[Hockey News]

The Nashville Predators spent the past year improving themselves over a season ago. So did the San Jose Sharks.

So the result of the opening round of the playoffs was the same.

Patrick Marleau scored his second goal with 4:21 left as the Sharks grabbed a berth in their third straight Western Conference semifinal round after beating Nashville 3-2 on Friday night.

Marleau tied the game with a power-play goal late in the second and Ryane Clowe also scored as the Sharks closed out Nashville with a Game 5 win on the Predators' home ice for a second straight year.

Sharks advance to Conference semifinals with 3-2 win over Predators

[Lefty Noob]

Well, so much for Forsberg leading the Predators to the Cup. One again, Nashville's bounced by the Sharks.

[Hockey News]

The Nashville Predators thought they had all the pieces in place to make a serious run at the Stanley Cup. Now dealing with a third straight first-round loss, they are about to find out the cost of coming up short.

Nashville once again ended its postseason hopes in five games to San Jose with a 3-2 loss Friday night. Losing on home ice for a second straight year only made the early exit that much more disappointing.

"This is going to hurt for a while, and you don't know how many chances you're going to get like this against a team like that," goaltender Tomas Vokoun said.

The Predators signed free agent center Jason Arnott and forward J.P. Dumont last offseason after losing in the Western Conference quarterfinals in five games. Sitting atop the NHL with the league's best record in February, they gambled two players and two prospects to rent Peter Forsberg.

None of the changes made any difference.

Predators can't translate regular season to postseason success

[vincesanity82]

I think one more year and they will get it done. However, the owner is running out of patience and I wouldnt be suprised to see a team relocation and that would suck 'cause I like the preds in Nashville..