BY MARK SPECTOR
sportsnet.ca
NASHVILLE -- Nashville head coach Barry Trotz has been around long enough. He knows what Game 3 means in any series that has been this tight.
"I think the series changes tonight," Trotz said on the morning of Game 3. "It was a feeling out process in Vancouver. I told our guys … I think the series is on now."
And what makes him think that?
"In Game 1 we didn't show up and play. In Game 2, a lot of the same comments that we made after (Game 1) were made by the Canucks," he said. "Both teams realize that we're engaged in a series now. The team that can get a little bit better will probably end up winning the series."
From here, it seems like these close-checking, low-scoring games mean that Nashville is dictating the style of hockey in the series. The one thing that separates these two well-rounded teams is offence - Vancouver has more of it.
But until the Canucks show it against Nashville, the Predators can at least lay claim to having won a battle along the way, if not war, eventually.
"I think our DNA is what you saw in Vancouver," Trotz said. "When you chase the game, or chase a certain aspect of the game, you put your team out of sorts."
"We didn't score a lot of goals versus Chicago, so this is a continuation for us," said Canucks assistant coach Rick Bowness.
He figures the key to scoring more goals lies with the Canucks defencemen: "With shots from your defencemen it creates more scrambles, which means more time in the offensive zone. A big part to getting our offence untracked will come from the defence both on the rush and on the cycles."
Coaching Ugly
Barry Trotz was telling the story about the walk he took in Vancouver's Stanley Park, where he passed two young men sitting on a bench.
"One guy looks up and says, 'Excuse me, but you look like the coach of the Predators.'
"I said, 'No, that's insulting. I think he's ugly.'"
Twitter 55
Beware Biznasty, Shane O'Brien has entered the twitter world.
"I don't sugar coat too many things," O'Brien was saying Tuesday morning. "You have to be smart and respectful, but there's nothing wrong with saying what you think, saying how you feel."
It seems he accrued a couple of fake twitter accounts in his name, so O'Brien figured he might as well introduce the real thing. He fired up his new account - @shaneobrien55 - on the off day Monday. "Leave it up to me to get it when I'm playing the Canucks in the second round."
O'Brien has always been media friendly, but does regret the time he complained about being benched a few years ago in Vancouver, when he said that the team only wants him to fight, while he wanted to evolve into a better player. That was not greeted well by management or teammates.
"That was a really immature way to go about it, an immature way to act," he said Tuesday. "Looking back, I looked really selfish. I'm a team guy, I love being around the boys. Looking back, that's pretty much the only thing I really regret. The rest has been OK."
Perhaps terrified is too strong a word, but the Predators are concerned. They've spoken to O'Brien already about his new outlet.
"(Preds Communications coordinator) Kevin Wilson looked like he got about an hour and 10 minutes of sleep last night. He says, 'Is it true?'" O'Brien laughed. "You've got to be careful, have a filter… I'm not going to be going Charlie Sheen on there - though I do like following him."
Right now, the Phoenix Coyotes' Paul Bissonnette is the reigning champ among NHL players on twitter, a must-follow. He goes by the handle @BizNasty2point0.
"I don't think I can rival Biz. His creativity is out of this world," O'Brien said. "I'm just going to try and do my thing, not create too much controversy."
Good luck with that.
