Yle Arena

Commentator: Mattias Simonsen

Calling a match a “four-point meeting” is actually one of the big clichés in ice hockey. But the fact is that both Nashville and Florida are currently below the playoff mark.

And even if they compete for playoff tickets in different conferences, every point drop is potentially decisive.

The teams come to tonight’s match with very different shape curves. Nashville has lost two straight on home ice – first to Arizona, then to Boston – and rightfully so as Matt Duchene before the All stars break compared the team’s form to a “toilet seat that goes up and down”.

Florida, meanwhile, ends a two-legged road trip at Tennessee on Saturday. After a heavy loss against St. Louis Blues (where Florida looked exhausted), the “cats” managed to beat an awkward Washington with clear numbers on Friday night.

At the same time, they cut into the Capitals’ lead in the standings. And it is said that success breeds success.

The Finns: Shapely or invisible

When talking about the Finnish players in Florida, the focus is usually on Aleksander Barkov and Anton Lundell. With every right, of course.

Barkov was still responsible for a fantastic goal against Washington where he didn’t even look at the goal and Lundell was noted for 1+2 in the match. But the question is, is it still not Eetu Luostarinen who is the most important blue-white cog in the team right now?

Florida is forced to do without Sam Bennett for the time being. This means that the chain of success Bennett–Matthew Tkachuk–Carter Verhaeghe could have split up in the worst case scenario. If it hadn’t been for Luostarinen, who had to jump in as a replacement center.

He also did that when Barkov was injured earlier this winter. And he has delivered. Against Washington, Luostarinen–Tkachuk–Verhaeghe was the first chain on paper and also passed the eye test. It was Luostarinen who passed until 1–0 and the chain was on the ice for 2–0 as well.

– He can play in any role and has been forced to do so in recent weeks. The way he delivered is the reason why we managed to reverse the trend, Sam Reinhart praised him before the game against the Capitals.

In Nashville, there aren’t as many blue-and-white delights. Mikael Granlund has not come up to the same level as he did last season, on the contrary, he has been singled out as one of the major underachievers in the squad.

Juuso Pärssinen has had to see Cody Glass take his place as center in the top lines, while he himself has to rake in the fourth. Pärsinen certainly still gets to play in the other power play five.

Juuse Saros, on the other hand, is the most important player in the team and the one who, at best, can lead them to the playoffs. But if the flank support fails completely like it did against Boston, the games end 0-5. A goalkeeper cannot score the goals.

Kevin Lankinen stood against Arizona and is in theory relevant tonight as well. But the stable tip is that Saros gets the responsibility again as Nashville tries to get even a win from the week in the home castle.

Watch out for: Ice-cold power play

Good teams tend to have one thing in common: they tend to be good at taking advantage of their chances with one more man on the ice.

With that in mind, it’s perhaps telling that Nashville has the fourth-worst power play percentage of the season at 16.2. That’s a disastrously bad number for a playoff-chasing team. That is why Pärssinen got to play there so much.

But the question is how long the coaching staff can wait before they shake up the formations again.

The Florida Panthers had an improbably good flow in numerical superiority a few months ago – in February they have been ice cold (only one goal and a percentage of 5.6). The puck is moving in the offensive zone, yes, but the team is simply not getting into dangerous shooting positions.

At the same time, the Panthers are the team in the entire NHL that incurred by far the most expulsions during the regular season. The positive is that it won’t matter against Nashville.

Commentator’s Tip: Florida secures second straight win

Somehow it feels like Florida is on a roll right now. They were the slowest team I’ve seen this season against St. Louis Blues but were still two worse finishes from leading 2–0 before the Blues took over completely.

Washington is not a real gauge without Aleksandr Ovetchkin but it is impossible to avoid noting that Florida was actually classes better. And again sauced away several giant situations.

Nashville has in some incredible way managed to stay in playoff contention. Perhaps thanks to the fact that the rest of the wild card aspiring teams in the West also have more questions than answers in their game right now.

Regardless, the game still hinges on Juuse Saros (or Kevin Lankinen) bailing them out. It’s not enough. Not tonight either.

4–2 to Florida.