Nashville Predators Should Get Cody Glass Back in Starting Lineup
The Nashville Predators beat the Florida Panthers 3-0 Thursday night on the road, extending their point streak to 16 games. With 14 wins and two overtime losses in that span, there is little that can stop this team right now, and very few, if any points of controversy these days.
The old saying "if it ain't broke, don't fix it" certainly applies to this Predators team over the past five weeks, but there is one lineup decision that has become a head-scratcher. Ever since the Trade Deadline has passed, Cody Glass has been a healthy scratch, and almost for two weeks now.
Glass seemed to have rebounded after a dreadful start to the 2023-24 campaign, but the decision to sit him now hardly seems performance related. It looks like a situation where the Predators do not want to risk disrupting their momentum by adjusting their lineup, but in this case, Andrew Brunette should not be worried about that happening.
Nashville Predators' current momentum is too strong to be shaken by one more lineup change
What is crazy about the timing of Glass' recent absence is that it has come at a time when he was getting his legs back under him. He had been gaining more and more confidence after an injury-riddled and ineffective first half of the season, and had seemed to find a good spot on the wing, when he had been playing almost exclusively center beforehand.
He had even had his best game of the year with a hat trick in early March, and then a week later, got scratched and has not re-entered the lineup since. Keep in mind that he was pulled in the midst of the Predators' point streak, and that is a key reason why he should be put back in really soon.
Glass had been a part of the tear that the team has been on, but once they made moves at the Trade Deadline, they had to make changes to the lineup. They essentially had a four-player change by removing him and Yakov Trenin and inserting Jason Zucker and Anthony Beauvillier, and it has disrupted absolutely nothing in terms of momentum.
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The lineup adjustments have not even stopped there, as the Predators have been forced to make some changes on defense. Dante Fabbro got injured which resulted in Spencer Stastney having to be called up, then he got injured which forced Tyson Barrie to get back in the mix, then Jeremy Lauzon got injured which forced Marc Del Gaizo to be called up.
The situation on defense still remains fluid, as the Predators are frequently switching the pairs even during games, and they are still humming along like the well-oiled machine they have recently been. If they were going to let lineup changes get the best of them during this hot streak, it would have happened by now, but they have proven to be too strong to be deterred by such a thing.
Getting Glass - someone who has gotten better and better throughout the season - back in the action would not disrupt the Predators, so all parties involved would benefit from him getting involved. The question then becomes, who should go?
It is obviously not going to be anybody on the top line, and the fourth line of Cole Smith, Michael McCarron, and Kiefer Sherwood has become a staple during the winning streak. None of those guy are or should be going anywhere, so we need to turn out attention to the middle six.
One of the guys who seems like a candidate to be scratched is Mark Jankowski, but he has been really effective in Nashville this year and become a big part of the point streak. And judging by how successful the Predators have been with him playing, he is one guy whose absence you really would worry about affecting team momentum.
I think the guy you look at pulling from the lineup is Beauvillier, as he has not been bad, but has not done much to impact team offense. Zucker has not been overly impressive either but he has been more visible by getting to the net front and scoring a few goals that way, so it makes sense to keep him in.
Look, just because the Predators have not been negatively affected by lineup changes so far in the point streak does not mean they should push it with a ton of changes. But in this situation, Glass is super talented, has been a part of the heater, and can replace a guy who has not been a difference maker, so Brunette should get him back in sooner rather than later.