Three things that can give you a glimmer of hope about the Nashville Predators

It's nearly impossible to see the glass half full for the Nashville Predators right now after the team has fallen to last place in the Western Conference with a 4-9-1 record.

The Predators dropped their back-to-back Eastern Conference swing with a 3-2 loss to the Washington Capitals and a 6-2 drubbing to the Stanley Cup champion Florida Panthers.

According to MoneyPuck's playoff odds, the Predators have plummeted to a 10.7 percent chance to make the Stanley Cup Playoffs. Now of course we see these percentages swing dramatically as the season progresses, but that is utterly shocking to see their odds that low after the free agency spending frenzy they had this past offseason.

Without the big spending in free agency to add Steven Stamkos, Jonathan Marchessault and Brady Skjei, I don't think we'd be reacting this dramatically about the horrendous start. But there is just no excuse to be this bad with this talent on paper.

So if the Predators are going to pull of a miraculous comeback to their season and rally to become the team they're perceived to be on paper, what parts of their game will have to rise to the top?

Predators' specials team hasn't been as bad as their win/loss record

You would think that when you see a 4-9-1 team that they would be near the bottom in both power play and penalty kill. To the contrary, the Predators are 2nd in the NHL on the penalty kill at 90.2 percent and are right around the middle of the pack on the power play at 13th overall.

So we can't point to poor special teams play as to why the Predators are at rock bottom of the Western Conference a month into the season. Their penalty kill has saved their bacon from getting blown out in many of these games.

Unfortunately, the Predators are taking too many penalties and a lot of that comes from playing "frustrated" as Head Coach Andrew Brunette has recently highlighted in his critique of his team's poor play, per the team's official website.

“We made some mental mistakes, and then we took way too many penalties."

To look at the glimmer of hope, the penalty kill playing like it is could be the springboard to grinding out some wins and beginning the gradual climb out of the basement of the Western Conference.

Juuse Saros has a ridiculously dominant .960 save percentage against the opponent's power play, so you can point to him as the biggest factor into why the Predators are so elite in this category despite being a last place team.

Also, a ton of credit is owed to Cole Smith in his continued prominent role on the penalty kill. Always pressuring the puck carrier and wasting time for their power play.

Alexandre Carrier has stood out on the penalty kill as well by getting into passing lanes and disrupting the timing of the power play.

A Saros Hot Streak is needed in the most desperate way

We know Saros is fully capable of going into a hot streak of 10 games or more and in return springboard the Predators to a win streak. He hasn't been as bad as his team's record on the ice, but he also hasn't been necessarily Vezina caliber, either.

For the Predators to overcome their offensive woes, because who knows how long that's going to take for them to break out of their funk, they're going to need Saros to just be unbreakable. They're going to need him to steal several games in a row and rob the opponent blind.

Now we know that Saros has it in him to steal wins for the Predators, but for this to come to fruition the Predators are going to have to be a better team defensively. Stop with the mental lapses that lead to all of these odd man rushes that leave Saros in a situation he just can't overcome.

Saros has a 3.21 Expected Goals Against Average but is outperforming that with his actual GAA of 2.85. Again, not what I would call a great GAA from a goalie like Saros, but certainly not terrible.

If you told me before the season started that the Predators were going to be 4-9-1 then I would've told you well that's probably going to be because Saros is off to a disastrous start. That simply isn't the case and he is nowhere close to being the main problem of this team.

So this gives me a small glimmer of hope that the Predators can begin their long climb back up the standings and make things interesting if Saros can enter beast mode for a few weeks and steal a bunch of wins before we even get to the midway point of the regular season.

These superstar veterans can't really be this bad all the same time, can they?

I'm just flabbergasted as to how all of these veteran leaders, with the exception of maybe Filip Forsberg, are all drastically underperforming at the same time.

To be fair, Steven Stamkos appears to be getting into a groove with goals in back-to-back nights. So if you're looking for any possible way to be optimistic right now through the rumble, then at least you have Stamkos showing improvement.

Even so, Jonathan Marchessault is my biggest shocker out of all of the players underperforming. When Brunette brought up players playing frustrated, the first player I think of is Marchessault.

Marchessault isn't even generating much offense, much less actually finishing. He's stuck on just two goals after having 42 goals last season. His 3.5 Expected Goals through 14 games ranks 123rd among skaters according to MoneyPuck.

And then we get to Roman Josi. He has looked like a shell of himself so far this season. Almost like an imposture twin is playing the role of Josi. He has looked a step slow on defense and he's a minus 12 in his plus/minus. That's tied for worst on the team with Colton Sissons.

The pairing of Josi and Skjei has been downright awful. They are sixth-worst among defensive pairs in Expected Goals Against per 60 minutes. Nearly four goals expected against their pairing per 60 minutes played.

I saw more fight and energy from the younger core of the roster than I did from the veterans against the Panthers in the 6-2 loss. Even Josi admitted to the team's website that they got embarrassed.

So how does this tie into me saying there's hope? Well, I just can't fathom that this collection of veteran talent is this bad. I have to think that they'll figure it out and start playing better hockey and living up to what they are on paper.

We're 14 games in so it is true that there's plenty of games left for this core of veteran talent can start cooking with gas and winning hockey games. The question is will they be able to make up all of this ground they're losing. Their margin for error is drastically getting thin and we're only one week into November.