Nashville Predators vs Ducks: 3 Quick Reasons for Optimism
The Nashville Predators are decided underdogs to the Anaheim Ducks in the first round but there is reason for optimism.
According to all of the media, the Nashville Predators might as well stay home as they have no real chance against this powerful Anaheim Ducks team. As a matter of fact, a lot of folks are picking the Duck to go all the way to the Stanley Cup Finals.
Instead of the woe-is-me attitude, we are just happy that we aren’t in the Central Division for the Playoffs. Did anyone see that Chicago-St. Louis game? They will be lucky to survive the series against each other let alone go on to another series. We saw enough of those teams in the regular season.
With that in mind, we are going to give you three reasons for optimism in the series with the Ducks as well as the entire duration of the Stanley Cup Playoffs for the Nashville Predators. There are actually a few reasons for optimism that you can look for tonight and into the series.
Johansen made a huge difference when he joined the Predators. He didn’t play in any of the three games the Predators had early in the season against the Ducks. He scored 34 points in 42 games and that is all well and good but he did so much more for the Predators.
First, he moved Mike Ribeiro and Mike Fisher down to the second and third lines where they should have been to begin with. That made the team so much stronger down the middle. But he also helped the games of James Neal who ended with 31 goals and Calle Jarnkrok with 16, more than double his previous year’s output.
Most of all, he helped Filip Forsberg by letting him move to the second line along with Ribs and letting him get some free ice. When he was playing the first line with Ribeiro, the opposition’s top defenders were on him and he was struggling to find his sweet spot. With scoring spread out, his confidence improved and he starting really lighting the lamp.
Johansen has a chance to show what he can do in the playoffs. He’s only been in one previous series, two years ago with Columbus and he had little chance to show his stuff. We expect him to really break out this year.
Filip Forsberg
We’ve already mentioned him but he too has so much more to offer than he did last year in the playoffs. He scored six points
and four goals, including a hat-trick in six games last season and he is bigger and better. He proved the playoffs didn’t intimidate him last year against the Hawks. Chris Nichols from Slapshot Today put it very well in his description of Forsberg:
"“They look like a team that can score,” Ferraro said. “(Forsberg) has what I call, with great admiration, he has arrogance on the ice. He’s going to score and he knows he’s going to score. That, I think, can start to seep to his linemates. James Neal has it, too. There are just certain guys that you know when they go to the rink, they’re going to score every game. They don’t, but they think that’s going to happen. I think that’s something that perhaps Nashville hasn’t had in the past."
Forsberg is the kind of player that could take this team and carry them on his shoulders in a series. The Ducks haven’t seen him at his best either.
Say what you will about Coach Lavy, he knows how to take a team to the promised land. He led the Carolina Hurricanes to the Stanley Cup and the Philly Flyers to the Finals. His counterpart, Bruce Boudreau is known as a great regular season coach that hasn’t been able to get it done in the playoffs.
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There were some that were worried about the six days off before the Predators first playoff game. Not Laviolette, he used the time to install new wrinkles on the special teams to battle the Ducks strength. He knows how to do the little things to take a good team and make them better in the playoffs.
You won’t find many people that believed that the Predators were as good a team as Chicago in last season’s playoffs. They took them to six games and a bounce or two and a Shea Weber injury could have changed the outcome. No one else played the Blackhawks the way the Nashville Predators did in the first round. Peter Laviolette will have some surprises for the Ducks that could tilt the series.
Next: Duck Hunting Season Finally Here
This is a close series and these three things could be the difference. It won’t be long before we know the outcome.