Special Teams for the Nashville Predators is Turning a Corner
By Kyle Fleming
The Toronto Maple Leafs are up next for the 3-4-0 Nashville Predators, who seem to be turning a corner on special teams to turn it into a strength for the team.
Over the first four games of the season, to put it quite frankly, the penalty kill and power play both were horrendous. However, over the course of the last three games, these are both areas that have seen significant improvement.
It should be expected that with new players and first year Head Coach Andrew Brunette, that it would take some time for us to start seeing actual results on the ice.
Honestly, I am surprised that it seems like they were able to pick up on the new system as fast as they have. I was expecting it to take seven to ten games to see a difference.
Without further ado, let’s jump right into the two special teams’ aspects of this Nashville Predators team.
Nashville Predators Penalty Killing
The Nashville Predators started off the season going 8 of 12 on the kill during their first three games.
Now, I did leave off the stats from the fourth game of the season against the Edmonton Oilers, because their power play is so lethal, I don’t feel like you can use that as a good measuring stick for your penalty kill. If you count in that game, the Predators were 9 of 15 on the penalty kill in the first four games.
Since that Edmonton game, the Predators have gone six for seven when playing with a man in the box.
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Over the first three games of the season, the Predators were 67% when playing down a man. Count in the game that shall not be mentioned, and they were performing at a 60% kill rate.
Fast forward to games five through seven of the season and the Predators have improved to a 70% penalty kill percentage. Now that may not sound like much but giving up one less power play goal over the course of every ten penalties will pay dividends over the course of the season.
Colton Sissons also has a shorthanded goal. This came against the Seattle Kraken. Looking back to last season, it took the Predators until 24th game to score a shorthanded goal.
Part of the reason for the success of this Predators penalty kill is due to the level of play of killers like Sissons, Ryan McDonagh, Alexandre Carrier, Cole Smith and Yakov Trenin.
Combined, these five skaters have put their bodies in front of the puck 55 times through seven games. Add that to their 52 hits and Sissons’ ability to win the important defensive zone faceoffs and you have a penalty kill that can be leaned on in critical moments. Especially in a tie game scenario.
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Overall, the Predators penalty kill is performing better than expected at this early point. If they continue this trend, they can finish among some of the better penalty kills in the NHL around 78 to 82 percent success rate.
Nashville Predators Power Play is Showing Life
On the flip side of things when playing with the man advantage, it downright sucked to start the season. But that should’ve been expected.
They were a terrible 2 of 17 through their first four games. Having an 8.5% success rate when playing with the extra skater is not a method for winning games at all. Important to remember that it was a very small sample size, and thing appear to be coming back to a more realistic number.
Luckily for Predators fans, it seems as though they may have turned things around in this area of special teams as well already, netting four power play goals in their last three games on twelve power play opportunities. Players are grasping what Brunette is teaching.
That’s an improvement of 21.5% when being on the power play. That is huge for a team learning a new system to go from an 8.5% power play rate in the first four games to a 30% success rate over the next three.
Thomas Novak leads the Predators in goals on the man advantage with three. Filip Forsberg, Ryan O’Reilly, and Samuel Fagemo all have one goal to their name and 13 players on this roster have at least a point with the other team in the sin bin.
Some of the biggest things that have stood out about the Predators power play is their puck movement. The passing has been very good, and the level of play of Gustav Nyquist, Novak, and Fagemo.
I do not see this Predators power play slowing down anytime soon, and as long as it doesn’t, then they could be one of the most lethal power play units in the NHL.
The Predators need to be a team that teams fear taking penalties against, and they are getting so close to being there.
