They're not getting any style points for this win, but the Nashville Predators did end their six-game losing streak by beating the last place team in the East, the Buffalo Sabres on Saturday night.
The win sends the Predators into the Four Nations Face-off break with the third-lowest point total in the entire NHL, only ahead of the San Jose Sharks and the Chicago Blackhawks.
The Predators will have two weeks off, with Filip Forsberg, Gustav Nyquist and Juuse Saros suiting up for their respective countries in the inaugural Four Nations Face-off, which begins on Wednesday February 12 with Canada versus Sweden.
Standouts from Nashville Predators win over Sabres
O'Reilly's Line puts on dominant offensive performance
The line that carried the Predators out of their six-game losing streak on Saturday goes to the Ryan O'Reilly, Forsberg, Jonathan Marchessault line. They feasted and showed off some rare flashy offense that this team has lacked for most of the season.
Brady Skjei also had his best game with the Predators, scoring two goals with the help from O'Reilly's crafty passing.
Forsberg also gets a pair of goals, putting him at the 20-goal mark for the ninth time of his NHL career. His first came on the power play off a rebound and wide open net, and his second of the night comes on some gorgeous displays of chemistry between Marchessault, O'Reilly and Forsberg for the one-timer.
O'Reilly would put up four assists in the game, bringing his season total to 20. Marchessault would tack on three assists of his own and a goal, moving him up to 44 points on the season and second on the team only behind Forsberg.
Defensive breakdowns and turnovers still plaguing the team
Good thing the aforementioned O'Reilly line came up feast, because there were more turnovers and defensive breakdowns to sort out. And while Justus Annunen did make some clutch saves, he also wasn't coming to save the day. The offense just had to finally show up to avoid a seventh-straight loss.
This is going to be a theme for the rest of the season; the lines are going to continue to be a jumbled mess with guys returning from injuries eventually, and also with the looming trade deadline. It's going to be very difficult to build any kind of cohesive unit that can avoid these costly giveaways in your own zone.
The Predators had 16 giveaways in this one, but the Sabres gave the puck away even more with 19. The passing at times was a little better, but still needs a lot of work. Many times the team just has an enormous amount of trouble just exiting the zone, just see the example of Luke Schenn constantly passing the puck to the other team.
To Schenn's credit, he was a wrecking ball in this one, piling up 11 hits and three blocks. That's worth commending for sure, and also might raise some interest from potential playoff buyers if he can keep that play up before the trade deadline.
The Predators have lost their identity of being a super physical team this year. They've been bullied around a lot, but not so in this game. A strong effort in the physicality department, totaling 33 hits and a very impressive 26 blocked shots.
Safe to say the prime x-factor, along with the O'Reilly line, was the Predators finding the grit and determination to block so many shots.
The youth is getting their playing time and growing pains
You're going to have to be willing to take a lot of negative results if you truly want to see the Predators play youth and inexperience. I'm in that boat of wanting to see the younger players get their chance to shine and show us what we got going into 2025-26.
Joakim Kemell got to start his second NHL game after putting up seven shots on goal in his debut on Friday against the Blackhawks. Kemell would get just one shot on net in this one in 8:57 of ice time.
With Zachary L'Heuruex missing the game due to injury, Ozzy Wiesblatt started in his third NHL game. Wiesblatt got 13:06 of ice time with one hit and one shot on net.
Fedor Svechkov saw just 6:45 of ice time, hardly enough time to even break a sweat. He did get in on the block party with two blocks and also a hit.
With a top-five draft pick really being the biggest prize left for this team to claim from the 2024-25 season, playing the youth will be important down the stretch. It's hard to do right now because there's still a lot of veterans hanging around with uncertain long-term futures with the team.
After the trade deadline, will see many of these young players get much more playing and heavier minutes. That might mean taking a lot more losses due to the inexperience and rookie mistakes, but in the end it will be worth it from a development standpoint and locking in a top-five draft.
Overall, I'll call this a character win for the Predators. Again, not pretty or flashy at all, but it shows this team is going to keep grinding. I unfortunately didn't see that against the Blackhawks the night before, but I'll give them credit for not letting it linger into the following game.
The Predators will come out of the Four Nations Face-off tournament on February 22 with a four-game homestand starting against the Colorado Avalanche. That starts a brutal four-game stretch at home that's also against the New Jersey Devils, Florida Panthers and Winnipeg Jets.