Nashville Predators: Top Five Teams In Franchise History
By Chad Minton
Climbing out of the Red Wings’ shadow
Outside of the Stanley Cup run, I can’t think of a more satisfying victory than when the Predators eliminated the Red Wings from the playoffs. It will be hard to ever top that. Taking down “big brother”, the bully that pushed the Predators around for years. The legendary franchise that had already eliminated some less-talented Predators teams in years past is finally defeated.
Some major debuts from current Predators players happened during this season like Roman Josi, Mattias Ekholm, Ryan Ellis and Craig Smith. This also marks Mike Fisher‘s first full season with the Predators, finishing with 24 goals on the season. Up to this point, the Predators never had a better roster top to bottom. Perhaps the best Predator of all time, David Legwand, is still plugging along at this point. A 104-point regular season nearly won the division.
My favorite part about this particular team is the blue collar mentality. There’s not a lot of star power when you look over this roster. Yeah, you got Weber and Ryan Suter as the dynamic defensive duo. Outside of that, it’s a bunch of hard working guys who upset a Red Wings team that was still really good. The franchise’s original head coach, Barry Trotz, never had another playoff-caliber Predators team after this season.