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Nashville Predators: Welcome Back Seth

By Zachary Elrod

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The Nashville Predators and Ryan Johansen are set to welcome his former team and former Pred Seth Jones to Smashville

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The Nashville Predators made a “Fangtastic” comeback from a two-goal deficit to win the game in a shootout against the Vancouver Canucks on Thursday night.

After a few bad bounces and calls, Nashville found themselves down but not out for the count. The Preds showed amazing determination and drive by being able to come back and not only gain a point but win the game. With the win, Nashville moved within two points of Chicago and 3rd place in the Central Division.

Another Golden Saturday has come upon us as the Nashville Predators welcome the Columbus Blue Jackets to town. Nashville and Columbus made headlines for their blockbuster trade on January 7th as the Preds sent former 4th overall pick Seth Jones to Columbus to acquire their first ever true #1 center in Ryan Johansen. It will take a year or two to see who wins the trade but as of now, Nashville has cashed in with Johansen.

Columbus Blue Jackets

The Blue Jackets have been mediocre at best lately this season going 9-8-3 in the last 20 games. The recent addition of future star Seth Jones has given Columbus the physical d-man that they’ve needed for some time. Even though Columbus lost Johansen they still have a lot of scoring potential in the form of Jones, Brandon Saad, Scott Hartnell, Nick Foligno, and Cam Atkinson.

Although the Jackets haven’t played the most consistent hockey this season, they can still light up the scoring sheet as they beat the Predators in their only other meeting this season 4-0 at the Nationwide Arena. Nashville should not take this game lightly as Columbus would love nothing more than to beat Ryan Johansen and allow Seth Jones to get his revenge on his former club.

The only major injury to the Blue Jackets is Fedor Tyutin who is out with an undisclosed injury. Nick Foligno was out due to illness on March 22 but should be able to play.  The former Central Divisional foes should be in for an interesting matchup Saturday night.

Nashville Predators

The Nashville Predators have done everything right of late as they’ve found ways to win even when they probably shouldn’t have. Thursday night should have given the rest of the NHL a wake-up call about the Preds if they haven’t gotten one already.

Nashville came into the third period down two goals and looked exhausted and could not get anything going. James Neal brought the Predators faithful to their feet as they scored late in the third. 1:12 later, Filip Forsberg tied the game on a wraparound goal which propelled the Preds into their SO victory.

With Forsberg’s goal against the Canucks, he moved to 31 goals on the season and three goals away from owning the franchise single-season goal mark in just his second year.  The other usual suspects lit the lamp as Ryan Johansen and Craig Smith scored in the SO.

Even though Nashville traded Seth Jones away, they did not lose any swagger to their defensive core as the Predators killed off 27 consecutive PP  which is an astonishing feat and has certainly helped bring up their penalty kill stats.

Depending on what Blue Jackets team shows up, the Preds could either have an easy or hard-fought win. The Jackets can score six goals in a game and then in the next outing they can be held scoreless. Nashville just has to take their time, complete all passes and try their hardest to not commit any defensive errors that allow easy Blue Jacket goals.

Prediction

This game could go either way. It all depends on which Columbus team shows up and if Nashville can start off hot and not cold like they did against Vancouver. Penalties and face-offs will be key in this defensive matchup. Whoever commits the most penalties will most likely lose and lost face-offs can allow teams to start clicking in the offensive zone.

Bridgestone Arena will be rocking as the Predators look to have their 32nd sellout crowd on the season. I was fortunate enough to go to the Canucks game The crowd was electric and deafening. It is basically playoff time in Smashville and you can feel it as you walk down the corner of Broad and 5th into the Cathedral that the 7th Man calls Bridgestone. The crowd will be intimidating for the opposing Blue Jackets as the potential sellout crowd will be given thunder-sticks which will just amplify the playoff-like intensity.

Next: Analysis of the Preds Turnaround

It’s our time Nashville. Let’s get these two points and tie Chicago for third place with seven games remaining in the season. The Nashville Predators will finish their four game home-stand against Gabriel Landeskog and the Colorado Avalanche Monday evening.

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