After that huge win on Saturday all eyes are again on Nashville tonight as they try to even up the series. It’s going to be huge for the Predators if they do, and huge for the Penguins if they don’t.

Where we are at right now parallels the 2015-16 Stanley Cup Final. The Penguins defeated the Sharks in the first two games. The Sharks came back to win the third game, albeit in a much closer match than the Predators had on Saturday. It was Joonas Donskoi who scored the Sharks first ever Stanley Cup Final game winning goal that night, which was memorialized with this play-by-play call on Finnish TV.

The Predators didn’t even need to think of overtime to completely blow out the Penguins on Saturday. However, almost every game has a giant reset button at the end with respect to the series. It feels to me like momentum doesn’t really carry forward like in the earlier rounds. Tonight’s match in Nashville will still have a the wild crowd, but there’s zero guarantees of what will happen. To me it’s like we’re back to another Game 1.

And that’s why we are still watching, right?

For the record, the Penguins won game 4 in San Jose, 3-1, in part because of this atrocious foul-up by the Shorks.

Who will be the big winner tonight?

Penguins. By a lot.1
Penguins, by one goal.6
Predators, by one goal.16
Predators. By a lot.14
Nashville fish mongers.7

ICYMI

Watch interviews with potential Leafs draft prospects - Katya
Who are these draft picks? What do they look like and sound like?  Watch and see.

Do offer sheets really provoke retaliation? - Fulemin
A look at the consequences of offer sheeting RFAs.

So, you were all up in arms about Colton Parayko in today’s FTB! Here’s your chance to settle the matter with our 100% official and definitive final poll*. The suggestion is signing the 24 year old, 6’5, 225 pound defender via an Offer Sheet in the ~$5.9M to $7.9M range, which would mean the Leafs give Nashville their first, second, and third round picks in the 2018 NHL Draft. We know the term would have to be 5+ years, or St. Louis would match the Offer Sheet and the deal would be moot.

Let’s meet in the middle.

Assume the Offer Sheet would be for a 6 year contract with a $7.0M AAV.

Would you give this Offer Sheet to Parayko to sign?

Yes. Do it. It’s worth giving up those picks for Parayko.27
No, because I think the Leafs should Offer Sheet a different player.0
No, because I think the Leafs should keep those 2018 picks to draft players.26
No, because I think that contract is bad.16
Yes. Because I like the idea of Lou using Offer Sheets to cause chaos in the NHL.19

Enjoy the game, everyone!

*Poll not official on any secret kitten ranches located on the dark side of the Moon. Not like there are any secret kitten installations there. That’s a bunch of crazy talk by discredited ex-NASA astronauts whom all suffered a series of bizarre and completely unrelated accidental deaths choking on hairballs.