Nashville Predators: Prevailing Theme of the Surprise Success is Resiliency

There’s a major theme that you can’t help but associate with this Nashville Predators team, and that’s the term “resiliency”. I can’t recall too many occassions this season where they’ve just packed it in early when things don’t go their way.

Head Coach John Hynes uses the team’s identity as the reason they’ve had success through the first half of the season, and with that identity comes resiliency. The team just refuses to quit in pressure situations, whereas past Nashville Predators teams in recent memory folded on a regular basis when things didn’t go according to plan.

Of course we can’t get enough of the flashiness of Filip Forsberg, Roman Josi, Mikael Granlund and Matt Duchene this season. These highly-touted star players are stepping up to the plate to propel the Predators way past initial expectations.

However, it’s really the glue guys that are making this team whole again. Players that refuse to quit, check their egos at the door and don’t mind missing out on all the glory as long as it means the team gets those two points in the standings.

Tanner Jeannot is the perfect emodiement of that vital trait as he’s finally starting to get talk in the Calder Trophy race among national pundits, including from the ESPN broadcast following the Predators’ 4-2 win over the Kraken on Tuesday night:

Carrying this to the playoffs will be vital for the Nashville Predators

It’s looking highly probable that the Nashville Predators willl make the Stanley Cup Playoffs for the eighth-straight season. According to MoneyPuck.com, the Predators have over a 90 percent chance to make the playoffs.

In a season that was tagged by most, including th Predators’ front office themselves as a “compeitive rebuild”, the Predators are not only hanging around in the playoff picture, but they’ve even got a reasonable chance to heavily push the Avalanche for the division’s top spot.

But we all know everything changes once you’re in the playoff field. It’s a battle of attrition, and the Predators carry that reputation perfectly from game-to-game. They hit hard, they get into the opponent’s head, and they forecehck relentlessly.

When you see upsets in the playoffs, it’s usually because the underdog simply outworked the other team that maybe had a better roster on paper. That’s how the Predators are winning games now, and it’s what they’re going to have to keep doing if they’re going to finally get past the first round for the first time since 2017-18.

The Predators have 21 wins and no regulation losses when leading after two periods this season. When they carry that lead into the final frame they’ve shown that they’re extremely effective at staying focused and not letting up.

Another area where the Predators are showing a ton of resiliency is in their improvement on the penalty, and thankfully so considering they lead the NHL in both total penalty minutes and penalty minutes per game:

The penalty kill has surprisingly gotten much more reliable thanks to newcomers like Jeannot, Alexandre Carrier, Colton Sissons  and Luke Kunin. These are the hardworking, grind-it-out types of players that make a penalty kill unit successful.

After having one of the worst penalty kills last season (29th), the Predators are up to 12th this season. A vast improvement that shouldn’t be overlooked in their surprsing success.

And it’s also no secret that that the Predators pile up the hits on a nightly basis, as they’re sixth in the NHL in hits per 60 minutes.

The Predators have that resiliency that gives them a puncher’s chance to make some noise when and if they get into the playoff field. It’s obviously going to be about drawing the right matchup, but their playing style has me optimistic that they can pull off an upset or two if they keep playing with this tenacity into the playoffs.