After impressive offensive outings, are the Predators back on track?
The Predators' sticks have been on fire lately. After scoring 6 goals in a victory over the Anaheim Ducks, they put up 5 the next night in an overtime loss to Vegas. They followed that performance up with 6-3 victory over the Montreal Canadiens. Scoring 6 goals twice in three games is definitely something they […]
The Predators' sticks have been on fire lately. After scoring 6 goals in a victory over the Anaheim Ducks, they put up 5 the next night in an overtime loss to Vegas. They followed that performance up with 6-3 victory over the Montreal Canadiens. Scoring 6 goals twice in three games is definitely something they haven't done all season long. And, for a team that has struggled to find twine, it certainly seems like the team is back on track.
But there's growing concern that despite these recent high-octane goal scoring performances, the Predators are not trending in the right direction. Those two six-goal outings were against the Anaheim Ducks and the Montreal Canadiens, who are currently 30th and 27th in the league, respectively. You might argue that 5 goals against the 3rd ranked Golden Knights proves that they can do the same against better teams, but remember that 3 of those 5 goals came from Filip Forsberg. If you could count on Forsberg for a hat trick on a nightly basis, then you might have a point. As such, Forsberg (along with many others on the team) is suffering from some severe regression after a career year in 2021-22.
The Nashville Predators should score 6 goals against the Ducks; they should score 6 goals against the Canadiens. The issue isn't what the Predators do when they play a bad team, it's what happens when they play against good teams.
Accoring to research from noted Twitter user @angrypredsfan, the Predators struggle to win against teams in the top ten. Those teams in the top ten are the ones they'd have to face if they were to make it into the playoffs. Winning against those teams is a tall order. They can win, however, when they face teams at the bottom of the standings. When it comes to the teams in the middle of the standings, they're about 50/50.
With recent news that Dante Fabbro and/or Mattias Ekholm may be available on the trade block, it appears that the Predators are closer to the drastic change side of things than they are to the competitive rebuild we heard about just one season ago. What appears to be a trend in the right directions may just be a blip on the radar on the way down.
-featured image via Christopher Hanewinckel/USA TODAY Sports-
