New Season, Fresh Slate, But Same Struggles for the Nashville Predators?

Well Nashville Predators fans, we have made it, the 2023-24 Nashville Predators season is less than a week away. It seems like it has been forever since April 14th when the Predators skated off the ice for the final time of 2022-23 after missing the playoffs for the first time in eight years, but putting up a valiant effort after the roster had been decimated.

But finally, the wait is over, and there is plenty to be excited about for this Nashville Predators team that feels like new era.

There is a new General Manager in Barry Trotz, a new Head Coach in Andrew Brunette, and plenty of several new faces that will be wearing that beautiful Predators sweater this season.

So, the question has to be asked, with all these changes, can we expect a significant change in on-ice production this year? Defense and goaltending have always been a high-caliber product in Nashville but there are a few other areas that the Predators need to improve on if they do not want to start a, missing the playoffs streak this season.

The main areas that this Predators team needs to improve on are the power play, discipline, and finding a way to put the puck in the back of the net, in my opinion.

Poor Power Play Performance

The 2022-2023 Nashville Predators power play, well, it sucked. Having a total of 250 power play opportunities and only scoring 44 goals for a 17.6% success rate is horrendous and pushed them back to 27th in the NHL.

When you look across the league, last year the NHL average power play percentage was 21.31%. The Edmonton Oilers led the way with 32.36% and the Philadelphia Flyers found themselves at the bottom of the league with 15.56%.

Seeing as how the Predators, during the 2021-22 season were ranked 6th on the man advantage and then one season later, fell to 27th in the league, definitely should have fans concerned.

Now part of the reason for this fall off is due to the large number of games missed by four top power play unit pieces. Roman Josi, Filip Forsberg, Matt Duchene, and Ryan Johansen all missed significant time last year.

In saying that though, those four players combined for a total of 306 games played in the 2021-22 season and scored 48 power play goals for an average of .16 per game.

One season later, they combined for 243 games and only had 22 power play goals for a .09 average per game. So, even when they were in the game, they played at a much lower level than they had previously.

This season, the power play units will look significantly different with the Predators no longer having Duchene and Johansen. What would a top power play unit look like this season?

I think the Predators will go with a top power play unit of Josi, Forsberg, Thomas Novak, Juuso Parssinen, and Luke Evangelista. The mix of veterans and youthful speed and talent could potentially make an extremely dangerous top power play unit.

Too Many Penalties

One the other side of things, not only were the Predators terrible on the man advantage, but they gave up the man advantage way too many times.

The Predators had the seventh highest number of power play opportunities against with 275. Lucky for them, they had killers that were phenomenal at what they did and had an 82.55% penalty kill rate.

In saying that, if each penalty the Predators took was a two-minute penalty, that would equate to 27 and a half periods of hockey that they would have played a man down. When you spend the equivalent to nine games over the course of an 82-game season, you don’t give yourself a chance to win most nights or score a lot of goals for that matter.

To put that into perspective, the Vegas Golden Knights, on their way to a Stanley Cup, had the fewest number of power play opportunities against at 195.  If you play a more disciplined style of hockey and take fewer penalties, you give yourself a better opportunity to win every time you hit the ice and the Golden Knights showed that last season in a big way.

Speed added into the lineup should help with this. When you are slower than the opposing team, you are more likely to commit those stupid minor penalties like the hooks, slashes, and trips. With Brunette focusing more on speed, I would expect for the Predators penalty minutes to drop this season.

Goal Scorer Needed

In recent years, the Predators have relied heavily on Josi and Forsberg to be the main scoring force of the team. However, also in recent years, both of these players have struggled with injuries.

With the departure of Duchene, the franchises single season goals record holder, the Predators need someone else to step up and score goals at a high rate of efficiency.

The last time that Forsberg played a full season was during the 2016-17 season. Josi came close to playing a full season during the 2021-22 season however has not played a complete 82-game slate since 2019-20.

The Predators had just one player score over 20 goals one season ago with only nine players scoring ten or more.

When you look at goals scored across the league, the Predators ranked 28th, with three of the four teams trailing them being the three lowest ranking teams at the seasons end.

This organization has to get out of the mindset of a solid blue line and goaltending can win hockey games without also having reliable goal scoring.

I foresee someone like Novak, Philip Tomasino, Cody Glass, or Evangelista having a breakout season and being that goal scorer that the Nashville Predators need to relieve some pressure off of Josi and Forsberg to be the primary scorers.