If you've been watching this Nashville Predators team even on a casual basis this season, then you probably had a feeling that even a four-goal lead wasn't safe against the Vegas Golden Knights.
Although it certainly didn't come easy, the Predators avoided blowing a 4-0 lead and managed to win their 1,000th game as an NHL franchise by beating one of the top dogs in the Western Conference standings. It's only the 12th regulation loss for the Golden Knights in 44 games played.
The Predators move ahead of the San Jose Sharks at the bottom of the Western Conference standings, but are still 14 points behind the wildcard race. A matchup with the last-place Chicago Blackhawks is up next.
Steven Stamkos has a multi-goal night
The top line keeps building chemistry with Stamkos as the center. With the benefit of hindsight, everyone is wondering what could've been if this would've been the top line to open the season, instead of putting Stamkos on the second line wing with Tommy Novak as the center.
It's Stamkos' first three-point game as a member of the Predators, and his sixth multi-point game of the season. He's up to 14 goals and 14 assists on the season, still well-behind his 81-point showing in his last season with the Tampa Bay Lightning.
The two-goal night for Stamkos is also his 99th multi-goal game of his career. Among active players, Stamkos only trails Alexander Ovechkin and Sidney Crosby for the most goals. Stamkos now has 569 career goals.
Steven Stamkos' 99th career multi-goal game helped the @PredsNHL reach the 1,000-win milestone in notable fashion. 👏 #NHLStats: https://t.co/Reb8bCollE pic.twitter.com/3PnQyg7asn
— NHL Public Relations (@PR_NHL) January 15, 2025
To open the score midway through the first period, Stamkos was in as close to you can get to a goalie without getting goalie interference. Filip Forsberg made the pass across the crease, while credit is also owed to Jonathan Marchessault for making the aggressive move towards the net to open up the scoring chance.
Stamkos then won a faceoff in the offensive zone shortly after, and Forsberg stole it off the faceoff. That made it 2-0 early on, while the Golden Knights still were without a shot on goal.
With the offensive zone pressure continuing into the second period, Marchessault would again generate a scoring chance with Stamkos being the beneficiary with his awareness off the puck. Again in close, Stamkos would easily beat Ilya Samsonov.
So the Predators top line of Stamkos, Forsberg and Marchessault stay hot and it's encouraging to see what kind of big numbers they'll be able to put up in the second half of the season. And I'm sure it felt great for Marchessault against his former team to have some success and get the win even though this season has been pretty awful.
Forsberg suddenly has a 3-game goal streak
After a career-long 18-game goal drought, Forsberg has now scored goals in three consecutive games. Just after the drought reached 18 games, I said on the Catfish On Ice Podcast that Forsberg didn't magically forget how to score goals. Turns out he hasn't. He just needed some puck luck to go his way.
Forsberg is up to 37 points on the season and leads the team in that category, with second being Marchessault with 32 points and Roman Josi in third with 29 points.
The Predators have one of the worst team shooting percentages we've seen in a long time, and Forsberg hasn't been able to escape that ugly trend. Forsberg currently has a 8.4 shooting percentage, which is about four percentage points below is career average.
With the playoffs being a fantasy at this point, it's still encouraging to see Forsberg get back to the goal scoring level we know he's capable of.
Justus Annunen keeps impressing in clutch moments
It isn't easy for a goalie to go a large portion of the game without seeing many shots, and then suddenly get blasted with an onslaught in the second half of the game. That's what happened against the Golden Knights, and it shouldn't be all that surprising.
The Golden Knights flipped the momentum of the game shortly after the Predators went up 4-0 in the second period. Annunen would give up two quick goals, but where he really impressed me was in the third period.
With the Predators in danger of squandering a four-goal lead and finding another way to lose, Annunen had to hold off the Golden Knights. He would face 13 shots in the third period, while the Predators managed just two shots on net.
It was all on Annunen to get this thing to the finish line, but Vegas would add another goal to shrink the deficit to only one goal. It could've easily been a tie game and going to overtime if Annunen didn't perform at a high level in the third period.
I know the save percentage isn't great from this one, but sometimes you have to look at the quality of saves in certain moments. Annunen answered the bell while his team in front of him was treading water and about to sink again.
Annunen has six starts under his belt since joining the Predators, with four wins and a .923 save percentage. Yes, a small sample size, but still pretty spectacular from a young backup goalie.