al inexperience is that its not a rarity here. Aside from Norway, Switzerland and

NASHVILLE -- Pekka Rinnes milestone win dealt a serious blow to Phoenixs playoff hopes. Rinne made 29 saves to lead the Nashville Predators to a 2-0 win over the Coyotes on Thursday night. Craig Smith and Patric Hornqvist scored for Nashville, which has won four of its last five. "This group, as I have been saying all year, has a lot of character," Predators coach Barry Trotz said. "Theres only one way to play, and thats play the right way. This group plays the right way." The Coyotes lost sixth straight game and hurt their quest for the Western Conferences eighth and final playoff spot. Phoenix entered the day two points behind Dallas in the wild card race. Both teams have two games remaining, including Sundays season finale when Dallas visits Phoenix. "Obviously we need help now," Phoenix coach Dave Tippett said. "Youve got to get yourself rested and ready for the next game. Well see where we are Saturday morning." Phoenix will need to finish the season at least one point ahead of Dallas in the standings since the Stars will hold the first tiebreaker of more regulation and overtime wins no matter what happens over the course of the final two games. Dallas hosts the St. Louis Blues on Friday. If the Stars get one point in the game, it would give them the last spot in the West, eliminating Phoenix. "Its not where we want to be," Phoenix defenceman Michael Stone said. "Thats all there is to it really. We didnt do enough to continue to be able to control our own fate." Smith scored the games first goal at 10:26 of the second period. After taking a pass from defenceman Ryan Ellis above the left circle, Smith skated down to the left faceoff dot, where he used two Coyotes standing in front of goaltender Thomas Greiss as screens and scored his 21st goal of the season with a wrist shot high to the far side. Smiths power-play score snapped a 13-game goal-scoring drought. Hornqvist doubled the Nashville lead at 9:21 of the third. From below the goal line, Mike Fisher found Hornqvist in the slot. Greiss denied Hornqvists first attempt, but he poked in his own rebound for his 21st of the season -- and seventh goal in his last six games. "Fish got the puck behind the net and I saw him creeping up the wall," Hornqvist said. "I just tried to get open in the slot. He found me and then I buried the rebound." The shutout was Rinnes second of the season and 32nd of his career. He now has 162 wins, moving him past Tomas Vokoun into first place on Nashvilles career wins list. "We did a really good job of blocking shots and getting the clears when we needed to," Rinne said. "When they got the shots, I was able to see them. It was kind of back to the normal way of game playing." Rinne missed 51 games this season due to a hip infection. NOTES: Prior to the game, the Predators announced that they are partnering with former Olympic figure skating gold medallist Scott Hamilton, who will serve as an active principal for the skating centre at their new suburban rink set to open this summer. Hamilton is a Predators season ticket holder. ... Phoenix RW Martin Erat played in his 800th career NHL game. His first 723 were played with Nashville prior to his trade to Washington at last seasons trade deadline. ... Six of Smiths goals this season have come on the power play. Nike Air Max 270 React Bauhaus For Sale . Van Slyke drove in a career-high four runs with two homers off struggling left-hander Tony Cingrani, and the Los Angeles Dodgers pulled away to a 6-2 victory over the Cincinnati Reds on Monday night, a rare comfortable win in their pitching-dominated series. Nike Air Max 270 Sale Outlet .com) - Delon Wright scored 17 points and No. http://www.max270cheap.com/air-max-270-just-do-it-sale.html . His stated reason for abruptly resigning as head coach of Canadas Olympic womens hockey team was he felt there were doubts about his ability to coach the team to Olympic gold in February. Nike Air Max 270 Womens Clearance . The roster changes have been constant and continuous since late last year, but even with their 46-man roster set for the start of the season, the banged-up Bombers will be kicking off Week 1 with a handful of fresh faces and back-ups in the starting lineup. Air Max 270 Mens Clearance .com) - It may just be the right place and the right opponent for the Detroit Red Wings to snap their longest losing streak of the season.MINSK, Belarus - When Troy Brouwer returned from a vacation during the NHLs Olympic break, he tuned in to the final few games of Team Canadas run to gold in Sochi. Understandably, he liked what he saw. "I think the Olympic team did an absolutely amazing job at showing how Canadians play hockey," said Brouwer. Brouwer wasnt the only one. Phoenix Coyotes coach Dave Tippett saw not just a winning style of hockey but something to emulate. As coach of Canadas team at the world championship, he wants to follow the path blazed by Mike Babcock and the stars who went undefeated at the Olympics. "I look at the blueprint from a