Week 5-6 Nashville Predators Observations: Why Isn’t It Working

The Predators are scoring and playing well, but nothing seems to be working. They are having serious trouble recording wins right now and despite their strategy for offense working, the defense is lagging behind.

Last 2 Weeks 1-4-0 Season Record 6-10-0 12 points .375 Winning % 7th in the Central Division 13th in the Western Conference 28th in the NHL

Let’s Be Clear

The Predators are not a cellar dwelling team. The roster is too good for that. This also isn’t a team that is currently playing poorly. Their goals against is 15th in the league, and they have two point per game players in Filip Forsberg and (almost) Ryan O’Reilly.

Barry Trotz fired off this quote the other day, when talking about placing the very productive Thomas Novak on IR “I was trying to be transparent with our fans. We could be not so good or we could be sneaky good. I just don’t know.” This team is much closer to sneaky good, even with some major holes in the lineup currently. The overhaul in roster and play style is creating a lot of change, but not so much that this team will be in the bottom half for very long.

Not So Juuse

The biggest concern for the Predators right now has to be the play of Juuse Saros. The goalie who is typically amongst the league’s best is currently sitting on a save percentage of .892, and a goals against average of 3.23, good. for 39th and 35th respectively.

He hasn’t played up to the level accustomed. Yes, he’s missing two major defense pieces in front of him, and is 11th in shots faced, but usually that isn’t an issue for Saros. Eventually he’ll come out of this stretch and wins should pile up.

Predators Depth Testing

With the rash of injury games being lost, we’ve seen a lot of different lineup combinations. Players like Marc Del Gazio and Michael McCarron seem to be making the most of their chances in the lineup. Philip Tomasino is clinging to his spot and seems to be out of his scoring funk. Liam Foudy is getting time and zipping around out there. Spencer Stastney has gotten a game. Cole Smith is taking his chance to be a regular and already has a few fights, and has tied his career high in goals.

Part of what has made this such a tough stretch is the shuffling of the lineup, but as the team keeps working and gels together the differences will be made up. It seems like depth has a real shot at being a strength for this team going forward.