The Nashville Predators are officially on wagon watch. Some fans may be reluctant to get their hopes up, but they have no choice but to believe when your team reels off wins against the Colorado Avalanche (2x), Tampa Bay Lightning, and Carolina Hurricanes in two weeks. One win against those teams is usual parity; two games can be luck, but all four? That's a sign of a special team.
The Predators continued their winning ways by heading to Denver and beating the Avalanche in overtime on Thursday night. They stared down Colorado's near-perfect home record and outlasted them in overtime, albeit with their backup goaltender in net, who has now beaten his old team twice. Ross Colton scored against his old team; Vintali Pinchuk finally received his first-goal puck; and the clutch veteran Steven Stamkos won it in overtime with a patented powerplay one-timer.
With a win of this magnitude, this game undoubtedly has some key takeaways.
Predators have a two-headed goaltending monster forming
Justus Annunen must really enjoy facing his old team. The Predators gave Juuse Saros' backup the net again on Thursday night, and he didn't disappoint, stopping 30 of 32 shots for the win. With Saros a workhorse for the team over his career, sharing the net could be a welcome change for the now-veteran and will only make both stronger.
Elliotte Friedman reported that teams could start looking at the tandem as a potential trade piece, but as long as the team keeps winning, it'd be hard to split them up. Plenty of teams are using the tandem strategy now, and Nashville would be wise to do the same.
Vintali Pinchuk's memorable first goal
You know the old joke where a player scores a flukey milestone goal and says he'll tell people one day it was actually a beauty? Pinchuk won't have to lie when talking about his first career NHL goal in Colorado, as he unleashed a wicked wrister that fooled MacKenzie Blackwood.
SIMPLY NO WORDS FOR VITALI'S FIRST NHL GOAL 🤯 pic.twitter.com/fW62u1p12T
— Nashville Predators (@PredsNHL) November 6, 2026
Pinchuk looked surprised himself after the goal, but he shouldn't have, as the last two games have been his best in a Predators sweater. He nearly scored his first earlier in the period when a shot somehow hit the post and didn't go in, but he wasn't going to be denied on Thursday. Â Despite trade rumors for the rookie, he suddenly seems to be fitting in nicely.
Predators' win wasn't just a fluke
Some teams go on a winning streak where everything goes their way, and the underlying numbers tell us that it isn't sustainable. However, this game told us the opposite: the Avalanche outshot the Predators, suggesting Nashville may not have deserved to win, but the expected goals numbers suggest the right team won.
The Preds are forming an identity, and it's clear Andrew Brunette now has a team willing to play his style. They still have some ground to make up, but all of a sudden, Nashville looks like a playoff contender.
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