few months ago in Sochi, the way Canada played: A hard, Canadian style of hockey," Tippett said in a recent phone interview. "If we can go and try to continue that mindset for our team, I think that would be something that would be crazy not to look at." It would be crazy to think any team can duplicate that effort in perfect fashion. Canadas team for the IIHF world hockey championship wont have any players from Sochi and this is a different tournament altogether. Most of the other countries are in the same boat, absent the top-end NHL talent from the Olympics, save for Alex Ovechkin and Sergei Bobrovsky returning for Russia after its disappointing run and others like Jaromir Jagr of the Czech Republic and Gustav Nyquist of Sweden also going to Minsk. But that doesnt change Canaadas plan for this tournament, which begins with Fridays opener against France. Kyle Turris isnt Sidney Crosby, Morgan Rielly isnt Shea Weber and neither James Reimer nor Ben Scrivens is Carey Price, but the hope is that talented NHL players in their own right can get the same job done. "I think your team has to have its own identity, but you look at what that team did and the success it had on the big ice and with NHL players, theres certainly some things that you can use on our team," Tippett said. "The team that played in Sochi, you could say was one of the best teams in the history of the game, the way they played. You realize we dont have that same team, but the way they played and their commitment to playing as a team was as strong as anything weve seen in a long time. That part of the game can certainly translate into our team." The first steps are there. General manager Rob Blake along with assistant GMs Ron Hextall, Brad Treliving and Brad Pascall, like Steve Yzerman and his management team several months ago, looked for forward pairs to put together. Tippett, like Babcock, believes in having a left- and a right-handed shot on each defensive pairing. In terms of selecting the roster, Blake reiterated the obvious: that unlike the Olympics, an event every healthy player called wants badly to play in, the world championship is more selective. It has been a long NHL season and its too much of a grind to expect Sochi Olympianss to jump at the chance to play three extra weeks in Minsk.dddddddddddd "You go down to the tier of the younger guys and you get your commitments," Blake said in a phone interview. "You kind of work around. But Ron Hextall, Brad Treliving and Brad Pascall, the one thing they were pretty passionate about from the beginning is the guys that want to be there, those are the ones that you want." That group includes three Maple Leafs: Reimer, Rielly and centre Nazem Kadri, who played on the wing in Canadas exhibition game Tuesday in Zurich. It also includes in defenceman Braydon Coburn and forwards Brayden Schenn and Matt Read, three Flyers who just wrapped up a seven-game series loss to the Rangers. The crown jewel of the roster might be one of the final additions: Colorado Avalanche rookie Nathan MacKinnon, the likely Calder Trophy winner who impressed in his first season and first Stanley Cup playoff series. MacKinnon is on the team at age 18 like Crosby was in 2006, when the Penguins star had eight goals and eight assists in nine games. Even before MacKinnon it was a young team thanks to defencemen Erik Gudbranson, Ryan Ellis, Tyler Myers and Rielly and forwards Jonathan Huberdeau, Sean Monahan and Mark Scheifele. Jason Chimera of the Washington Capitals, who won gold at the 2007 worlds in Moscow, is Canadas oldest player at the age of 35. Chimeras Capitals teammates Brouwer and Joel Ward are also on the roster. Chimera, a candidate to be captain, is important to Tippetts plan for the tournament because he knows what its all about. "The importance of the players who have been over there before and their experiences, especially relating that to our younger players that havent had that experience, is going to be a very important part of our preparation," Tippett said. The one thing about Canadas relative international inexperience is that its not a rarity here. Aside from Norway, Switzerland and Latvia, which feature national teams with major Sochi flavour, most teams have significant turnover from the Olympics. Tippett didnt see that as something Canada can take advantage of. From his experience as an assistant in this tournament, he knows what it means for European players and countries. "For the players that play in those leagues over there, this is their Stanley Cup playoffs," Tippett said. "If they win, their country puts a lot of onus on this tournament, and even though the players on our team would look at the Stanley Cup as the greatest thing to play for, you almost have to have that mind-set that the world championships, for a lot of these players over there, thats their Stanley Cup. "Well make sure that our players know the importance it is to those other teams to win and our competitiveness should be at the same level if were going to have a chance to win." --- Follow @SWhyno on Twitter ' ' '