Terrible Offensive Play
The Nashville Predators offense has, well, for lack of better term, sucked this year. This organization has scored 142 goals through 51 games. Their inability to score goals has them tied with the Montreal Canadiens for 29th in the league in goals scored.
Only the Columbus Blue Jackets, Anaheim Ducks, and Chicago Blackhawks have scored fewer goals this season, and these are all teams buried deep down in the standings.
Josi leads the club in total points with 44 (13 G, 31A), followed by Forsberg (19 G, 23 A) and Duchene (16 G, 26 A) tied for second with 42 points each. When year after year you have a defenseman leading the scoring for your team, you are not set up for success in this league.
The Predators have the offensive firepower on this roster, but they are not playing to their expectations.
Josi told the team’s website following the loss to the Coyotes that the team got plenty of offensive chances, but just couldn’t finish:
"“It’s obviously frustrating. I thought we had more chances and more O-zone time, especially in the second. We had a lot of good looks and a lot of O-zone time, but we just couldn’t find a way to score more goals. And then in the third period they scored and they got the deciding goal and we didn’t.”"
The Predators average 2.7 goals per game and sit in 26th in the league in that category. They are one of only nine teams averaging less than three goals per game. Again, when as a team you are only beating two teams in your division in goals per game, you will not win games.
This team has got to find a way to start scoring more goals or they are not going to have a choice but to go into a complete rebuild. Year after year they have been just good enough to make the playoffs and have a mediocre draft pick, but I believe that ends this season. With the goal scoring how it has been, and the inconsistent play of this team, I feel a rebuild is looming and this team will miss the playoffs this season.