Nashville Predators Problems: The Penalty Kill Is Killing this Team

There are major problems for the Nashville Predators right now at 5-9-0 on the young season, and the penalty kill has emerged as the most troublesome.

The season is still in the early stages, but the penalty kill has found ways to actively hurt the Predators as they face tough competition night in and night out.

For a quick numbers breakdown, they’ve been scored on 42 times in 14 games. Of those, 13 of those markers have come from the power play. So that means power plays are beating the kill at a 30.23% clip.

Obviously the sample size is small, but a 69.77% success rate on the penalty kill is no way to start stacking wins.

What is Factoring into the Nashville Predators Penalty Kill Problems?

Are there some excuses built into this number? Sure. Not having Luke Schenn was bound to factor into that, and missing Ryan McDonagh all of sudden might play another factor in it.

Jeremy Lauzon hasn’t been up to snuff numbers wise either. Now this should be a moment for some of the other defenders to take a chance at stepping up, but so far it has not happened. The forwards are also dealing with some issues to start off the season, as the collective bunch has been able to help out the kill by stifling zone entries and killing time.

The typical adage is that your best penalty killer has to be your goaltender. You would be hard pressed to find anyone who would find fault with the play of Juuse Saros and Kevin Lankinen thus far. Both have been good in their time in the net, and likely the team’s penalty kill numbers could be even worse without them.

The Predators have a great collection of talent. They have speed at all positions, physicality, and high hockey IQs all around. Their penalty killing will get better as the season goes on. The question is how much better?

For the Predators to be a playoff team they are going to have to be in the top half of the league, and likely the top 10. It will be a long climb from 31st.