Nashville Predators: Players of the Week on West Coast trip

 The Nashville Predators took their first west coast trip of the season, and came away with four much-needed points. Here are our three stars of the week.

The Nashville Predators headed out west for three games against Western Conference foes. The Predators went into the trip, 5-4-2, and were able to go 2-1 in those three games, putting their record at 7-5-2. Nashville is tied for 3rd in the Central division with 16 points. They are tied with the Colorado Avalanche, the Dallas Stars and the Chicago Blackhawks. The St Louis Blues are still on fire right now, as they have an 11-3-1 record and 23 points.

The Nashville Predators started out the west coast trip in San Jose. The Predators wished for a better performance in that game, in which the Sharks came out on top of that one, 4-1. They committed a ton of penalties, and didn’t look good to boot. Those penalties hurt the Predators, as the Sharks created situations and scored a power play goal, pretty much killing any momentum the Predators had. The Predators only goal came from Roman Josi, on an impressive backhand goal.

The Predators then headed to Anaheim to take on the Ducks. Nashville played a much better game than they did two days before. The Predators started off hot as they scored the games first three goals. Scott Hartnell and Roman Josi both added their fourth goal of the year in the 1st period. Matt Irwin tallied his first goal of the year early in the 2nd period. Arvidsson scored his fourth goal of the year as well on a power play goal. P.K. Subban scored an empty netter at the end to make the score, 5-3.

Nashville looked for a win the next night as they traveled to Los Angeles to take on the Kings. Jonathan Quick wasn’t in net for the red-hot Kings, and the Predators took advantage of that early. They hopped out to a 3-0 lead for the second consecutive game, as Mikka Salomaki scored his first goal of the year. P.K. Subban added his third goal with Craig Smith tallying his fourth goal of the year. The Predators stepped off the gas, allowing three goals to the Kings, tying the game up, and sending it into overtime. With just 20 seconds left in the overtime period, Arvidsson scored on a breakaway for a 4-3 Predators victory.

The next few pages will show my picks for players of the week for the Nashville Predators.