The 2024-25 season for the Nashville Predators has been one filled with underperformances, and Juuse Saros too has had a tough year. He started the year hot in spite of the team struggling mightily, but has been unable to maintain that level with the team continuing to flounder, and he has a 2.95 goals against average and .898 save percentage.
One common and very valid devil's advocate for Saros is that he is getting completely left out to dry, as the Predators defense has been horrible and done him zero favors. Lots of goaltenders would struggle under such circumstances, but Saros is one of those who is expected to be a bonafide game changer in net.
He has struggled to shine throughout the tough moments, and some of the goals he has given up have been not great goals. That assessment might be a bit nitpicky, as the vast majority of his goals against have been grade A chances for the opposition, but the bottom line is that while the team around him has been awful, he has had to be better too.
Now he did just have an opportunity to regain some confidence as Finland's starting net minder at the 4 Nations Face-Off, but it did not go for him as anyone had hoped. Unfortunately, it was a very similar story to the one we have seen play out in Nashville this year - while he was put in horrible situations more often than not, he himself should have been better than he was.
Juuse Saros' performance at 4 Nations Face-Off is no reason for Nashville Predators to feel better about down year
It was an honor for Saros to come into the 4 Nations Face-Off as Finland's starting goaltender, but everyone knew the challenge would be immense. The Fins were, hands down, the worst all around team on paper, and that was even before losing multiple defensemen due to injury, including Miro Heiskanen.
It was going to be difficult as was for Saros to keep pucks out of the net, and we saw that on full display in the first game against Team USA. He actually started the game off alright, but ran out of good fortune as the game went on, allowing a whopping six goals in the end.
As was the case when facing Predators opponents, Saros got peppered on the majority of the goals, so it was understandable that his base stats were not good. However, the third goal he allowed on the night was one you would hope he stops, and the fourth one was a soft goal off a relatively harmless shot that he saw the whole way.
So once again, it was a similar story to his struggles in Nashville, while he was not done any favors, he also was not at the top of his game either. And Finland knew it too, as between the first bad game and the overall down year he has had, they benched Saros in the second game against Sweden in favor of Kevin Lankinen.
On a more fortunate note, those who have staunchly defended Saros were validated, because Lankinen struggled every bit as much if not more. He could not rise to the occasion and elevate his team, giving up seven goals in under two total games played. Of course, Lankinen did not have it easy stopping pucks either, but Finland was looking for him to provide a spark and give them better play in goal, and that did not happen.
It was bad enough that Lankinen was yanked from the starter's crease in their final game against Canada, and Saros was put back in. Saros thankfully did not allow a goal in over a period and a half of play that game, but he did not exactly face many difficult shots. so it was not a total relief watching him in that game.
While people like myself want Saros to be a little better than he has been this year, it has also not been super easy to judge his performance with everything else around him, and the same thing happened at the 4 Nations Face-Off.
Of course, nobody is out here saying that Saros is no longer a starting caliber goaltender after this one bad year, he was top 5 in Vezina voting each of the past three years before this one. The year before that, he finished number 6 on that list.
It is likely that he is just going through a rough time and will bounce back eventually, but the Predators need to see strong play from him down the stretch. If nothing else, they need a reason to feel legitimately encouraged by him, considering the huge contract he signed last offseason.
Unfortunately, the fact is it has not been a good year for Saros, and while the 4 Nations Face-Off might have validated those who are giving him a pass due to everything else around him, it did not give anyone a reason to legitimately feel better about his struggles, and that is what we were hoping to see.