Nashville Predators Trends After Three Games
Nashville Predators
(15) skates with the puck. Mandatory Credit: Christopher Hanewinckel-USA TODAY Sports
Trending UP ⇑: Special Teams Are Special
One of the teams weak spots last season was special teams, especially the Power Play. It has been well documented that they were 25th in the league with the man advantage last year. That won’t cut it, especially at playoff time. The team has worked on that a lot and hoped for much better this season. They would be very happy if the current results continue.
The Predators are sixth in the league with a 28.6 PP percentage. That is more than a dozen points better than last year. It is a small sample but with virtually the same two units as last year, they look much more comfortable moving the puck and looking for open chances. If they can keep that up, it will certainly improve their chances.
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As good as the Power Play has been, the Penalty Kill-team has been even better. In ten times shorthanded, the Predators have only given up one goal for a 90% kill rate. That is also good for sixth in the league and the only goal they gave up was last night against the Devils when they pulled their goalie on the Power Play, thus giving them a two-man advantage.
Right now, the Predators are in the top six in the league on both Power Play and Penalty Kill. Stay in the top 10 and they should easily be an even better team than last season when they were arguably the best team in the league for a good part of the season. Those are the kind of things that can carry you in the playoffs as well. Let’s keep them “Special”.
Next: Is Undefeated Good Enough?