Nashville Predators: Buckle Up for Matt Duchene and Filip Forsberg Together

One of the big reasons to be excited about the “new look” Nashville Predators is seeing Matt Duchene and Filip Forsberg on the same line.

Our long wait is finally over as Nashville Predators hockey is truly returning with the regular season just hours away. This is a fresh, new Predators team with the same Stanley Cup aspirations and personnel to have another successful season.

There’s been a ton of speculation swirling around how the lines will be sorted out with Matt Duchene joining the mix. He’s a game-changer is every sense of the term, and putting the right players alongside him is paramount. It looks like we finally have some clarity on who will be playing on Duchene’s line to open up the season against the Minnesota Wild.

Filip Forsberg, who has all of the potential to be a top-ten goal scorer in the NHL, is now going to be the beneficiary of a lot of Duchene scoring chances. This is a great move by head coach Peter Laviolette to experiment with this combination early in the regular season. The end result could mean two dynamic lines to throw at the opposition.

What this could do for Forsberg

Forsberg has never surpassed 40 goals in a season. A big factor in that is him missing double digit games over the past two seasons. If he can play 82 games, or close to it, he should easily be able to score 40-plus goals, and set a new franchise record.

Playing with Duchene increases those odds of seeing Forsberg have a breakout season offensively. Duchene’s ice vision is something that the Predators haven’t had in a long time. This isn’t to take away from Ryan Johansen, who just had 50 assists last season, but he’s no Duchene. To be fair, most players aren’t on Duchene’s level in that regard.

With these two playing together on opening night against Minnesota, the spotlight is going to be on how the chemistry looks between the two. They looked great in the preseason, but you can’t put too much stock into that. Forsberg told the Nashville Post recently his thoughts on playing with Duchene on the same line:

"“It’s getting better and better, and obviously we work on it every day. Playing with Matt the last couple of days, just trying to get to know him on the ice and off, he’s a really good guy and good player.”"

It’s also going to be very interesting to see them on the power play together. The Predators had the last place power play in the NHL last season. Sad, but true. And yet the Predators still managed to claim their second-straight division title. Imagine what they could’ve done with even a halfway better power play?

I like Forsberg to surpass 40 goals this season. That’s of course assuming he stays healthy and the Predators’s top six stays healthy as well. We’re going to see some franchise records likely broken by Forsberg and/or Duchene.

How this affects the other lines

So who takes Forsberg’s place at the top? Well the original thought was possibly Kyle Turris moving to the top wing position opposite of Viktor Arvidsson. That doesn’t appear to be happening, at least at the start, per Adam Vingan:

My thought was always that Turris would stick at center in the bottom six, but I was starting to doubt that thought up until now. With that said, Craig Smith comes into the equation. That gives me reason for a lot of excitement. Smith has always been a high-energy and consistent player.

Smith has never gotten a lot of time on the top line. He’s always primarily been on the second line, but has moved around considerably. He’s a versatile player that is a great leader. He has eight seasons under his belt with the franchise that drafted him. This is a great way to reward him, and he’s earned it. He’s always been a virtual lock for 20-goal seasons.

The Predators are hoping to have created two No.1 lines with this move. Isn’t that what every team wants to do? However, most teams just can’t do that with the roster they have. They have to focus on building just one supreme top line and hope their depth holds up enough. The Predators may have the luxury of being one of the few that can boast two No.1 lines and become a dynamic offensive team.