Nashville Predators Playoff History: The Five Best Individual Performances

An Unlikely Hero Delivers the First Taste of Postseason Success

April 24th, 2011- Game 6 First Round vs. Anaheim Ducks

Anyone remember Nick Spaling? I know some of the newbies to the Nashville Predators fanbase may not, and that’s perfectly fine, but in the early days this team had blue collar written all over them.

In the 2011 Stanley Cup Playoffs, the Nashville Predators had yet to win a first round series in their history. They had made the playoffs in five of the previous six seasons, so making it into the dance was starting to become the norm. The next step was obviously getting past the first round.

Spaling had not been in the NHL for very long up to this point. He was drafted in 2007 as a second-round pick by the Predators, and had just completed his second season in the NHL by playing in 74 games with just eight goals.

So how unlikely is it that Spaling tallied not one, but two goals in this deciding Game 6 win for the Predators to help them secure their first ever playoff series win? And it was a series of dramatic swings.

After winning Game 1, the Predators would proceed to lose Game 2 and the series would go on to be tied 2-2. Many were sweating out the notion that it was going to be another hard-fought first round series loss.

Spaling kept this from going to Game 7 with his two goals, both being assisted by Jordin Tootoo.

Those two goals would be the only two goals Spaling would score in his playoff career for the Predators. He would go on to score just one more playoff goal in his NHL career while playing for the Pittsburgh Penguins.