Nashville Predators Quarterly Report Card: They Are So Grounded

Special Teams: F

This one is bad…like, really bad. Special teams feel like a foreign language to this team.

On the penalty kill, the team is ranked 30th out of 31 teams (gulp), only better than the New Jersey Devils – the last team John Hynes coached.

On the power play, the team is actually slightly improved from the past two years, ranking at 23rd in the NHL for power play goals, however, still being in the bottom third isn’t going to help much.

Divisionally, only the Red Wings are worse on the power play.

There’s a lot of coach speak that’s been circulated about how to improve the penalty kill and power play, and the penalty kill has vastly improved in the last few weeks since the Dallas series, but it’s still not a unit that can be depended on.

The power play on the other hand has shown a bit of a spark, and the second unit isn’t as bad as it was at the start of the season, much in part due to the addition of Eeli Tolvanen – the guy is putting in work and deserves more time, not just on the power play, but in the offense in general (just watch his shot release and you will see why).