The 2023-24 NHL season is in the final stretch, and any team that wants to make the Stanley Cup playoffs in a couple of weeks better stake their postseason claim right now. The Nashville Predators recently were the hottest team in all of the NHL, but this week, the balloon has burst, and a three-game losing streak has the Preds skating on proverbial thin ice at this point in early April.
Dropping critical games to Arizona, Colorado, and most recently, Boston shows that while the Predators recently made franchise history with their 18 point game streak, that streak is now completely over, and yes, Nashville now has to be thinking about how they can assure a Western Conference playoff spot. Despite all of the gloom and doom with the losing streak this week, Nashville still sits with 90 points in 75 games played and holds the first wild card spot in the West. However, dropping a potential for up to six additional points in the last three games has left the Preds only one point ahead of the Los Angeles Kings in the wild card race and six points ahead of the St. Louis Blues as the real remaining wild card threat. Nashville has exactly seven games left to get the job done or start watching the Stanley Cup playoffs from the comfort of their living rooms and hit the golf courses earlier than expected.
The Predators Need a Boost on Special Teams
One of the reasons that hockey special teams are called special is that it takes a special breed of player to make things happen. When an NHL team fails to fully utilize their power play and penalty kill units to their maximum potential, the wheels start falling off of any playoff run. For the Nashville Predators right now, special teams ranks generously as mediocre at best. With a power play conversion at 20.2% (20th in the NHL) and the penalty kill at a paltry 76.5% (26th), the Preds are playing on borrowed time and squandering away potential game-changing opportunities through stellar special teams play.
Nashville head coach Andrew Brunette is making a key change on the first power play unit this week by bringing in Luke Evangelista to bolster the man advantages gained each game. No, Evangelista isn’t a Connor McDavid-lightning speed skater who can dance around defensive units, but he does have two goals and four assists this season on the power play on top of his 13 goals and 14 assists when playing on even strength. Creating more firepower and taking full advantage of power play opportunities can be just the remedy the doctor ordered to help the Preds find some offense again, and with the Nashville seasonal goals for (242) and goals against (228) margin closing, this franchise needs to find a way, any way to score more goals and win a number of games for the remainder of the season. More concisely – score more goals, win more games, go to the postseason.
