Nashville Predators: Craig Smith Tallies the Hat Trick in Dominant Win

We got a big taste of what the Nashville Predators can be capable of when everyone shows up. Craig Smith led the way early and often.

What a response by the Nashville Predators last after after being embarrassed by the Vancouver Canucks earlier in the week.

The Predators never left this one in doubt as they cruised to a 5-0 shutout win over the New York Islanders, which was just their third home win in nearly two months.

It was awesome to see the home fans finally treated to a dominant performance by the Predators after not seeing them play at Bridgestone Arena much recently.

The schedule turns heavily to home games for the rest of the month as the Predators play six of their next eight at home.

We need to see that home record back to where we’re used to seeing it as it’s just 12-11-4 after last night’s win.

Craig Smith is surging

Everyone watch out because Craig Smith is on fire right now, and is just what the Predators need more of from other star players on the team.

More from Predlines

• Nashville Predators 2023 Training Camp Spotlight: Kiefer Sherwood
• Captain Candidates if Nashville Predators Didn’t Have Roman Josi
• The All-Time 25 Games or Less Nashville Predators Lineup
• Nashville Predators 2023 Training Camp Spotlight: Cody Glass
• Joakim Kemell Flashes his Offense in Nashville Predators Loss to Tampa

Smith wasted no time taking control of momentum for the Predators, scoring just 35 seconds in on a wrister that was officially unassisted.

Just an absolute hustle play as he stole the puck deep in New York’s zone and capped it off with a gorgeous goal.

The entire Nick Bonino line, as we’ve become accustomed to this season, clicked early and often in this game. Smith would tally another goal about seven minutes later in the first period thanks to hard work on the boards from Bonino and Rocco Grimaldi.

Check out Smith’s second goal of the night courtesy of NHL.com:

Smith’s third goal to cap off his first career NHL hat trick over halfway through the 2nd period on another wrist shot, and Roman Josi would tally the assist.

I’m actually pretty surprised that this is Smith’s first career hat trick considering how long he’s been playing and how many 20-goal seasons he’s piled up.

Juuse Saros gets the shutout

It was an efficient and well-executed game from everyone involved last night, but Saros made the timely saves when he needed to. And the Islanders were getting their opportunities early in the game.

Saros finishes the game with 31 saves for his second shutout of the season ninth of his career. He’s gotten his save percentage above 90 now after playing very well in his last four starts.

There’s no doubt that the Predators can do some damage in the playoffs if they start supporting their goaltenders better, and for whatever reason they seem to do that more so with Saros in net.

As much as we love Pekka Rinne and forever indebted to what he’s done for the Predators franchise, it’s probably time for Saros to move ahead and get most of the starts down the stretch.

There’s a back-to-back coming up with the St.Louis Blues, so Saros and Rinne will split those two critical games with the Central Division leader.

Standings update and wildcard push

This big win has them sweep the two-game season series over the Islanders in dominant fashion by a margin of 13-3.

It’s not like the Islanders are pushovers in the Eastern Conference, so to show this kind of dominance over two games is pretty astonishing by the Predators.

The Predators are at 61 points now and still have games in hand over teams surrounding them, including four games in hand over the Arizona Coyotes and three games in hand over the Calgary Flames.

The Winnipeg Jets are at 63 points and also ahead of the Predators currently as the log jam for the two wildcard spots continues to build. You really have around eight or nine teams all in play for shifting around and possibly ending up in those two wildcard spots.

It’s pretty far-fetched for the Predators to have any hopes of climbing up to the top-three of the division. The wildcard is probably their only hope.

Out of all the teams pushing for the wildcard spot or are currently on the outside looking in, the Predators have the best team.

Can they put it all together finally and string together a long stretch of solid hockey that we’ve been waiting for since October? That’s the key question that I’m not sure about.