Even while being in a battle of last place with a few other bottom feeders in the NHL, the Nashville Predators have managed to beat some upper-tier teams in the past couple of weeks including a 3-2 overtime win over the Los Angeles Kings on Saturday.
The narrow victory ended a seven-game overtime losing streak for the Predators, marking their first overtime win since October 26 against the Columbus Blue Jackets.
Just the 10th win of the season for the Predators makes them the last team in the NHL to reach double digit wins. Last season the Predators won their 10th game of the season on November 26.
Let's take a look at my three biggest factors into why the Predators were able to hold on to beat a red-hot Kings that was previously 8-1-1 in their last 10.
Disciplined defensive effort for two periods
We always beat the drum that it's a 60-minute game and takes a 60-minutes effort to beat the best teams in the NHL. Now while I wouldn't call the Kings necessarily a top Stanley Cup contender, they do have the makeup to go on a run in the playoffs eventually.
Offense was very hard to come by in this game. Both teams had trouble finding consistent offensive zone time and quality looks on the goaltender. The neutral zone was hard to break through, but the Predators were up to the challenge of matching the defensive intensity.
The Predators also defended well while not committing penalties. Just two penalty minutes for the entire game taken by the Predators, and they did come up clutch to kill the lone Kings power play midway in the second period.
Roman Josi returned to the defensive starting lineup, while Kevin Gravel was reassigned back to Milwaukee. This left the Predators defensive corps with Josi, Brady Skjei, Jeremy Lauzon, Adam Wilsby, Luke Schenn and Nick Blankenburg. More on a couple of those players later on.
Alexandre Carrier was traded this past week to the Montreal Canadiens, getting in return another right shot defenseman in Justin Barron. He has already suited up for pregame warm-ups, and is expected to make his Predators debut soon, although it's going to be tough to pull anyone out of the lineup. My vote is Schenn, who is consistently getting beat up ice in key moments.
Not exactly the defensive corps you had in mind if you go back just a month ago, but here we are, and honestly they're not playing bad at all as a collective unit.
Justus Annunen is looking like "Juice 2.0"
Let's keep the nicknames simple, shall we? We have two "Juices" as the Predators' goalie duo in Juuse Saros and Justus Annunen. Fans should be really optimistic about the future of the crease for this organization. Saros is signed for the next eight years at a bargain price, and Annunen just came over in a trade and is the effective replacement to losing Yaroslav Askarov in a trade before the season started.
Annunen once again looked confident and locked in against the Kings. His third start for the Predators, and in all three he has been a key factor into the Predators having a chance to win. He is 2-1-0 in his three starts for the Predators with a ridiculous .944 save percentage.
In this one against the Kings, Annunen dissected plays before they happened and used his big frame to seal off the posts when the Kings tried to get in deep. The game could've gone off the rails when Annunen surrendered two quick goals in the third period to tie the score, but he held strong the rest of the way. He shook it off. Goalies have to have a short memory.
Look at the comparison of backup goalies between three starts for Annunen and the four starts Wedgewood made as backup to Saros this season. It's night and day. Annunen with his .944 save percentage and 1.67 GAA, while Wedgewood rocked a .878 save percentage and 3.69 GAA.
No matter where this season ends up going, at least we know we have a high quality, young and dynamic goalie duo for the future.
No quit attitude against adversity
I will be completely honest here; I thought the Predators were cooked when the Kings stormed back to tie it at 2-2 with over six minutes still left in regulation. The Predators took their foot off the gas pedal and sat back daring the Kings to make the comeback.
Well, guess what? They sure did, but luckily the Predators clawed their way to overtime. That also felt like a death sentence with the Predators already having seven overtime losses on the season, but the team controlled possession. The Kings managed zero shots on net in overtime. It only took two for the Predators.
The overtime winner, picked up by Nick Blankenburg with his first goal with the Predators, was created by Filip Forsberg's resiliency to maintain puck control and make his move towards the net.
Forsberg's abnormal and hard to understand goal drought is well-documented, but he his still generating offense and making his teammates better. That's the mark of a great player.
On the overtime winner, Forsberg's wrister creates a rebound and to Blankenburg's enormous credit, he found the loose change for the layup goal to end the Predators' overtime woes.
Really happy for Blankenburg. This guy has been battling and is arguably the biggest surprise player on the team aside from maybe Zachary L'Heureux. It will be hard to pull him out of the starting lineup with his play, and his welcomed speed element he brings to the blueline.
The other goal scorers for the Predators are Jonathan Marchessault, hitting double digit goals with his 10th. He's the first Predators player to reach that mark this season. And then L'Heureux gets his fourth goal which opened the scoring on a no-look, behind the back pass from Gustav Nyquist.
Gut-check win for the Predators. The season doesn't have to be a complete bust if the team shows fight and progress. You can't change the past, but you can change how the rest of the season goes and if there's still hope going into 2025-26.