Nashville Predators: March Awards for Predators

March featured the best & worst of times for the Nashville Predators. As the regular season nears conclusion, we pause to honor the best (and worst) of March.

The Nashville Predators breezed through most of the month of March. They won nine out of the first ten games of the month, which was part of a fifteen-game points streak that got them to the top of the league standings. Unfortunately they ran into problems soon after, losing four out of the last six games of the month. They looked like the Stanley Cup favorite, then looked like a team that could lose in the first round.

The Predators still sat on top of the standings at the end of March. However, the Winnipeg Jets were only five points back. They have a much easier schedule to end the season. The Boston Bruins & Tampa Bay Lightning were both within spitting distance of the top spot in the league. Nashville has already clinched its best regular season ever. The question is if it’ll result in any sort of advantage in the playoffs.

Now we take a look at some of the best & worst of March.

Best Trophy Campaign: #Pekka4Vezina

I’ve never cared as much about individual awards as most fans. The most important award in hockey by a pretty wide margin is the Stanley Cup. Everything else pales in comparison. That being said, I would be annoyed if the voters for the Vezina Trophy don’t award it to Pekka Rinne.

Rinne had another stellar month. He went 8-3 with two shutouts, a .924 save percentage & 2.33 GAA. The only downside: All of these numbers looked so much better before Rinne got torched by the Buffalo Sabres. You hope that isn’t the sort of thing that sinks Rinne’s bid for the trophy. It did bring him closer to the likes of Tuukka Rask & Connor Hellebuyck, not to mention Andrei Vasilevskiy.

Hopefully Rinne has a strong final week that puts him back ahead of the pack where he belongs.