Nashville Predators Try for Season Sweep of the Washington Capitals

It was a while back ago, but the Nashville Predators did indeed already beat the Washington Capitals once this season. Can they do it again?

That seems like a eternity ago when the Nashville Predators got a thrilling victory over the Washington Capitals back in October. They won that game 6-5 in a back and forth affair that ended with Mattias Ekholm scoring the game-winning goal.

Does Nashville have anything left in the tank despite just coming out of the All-Star break? It didn’t seem like it in their first game back on Monday night in a lackluster loss to the Toronto Maple Leafs.

The way this season has gone up and done, it wouldn’t be overly shocking to see the Predators actually win this game or at least put up a good fight. They’re incredibly unpredictable and inconsistent, and sometimes that sways in the direction of them getting an unexpected win against a good opponent.

The NHL’s best team?

As for the Capitals, they’re the league’s best team in the standings right now with 73 points and only 11 regulation losses all season. There’a few other teams in the running for the President’s Trophy, but it looks like it’s the Capitals trophy to win this year.

Nashville Predators

The Capitals are loaded with offensive weapons and star power. Alex Ovechkin leads the team in goals with 34, followed by Jakub Vrana with 23 goals and T.J. Oshie with 18 goals.

Ovechkin has a hat trick in two-straight games, and has a chance to make NHL history tonight if he makes it three in a row. I’d say the chances are pretty favorable going up against a Predators defense that is depleted and suspect.

They have the league’s most efficient defenseman in John Carlson, who is really the only guy in the way of Roman Josi‘s quest for his first Norris Trophy. Carlson is piling up the assists this season with 47 so far, which is nearly one per game.

The last loss for the Capitals came all the way back on January 11th in a 5-1 final score to the New Jersey Devils. They have just two losses for the entire month of January while having a top-five offense in the NHL with 3.56 goals per game.

The Capitals do a great job killing off penalties as well and they don’t let that dictate their outcomes. They’re second in the NHL currently by killing off 84.5 percent of their penalties, which spells disaster for a team like the Predators who give up a lot of goals and need their power play to be successful to keep up.

What it’s going to take for the upset

Let’s start with the exact opposite of whatever they rolled out against the Toronto Maple Leafs on Monday night because that was a disaster aside from one good rush attack to tie the game very early.

One awesome thing about head coach John Hynes is he’s very detailed on how he wants to correct things and make adjustments after ugly showings. Here’s what he told Brooks Bratten of the Predators official website regarding Monday night’s loss and what needs to be fixed:

A lot of what the Predators did on Monday night was take shots on the outside that were pretty easy saves for any NHL-level goaltender. They have to find ways into the high-danger areas and capitalize, no pun intended.

This is going to start with more accurate passing. The offensive execution, like much of the season, was disjointed and had no flow. They were just throwing up something at the wall and hoping it would stick, and nothing really did.

We still haven’t woken up from the nightmare that is goaltending for this team, and the fact that the defense in front of them has done nothing to make their jobs any easier. They’ll face an extremely tough test tonight to keep the Capitals from lighting up the scoreboard several times.

Juuse Saros is expected to get the start, per Bratten:

We haven’t seen Saros in game action since a 4-2 loss to the Anaheim Ducks nearly two weeks ago. It’s been tough sledding for Saros this season even more so than it has for Pekka Rinne. We know he has the skills to climb out of this funk, but he needs better protection in front of him as well.

Hynes is not going to be shy about shaking up the lineup even more as the team has their back way up against a wall. Every game needs to be treated like an elimination game, and no more coming out on the opening faceoff looking sluggish and disinterested.

Surprisingly enough the Predators have owned the Capitals over the last three years with seven victories in a row in the series. I’ll say this again that I wouldn’t be all that surprised if the Predators play desperate hockey and win this one in track meet fashion.

An upset win of sorts won’t save the season, but it would be nice to continue the recent dominance of a franchise like the Capitals. I’m going with a pretty gutsy prediction for tonight’s game as I think the Predators will be the more desperate and aggressive team.

I’m predicting a big game from Filip Forsberg and Matt Duchene tonight. They’re long overdue for a dominant performance of their own to carry this team like superstars are supposed to on occasion.

Holding Washington to three goals like in my prediction would be a huge victory in itself. I just refuse to believe that the Predators don’t have any fight left in them, and what better way to get up off the canvas than to take down the league’s best team?

The hapless Devils beat the Capitals earlier this month, and the Predators can certainly do the same thing tonight. Puck drop is scheduled for 6:30 P.M. CDT and will be broadcast nationally on NBCSN from the nation’s capital.