Nashville Predators Win Again, On Doorstep of Wildcard Spot

Are we really ready to trust the Nashville Predators again? The fact is they haven’t looked this good since October after last night’s win.

The Nashville Predators still have their problems, and there’s still plenty of reason for concern. But this thing is taking a dramatic turn into a positive direction as of late.

Most recently the Predators have another road win over a playoff contending team, this time coming against the Calgary Flames. This one felt particularly nice because the Flames drove the Predators into their tailspin that spanned over two months.

In very impressing fashion the Predators have now won seven of their last nine on the road spanning all the back to the first game after the Winter Classic. These road wins have come against some quality opponents as well during that span.

Road warriors

After the 3-2 win last night over the Flames up in Alberta, the Predators have now upped their road record to 15-9-3 on the season. That’s one of the best road records in the Western Conference, and is an awesome development if the Predators are going to sneak into the playoffs.

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This is a road trip with massive implications that the Predators are currently on. They already have two wins on it, and have two more to go before returning back home to take on the New York Islanders next week.

All of these games are coming against playoff contenders that are jumbled up together. The Flames are now just one point ahead of the Predators in the standings for a wildcard spot, with the Arizona Coyotes two points ahead.

The Predators will play Arizona in late March as the regular season will be winding down. The Coyotes have also played three more games than the Predators right now, so you have to favor the chances of the Predators to eventually pass them up in the standings.

Things are suddenly looking very promising, and that can directly be attributed to the perseverance and grind-it-out nature head coach John Hynes is instilling in this squad on the road.

The Predators have lost just one road game since Hynes took over. Now can we get some of this magic back in Bridgestone Arena?

Statement win over Calgary

What a turnaround that Juuse Saros has shown us over his last two starts. Both times he came out sluggish and gave up a quick goal. After that, he settled down and put together a gem to get the wins.

This is exactly what the Predators need desperately down the stretch. Reliable goaltending that can bail them out at times. But Hynes deserves a ton of credit for changing things up and making life a little easier on Nashville goaltenders.

Saros finished this game against Calgary with 37 saves on 39 shots faced and has now improved his season save percentage to above 90 percent. It’s been below that for virtually the entire season. He also now has more regulation wins than losses with a 9-8-4 record.

How about the resurgence from Mikael Granlund? He’s suddenly morphing into the player we thought we originally were getting last season when he came here in exchange for Kevin Fiala.

Granlund now has five goals over his last eight games, and has gotten his season total to 12 goals now. Not spectacular, but he’s made up for some lost time and seems to be flourishing in Hynes’ new systems in place.

Granlund score the third goal for the Predators to make it 3-1, which ended up being enough to keep the game from going to overtime. It came on the power play as well on the only Predators power play all night.

Roman Josi tallied two more assists to get his season point total to 53 points in 53 games played. He’s maintained that point average all season and should be the Norris Trophy leading candidate.

If you’re a subscriber to The Athletic, you should definitely read Adam Vingan’s outstanding piece on why Josi should be the leading candidate:

I’m not ready to dive in head first on the Predators and their playoff hopes. However, I’m dipping my toe back in the pool and testing it out. They’re clearly trending back in the right direction and starting to show some consistency, finally.

They’re beating teams that are neck-and-neck with them in the standings. It’s crazy how quickly the mood can change, but proceed with caution on this one. This is a precaution for all of us fans to take.