Nashville Predators: What Fans Should Be Thankful For This Thanksgiving
By Chad Minton
It’s Thanksgiving and the Nashville Predators are surging through a difficult part of their schedule to give us many reasons to be thankful.
With the Predators doing so many special things since this time last year, it’s time to reflect on what we’re thankful for as fans. After all, the Predators have treated us to some pretty special moments dating back to last season.
The Nashville Predators find themselves in a very nice spot in the standing thanks to winning eight of their last nine games, putting them in 2nd place overall in the Western Conference with 28 points. A short Thanksgiving break for the Predators and they’ll be right back at it with their first meeting of the season with the first-place St.Louis Blues.
We have a lot to be thankful for with the Nashville Predators. They’ve got the current tag of the best sports franchise from ESPN, a passionate base of fans and a stacked roster that can hang with even the most elite teams in the NHL. And who can forget the coolest mascot in all of sports, Gnash?
Let’s dive deeper into what we’re thankful for from the Nashville Predators, starting with the red-hot offense.
Power Play is lethal
The Predators are becoming unstoppable on the power play. This is especially true at home, where they have 17 power play goals in just ten home games. We have to be thankful for why the Predators are 8-1-1 at Bridgestone Arena, and it’s because of their home power play that’s over 40 percent. That’s good for tops in the NHL, and the next closest team is way back at 31 percent.
They may end up coming back down to Earth a bit with their home power play, but they’ll keep piling up the wins at home with this kind of success on the power play. Their speed and ability to set up their offense draws penalties from the opposition. Filip Forsberg added two power play goals of his own in the Predators’ most recent win over Montreal. Those two goals break somewhat of a November goal slump for Forsberg, and brings him to 11 goals on the season.
Let’s be thankful for the Predators’ third-ranked power play, because they’re not where they are in the standings if not for it.