It's just one game and one initinitial test for the suddensuddenly young Nashville Predators, but they came out against the Boston Bruins on Thursday night at home ready to show their fans they're going to keep grinding for a wildcard spot.
The Predators played aggressive and free in their offensive attack to score five goals and tack on an empty netter to get a 6-3 win with prospects all over the starting lineup including Matthew Wood, Joakim Kemell, Ozzy Wiesblatt, Zachary L'Heureux, Fedor Svechkov and Ryan Ufko.
You can argue that Wood has already graduated from prospect status and is here to stay in a prominent role going into 2026-2027. Now it's time for the rest of these guys to show that they belong in the future of a new era of Predators hockey.
How could you not be impressed with the confidence of Wood last night, which he has really shown for pretty much the entire rookie season fo himself. He's now up to 12 goals and should keekeep getting hard looks at center to see if that's a viable option for next season.
In just his second career NHL game, Ufko looked very comfortable out there and even registered his first NHL point while on the power play with Filip Forsberg and Steven Stamkos. Forsberg got the goal. Ufko would have 14:23 of ice time and one shot on goal.
Nashville Predators pass first test showing they're not giving up on playoff dreams
You saw a lot more speed from this team, but much less physicalkty witout the traded Michael McCarron, Cole Smith and Michael Bunting. On top of that, Ryan O'Reilly was out with an injury he took to his eye in the previous game. This matchup on paper had the look of being a lopsided night with a lot of growing pains.
More trades could still be coming on Friday. Jonathan Marchessault and Erik Haula, two more veteran forwards, remain top targets. If they're traded, then Nashville's lineup will truly be blown up. Does this inspired performance against Boston make GM Barry Trotz pump the brakes on additional trades? So far he has really only moved on from expiring deals he had to move, and did pretty nice work getting draft capital including a 3rd for Bunting and a 2nd for McCarron.
Trading Haula would leave another huge void at the center role, and there has also been talks about extending him in Nashville. I actually like the idea of getting a team-friendly deal to keep Haula. However, this does appear to be Svechkov's second chance fo prove himself at center. He looked really poised and locked in against Boston, so that's a positive sign.
Let's see where the dust settles after the trade deadline passes. The Predators sit just tree points back of the last wildcard spot with 20 games left.