Three Things that are Plaguing the Nashville Predators into Mediocrity

Poor Performing Power Play

The Nashville Predators power play has been horrendous this season. On the power play, the Predators are passing the puck too much, not taking the goalie’s eyes away, and not getting the puck to the net. All these things have played key factors into their poor performance.

When it comes to the power play, the Predators have had 164 opportunities and have only converted on 27 of those chances. To put that into perspective, the league average is 168 opportunities and 36 power play goals. The Predators have had roughly the same number of chances as the rest of league and have almost ten goals less than the league average.

The Predators power play percentage is currently at 16.46% with the league average being 21.72%. With only three power play goals in their last ten games, Head Coach John Hynes and the power play units need to fix this broken mess if they want to be in contention for wins, we will not even mention being in contention for the playoffs at this point.

The top power play unit for the Predators, consisting of Roman Josi, Filip Forsberg, Matt Duchene, Ryan Johansen, and Mikael Granlund, have scored 20 of the power play goals for this club.

With Forsberg currently out of the lineup and Philip Tomasino getting called up, it should be expected that this power play unit will struggle even more in his absence.

Then there are the shorthanded opportunities that the Predators have given up.

Due to the excessive passing around the point instead of shooting the puck, the Predators have turned the puck over several times while on the power play and have given up four shorthanded goals. When you give up 14.8% of the number of power play goals you have as shorthanded goals, you are destined to lose games.