Three key factors as injury-plagued Nashville Predators get gritty win over Canucks

The year 2025 is off to a successful start for the Nashville Predators after their 3-0 road win over the Vancouver Canucks on Friday night.

It was another gritty defensive performance for the Predators against the Canucks. Offense was hard to come by, and former teammates Juuse Saros and Kevin Lankinen were sharp throughout the entire game.

The win is only the 12th of the season for the Predators, but hey at least they're keeping pace ahead of last place in the entire NHL. The Blackhawks, also winners on Friday night, have 28 points and the Sharks have 30 points.

Oddly enough, the Predators have won both matchups against the Canucks this season. Their first meeting was on November 17 and was a 5-3 win for Nashville, also on the road. The Predators will host the Canucks on January 29 for the final matchup of the season series.

The Canucks are in a bit of a freefall and disarray right now. There are trade rumors swirling around two key players, Elias Pettersson and J.T. Miller.

Here are the key factors from the win for the Predators that moves their season record to 12-20-7 for 31 points.

1. Another shutout for Juuse Saros

Have to start with Saros adding another shutout to his 2024-25 campaign. That puts him in second place in the NHL for shutouts, only trailing Winnipeg's Connor Hellebuyck.

The shutout is also Saros' 27th of his NHL career, putting him in the top-10 among active goalies. Marc-Andre Fleury leads that prestigious category with 75.

Aside from the occasional bad outing that every goalie has, Saros has been one of the few bright spots in what has been a dark season overall. In this one against the Canucks, Saros faced 27 shots and had to be really clutch to keep the Canucks from scoring first. Two big time saves on J.T. Miller really stand out. One came very early in the game on a brekaway attempt by Miller.

Saros tallies an impressive 2.3 Goals Saved Above Expected according to MoneyPuck, so this wasn't some low-event game that Saros could coast through. An off night for Saros in this one anda the Canucks probably tally three or four goals.

Despite the ugly win-loss record for Saros on the season, his overall numbers aren't that bad considering the lack of goal support he has dealt with. He's carrying a .906 save percentage and 2.72 GAA, which is just slightly below his career averages.

2. The inexperienced players stepped up

The Predators are having to shuffle their roster constantly this season due to a combination of trades, waiving players and now the injury bug has hit them. Cole Smith is on injured reserve, as is Adam Wilsby on the defense.

Jeremy Lauzon also missed this game and is listed as day-to-day. This allowed Fedor Svechkov to be called back up from the Milwaukee Admirals for the second time this season. He took the third line center role from a banged Tommy Novak, who is also listed as day-to-day with an upper body injury.

On top of that, Zachary L'Heureux was serving the first of his three-game suspension for the slew-foot to the Minnesota Wild's Jared Spurgeon on New Years Eve.

You would think that the Predators were destined for another loss with all of this roster turnover and inexperience joining the starting lineup, but major props are owed to guys like Svechkov, Ozzy Wiesblatt, Vinnie Hinostroza, Spencer Stastney and Nick Blankenburg.

It was Wiesblatt's NHL debut, and what an incredible story and journey to the NHL it has been. You should definitely check it out below.

Wiesblatt was acquired via trade over the past offseason in exchange for Egor Afanasyev to the Sharks. In his NHL debut, Wiesblatt logs 9:42 of ice time and two hits.

As for Blankenburg, he has been up at the big show for a while now. He isn't necessarily an inexperienced player per say, but his role has definitely elevated higher than we could've ever expected going into the season. But with Alexandre Carrier and Dante Fabbro now on new teams, Blankenburg has answered the call to be leaned on every game.

Stastney also made his season debut after missing a good chunk of the season, and Predators training cap, due to personal reasons. Awesome to see him back on the ice for the Predators because he has a bright future.

3. The Stamkos/Marchessault connection keeps getting stronger

We definitely wish we could've seen this much earlier in the season, but better late than never I suppose.

The game's only goal, aside from two empty-netters to close things out, comes from Steven Stamkos. It was a rare breakout goal for the Predators with a good looking rush up ice between Marchessault and Stamkos.

Stamkos first sets Marchessault up in the slot, and then Marchessault returns the feed to Stamkos for the one-timer. And when Stamkos is really locked in, no goalie is stopping that. You just have to hope he misfires.

Marchessault keeps piling up the points after starting off the season poorly. Stamkos now has 12 goals on the season, which is second on the team behind Marchesault's 14 goals.

Filip Forsberg, who has been stuck on nine goals dating back to November 25, tacked on his 22nd assist. He leads the team in points wit 31. His goal drought has reached 17 games. Just mind-boggling.

Forsberg has also seen a slight dip in his shot production from last season. He's averaging 3.3 shots on goal per game, while he averaged around 4.2 shots on goal per game last season while totaling 48 goals.

It goes without saying that the Predators need a very long winning streak to even make things interesting. Many fans are embracing the tank at this point, but we know hockey players don't think that way. The Predators have a back end of the back-to-back on Saturday against the Calgary Flames. Another team in the thick of the wildcard race.