Bourque with Nashville’e only goal. (Photo: Sarah Fuqua/flickr)

Whew folks, that was a late one! Never underestimate the troubles a late night game can cause you. The Nashville Predators headed west tonight to visit the San Jose Sharks in a bid to climb back from Wednesday’s failure against the Anaheim Ducks. But tonight proved that this just isn’t Nashville’s week when it comes to west coast teams.

This game was a story of power plays as the first goal of the night came at the end of the first period. Nashville’s Klein left the ice on a slashing penalty only to have San Jose’s Boyle slap the puck past Rinne twenty seconds later. The same story came nine minutes into the second period, with Ellis in the box and Pavelski putting the Sharks up two zip going into the third.

The third period got iffy, with a near miss on an empty net goal for Nashville. If only a Sharks player had touched the puck instead! But Bourque finally broke ranks and delivered the Predators’ first short-handed goal of the season, putting the Preds on the board.

With no other goals in the third, the Predators had to admit defeat 2-1. Why did they have to meet defeat? Well, it would have helped had the Preds been able to break up the pack of Sharks that always seemed to be in front of the net, both when in the Nashville zone and when in their own zone. And as always, a good penalty kill would have helped the Preds tremendously tonight.

With hopes held high fans can wait for Monday’s game against the LA Kings in hope of redemption. Until Monday, 9:30 pm EST. Come on Preds!