from Joe Rexrode of The Tennessean,

Defensive driving is good. Careful and in control. Overly skittish driving is not good – get a couple of drivers together who are petrified of making a mistake and watch them mash bumpers.

That’s overtime hockey in the Stanley Cup playoffs. It’s weird giveaways and stunning offensive chances, over and over, as onlookers blurt out gasps.

Make it two exhausted drivers in the wee hours and you have double-overtime hockey in the Stanley Cup playoffs. And I don’t have an appropriate analogy for triple overtime. I just know this was the longest game in Nashville Predators history.

And it probably would have been the toughest to lose. But at 1:03 Friday morning, when Predators center Mike Fisher blasted a rebound past San Jose goaltender Martin Jones exactly 4 hours and 53 minutes after the puck dropped on Game 4 of the Western Conference semifinals, it just might have been the best yet to win.

“The guys played so hard, it’s just, when you get that deep into a game, there’s a lot invested,” coach Peter Laviolette said after the Predators prevailed 4-3 at Bridgestone Arena to even the series at 2-2 and set up Saturday’s crucial Game 5 in San Jose. “So happy for the guys for pulling it out and getting the win. They invested a lot. There’s a lot of character in our room.”

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