Nashville made their deepest run in the playoffs in franchise history this year making it to the second round. They won their first overtime playoff game in team history and while it’s sad to get bounced out of the playoffs, the Predators ability to take the slow and steady pace towards overall franchise improvement continues to grind along. Much like how the team plays on the ice the Predators rise into making their presence known and felt in the NHL it’s been a rugged but rewarding affair.
Still, in spite of what they achieved this season they bowed out in six games to Vancouver and there were some obvious problems along the way.
1. Malfunctioned power play
The Predators made a living off of the man advantage against Anaheim in the first round. The Ducks would make mistakes and the Predators appropriately made them pay for it. This time around against Vancouver, facing up to a tough defense proved to be a real challenge. Vancouver’s penalty kill had a feast on the Predators holding them to going 1-21 through the six games.
Scoring on 4.7% of your power plays isn’t going to win you many games, nevermind a series. While Shea Weber and Ryan Suter were able to bomb away from the point, Vancouver’s ability to defend guys crashing the net and blocking shots (90 in the series) made life harder on them. The Canucks gave them their chances to break through and make a difference
2. Roles reversed
The Predators came into this series hoping to get big games out of Mike Fisher and Sergei Kostitsyn offensively while guys like David Legwand and Joel Ward defended against the Sedins to keep them off the board. Instead, Fisher and Kostitsyn were terrible. Each of them had just one assist in the series while Fisher was a -3 on his plus/minus and Kostitsyn was a -1 and hide-your-eyes bad when caught out in a must-defend situation.
Meanwhile, Ward and Legwand were the Predators top scorers while still shutting down the Sedins. Ward was a revelation scoring four goals and adding four assists. Legwand had four goals and an assist in the series. No other goal scorers for Nashville had more than one. If the Preds were getting that production out of Ward and Legwand in addition to their better offensive players showing up, who knows how this series turns out. Instead, they were essentially all they had. This leads us into our third point.
3. No game breaker to be found
The Predators just flat out didn’t have a dominating offensive presence. They didn’t have one all season long and relied on team play and grinding games out to survive on as few goals as possible. When you’re in the bottom third in goals scored that’s just how life has to be. In the playoffs, the lack of offensive force crushed them against Vancouver. Guys like Patrick Kane, Patrick Sharp, and Marian Hossa helped raise hell against the Canucks in the first round but without a real name threat for Nashville, Vancouver could stick to their system and close up shop around Roberto Luongo.
Fisher and Kostitsyn weren’t threats, Jordin Tootoo lost his ability to generate action and no one else aside from Ward and Legwand found the net regularly. It wouldn’t kill the Predators to find a way to get a power forward force that could net 30-40 goals a year, but good luck finding one. The Predators will have to hope there’s someone in their talented system that can evolve into that game breaking force.
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On the upside for Nashville, this playoff run has given the team and city a reason to get really excited about the team. Barry Trotz has the team well versed in his system and they play the brand of game that gives them success in the playoffs. Pekka Rinne proved himself to be a great goalie while defensemen Ryan Suter and Shea Weber run the show along the blue line. A team filled with grinding forwards, while a pain to play against, doesn’t offer them the ability to break a game open in a big way offensively though.
The Predators have smart coaching and smart management and they’ll make the right tweaks to improve the team. They’ve been doing it all along now and there’s no reason to think they won’t keep it going now.