Nashville Predators: Three Factors in the Overtime Win over Oilers

The eight-game losing streak to Connor McDavid and the Edmonton Oilers that dated back to 2019 finally ended on Monday for the Nashville Predators.

In a game that the Predators had the lead three times, the Oilers refused to go away thanks to two power play goals from Ryan Nugent-Hopkins and two assists from McDavid.

The Oilers power play went 2-for-3, and their one power play miss still resulted in a goal shortly after it expired as the Predators were scrambling to get organized after Cole Smith came out of the box.

Saying this was a badly needed win is an understatement. The Predators were on a six-game losing streak and sporting a power play that had only connected twice since November 21.

With the overtime win, scored by Alexandre Carrier on what was an odd and mistimed Oilers line change, the Nashville Predators moved to 13-13-4 for 30 points and six points behind the Oilers and Avalanche for a wildcard spot.

Here’s my three top factors in the 4-3 overtime win.

Draisaitl Doesn’t Haunt the Nashville Predators This Time

Leon Draisaitl basically should just call himself the new owner of the Nashville Predators franchise. At least until last night. The Predators managed to keep one of the most dangerous players in the league off the scoresheet, a monumental task to be quite frank.

Draisaitl, as usual, was all over the ice skating in the dangerous areas just lurking. Waiting to punch one past Juuse Saros. He had four shots on goal, and there were moments when he just shook his head in disappointment after a great save or broken up pass.

Coming into Monday’s game, Draisaitl had an astounding 35 career points in 22 games against the Nashville Predators, including five game-winning goals and 12 power play goals. Just insane individual domination over another franchise.

On this occasion, the Predators came to play on the defensive end. Despite surrendering the three goals, they played stout at 5v5 even strength. They protected their goaltender and kept Draisaitl to the outside mostly. They also got their sticks into passing lanes and had some pretty effective zone exits, unlike previous games in the losing streak.

Per Emma Lingan of the team’s official website, Head Coach John Hynes gives a bunch of the credit to keeping Draisaitl and his top line in check to the trio of Cody Glass, Nino Niederreiter and Mikael Granlund:

Draisaitl will probably haunt us again in the future, but it won’t happen during the regular season at least. The season series is over with the Oilers taking two of three by a score margin of 16-11.

Saros Does Saros Things, Gives Fans a Reason to Chant “JUUIIIICCEEE”

You might as well just copy and paste this into every win for the Nashville Predators. If Saros doesn’t show up, usually this team has no chance. Even when he does put together epic performances, his team routinely has come up short and not provided goal support.

Finally, Saros got some help on the scoreboard as the Predators struck first thanks to aggressive play with the puck from Tommy Novak, and

Mattias Ekholm

cleaning it up for a rebound goal:

I understand that Saros surrendered three goals against this stacked Oilers team that 5th in the NHL in goals per game at 3.58. He held them under their season average while making 30 saves.

Saros also came up just shy of saving an extra goal according to MoneyPuck, with a 0.91 Goals Saved Above Expected.

We knew the Oilers were going to bring the heat in the third period, and that why they did. McDavid comes flying into the neutral zone like a slingshot, and Saros had to use his elite movement in the crease and flexibility to be locked in.

The Oilers are a matchup nightmare for a low-scoring team like the Predators, but on this occasion, Saros was good enough to keep the Oilers below four goals and give his team a realistic chance to win.

Unfortunately, this is how high of a level Saros will have to continue to play at for the Predators to climb back into a playoff spot. In fact, he might have to kick it up even another gear unless more goal support is on its way.