Maybe the crowd hasn’t been able to get to Game 1 on time, but the Anaheim Ducks weren’t stuck in traffic early vs. the Nashville Predators.
Instead, they’ve begun with a 1-0 lead, as Jakob Slifverberg beat Pekka Rinne with a beautiful shot from a bad angle to start the scoring on Friday.
There have been plenty of chances both ways early on - Nashville has been pressuring Anaheim since that tally in particular - so Rinne might need to be sharp. He’s been one of - if not the - best goalies so far in this postseason, yet the Ducks may serve as his best challenge so far.
Silfverberg’s off to a strong playoff, by the way; he now has 12 points in as many postseason games and has the rest of this contest to add to to his total.
Update: The Predators were pushing hard after that goal and were finally rewarded when Filip Forsberg deflected a puck past John Gibson. The score is now 1-1.