Three Reasons to Be Cautiously Optimistic about the Nashville Predators

Nashville Predators Always Have a Puncher’s Chance with Juice

After another shaky start to his season, Juuse Saros is starting to cook again. He’s making sizeable impacts to help the Predators get these recent wins.

Saros has won six of his last eight starts, and one of those losses came in overtime to the Tampa Bay Lightning and he gave up just two goals in regulation to finish with 36 saves.

The fact is the Predators as a whole were also playing terrible around Saros to open the season, and they too have gradually shown some improvement as was already mentioned on the previous slide.

More goal support is a must to really get the Predators back in good territory, but their power play remains the biggest eyesore on this team.

When you play formidable defense in front of Saros, he is one of the toughest goaltenders to beat in the NHL. When he’s not getting bombarded for high danger chance after high danger chance and power play after power play, he usually puts you in great position to win the game.

Saros sits ninth in the NHL in total Expected Goals Against, and is trending back upward in terms of Saves Above Expected. It’s a direct correlation to why the Predators have been finding ways to win lately.

Now of course the season comes at your in waves and Saros might very well hit another cold stretch. The guy is human after all, and I still don’t have soaring confidence in the Predators defensive core to not get carved up against the NHL’s most elite teams.

With that said, the Nashville Predators always have a chance to go on a hot streak and climb back into a strong position in the standings when a goaltender like Saros is in the mix. Not to be overlooked, Kevin Lankinen remains a quality backup as well.