Why winning bronze will be crucial for Nashville Predators playoff hopes

With today's loss against Canada, Finland's dreams of winning back-to-back gold medals faded away; it'll still have a chance at bringing home hardware in the bronze medal game against Slovakia tomorrow.

The Nashville Predators have two players heading in the final four: Juuse Saros and Erik Haula. Both players have had a successful run with their nation, showing up in crucial moments. Outside of the Olympics, the two helped Nashville go on a heater earlier this year. A good performance in Italy would be great for the Predators locker room and an excellent way to bring back a hot stretch prior to the NHL Trade Deadline.

Olympic pressure puts players in a "playoff" state of mind; that's what Nashville needs

In case you missed it, here's how today's game went down. Carolina center Sebastian Aho opened the scoring for Finland. Haula scored his first of the tournament shorthanded to put Finland up 2-0 early in the second period. Sam Reinhart put Canada on the board later in the period and Shea Theodore tied it up in the third. Nathan Mackinnon stole the game with 36 seconds left to win it for Canada.

"We played good as a team," Saros said. "Played good defensively. It was an all-around good effort from everyone."

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Finland had a mid-game collapse and wasn't able to recover. Saros stood out as the team's MVP, saving 36 of 39 shots faced. He looked confident out on the ice, as if his entire country wasn't watching his every move.

I could only assume that Olympic pressure is slightly more than NHL Playoff pressure, only because you're with the best of the best from around the world. There's more skill across the ice then it would normally have when you're in the postseason. Rather than dealing with just MacKinnon and Cale Makar, you'd deal with Connor McDavid, Macklin Celebrini and Sam Reinhart.

Saros did good stopping shots in the second half of the game. Canada's third goal was a mixture of skill and luck. Saros read the play and slid over to stop MacKinnon, but the puck had other plans and decided to bounce off of his foot and into the net. Other than this shot, he responded to the situation well, and it gives me a lot of hope that this will translate in his return to Nashville.

It's a double-edged sword for Nashville; emotions run wild, good and bad

Though our guys did good in the Olympics and should be proud, some, like Haula, are still at a loss of words for what they're team went through.

"It’s hard to feel anything right now,” Haula said. “We lost. They’re going to the gold medal game, and we’re going to the bronze. I don’t feel anything. I feel about as bad as you can feel.""

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Haula scored Finland's last goal of the game, so it's safe to say that his spirit was high at the time. His goal almost felt valueless after they began to lose their lead and fall in the dying seconds of the final period. He said this not too long after the game, so there's still time to process emotions.

In terms for what this means for the Predators, Haula will return with charged energy. After losing a game like that, we could expect Haula to push to his hardest in every trailing game Nashville will encounter. He's reliable and consistent, and that's what we need from him.

I don't want to be a Debbie Downer, but I hope that this emotion doesn't stay negative. Haula is an important figure in the locker room, and to drag a loss like that into it isn't ideal. However, I do believe that this is just immediate reactions, but I see him turning this around heading into tomorrow's game against Slovakia for bronze.

Saros, Haula, and Olympic crew will lead by example

Prior to this year, the Predators didn't have a single Olympian in their lineup. Now with four, the culture will shift drastically. Seeing both NHL and Olympic leadership in the locker room will be extremely good for Nashville.

Roman Josi will guide the defenseman to more well-rounded play, Filip Forsberg and Haula will steer the offense into more competitiveness, and Saros will feel some relief knowing that the worst pressure is over.

What will make this even more impactful is if Finland wins the bronze. Coming home with something is better than coming home with nothing. If they do win, expect a beasty performance from the Finns when Smashville hockey returns.

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