Nashville Predators Refuse to Bow Out of Playoff Race, Roast the Blues

There’s pretty much no room left for anymore blemishes for the Nashville Predators, and a loss against the St. Louis Blue would’ve been really made it almost impossible to recover from.

In quick and efficient fashion, the Predators took care of their old division rival with six goals and their first game all season of being up 4-0 in a game.

With the final score of 6-1, Nashville moves to 38-29-8 and notches their 19th win of the season at Bridgestone Arena. This splits the season series at 2-2, with the Predators getting five of a possible eight points.

How it Unfolded Between Blues & Preds

Immediately you saw the Predators get way more room to operate offensively than their previously two matchups against Pittsburgh and Boston that saw the Predators manage just two goals.

Luke Evanglelista and Tommy Novak took over this game from the onset with great puck handling and smooth skating. Novak got the Predators on the board first with his 15th of the season as Evangelista had a pinpoint accurate backhand pass to beat St. Louis goaltender Thomas Greiss.

Novak and Evangelista would be in on Nashville’s second goal of the afternoon less than three minutes later as Cody Glass connected on the power play. A troubled area for the Predators as of late, and really for the whole season, so this was refreshing to see.

The Blues would really offer little pushback as the game wore on into the second period. With a Blues power play and some bad penalties taken by Nashville, Colton Sissons got loose for a shorthanded goal for his fourth shorty of his NHL career.

Evangelista would then pile it on even more for the hapless Blues by notching his sixth goal of the season and really giving the Predators a comfortable lead.

Another shutout spoiled for Juuse Saros as he let an uncharacteristic soft goal by to allow the Blues to avoid getting completely blanked.

Saros joins Pekka Rinne and Tomas Vokoun as the only goaltenders in Nashville Predators history to log consecutive 30-win seasons.

The Predators would tack on two more goals from Yakov Trenin and Philip Tomasino to remain by an ever so slim margin alive in the playoff race. They’re going to need Winnipeg and Calgary to really choke down the stretch to have any chance of extending their postseason streak to nine consecutive years.

Just the fact that the Nashville Predators haven’t been completely eliminated going into the final seven games of the regular season is an incredible feat on its own. They sold heavy at the trade deadline and along with that have been dealt one major injury setback after another.

The Predators called up Spencer Stastney to make his NHL debut, making him the 38th player that has suited up for a game this season. He put three shots on goal in 13:16 of ice time as a former 7th-round pick in 2018.

Next up the Nashville Predators will have a very difficult back-to-back against Dallas and Vegas. If they somehow figure out a way to pull off two upsets in a row, then the playoff noise will get louder. A tall order, but for now, they’re still alive in the postseason race.