It’s fair to say the 2016-17 season, so far, is not going as the Nashville Predators have planned. A popular pre-season pick around the hockey world for Western Conference or even Stanley Cup champion, the Predators have won just six of their first 14 games.
Long regarded as the team that can draft high-end NHL defencemen like no other, the Predators have built a team foundation around a strong goaltender and deep blue line, but has yet to breakthrough in the playoffs. This season was supposed to be different because of last year’s addition of Ryan Johansen, a centre with top-line potential last year, and last summer’s acquisition of P.K. Subban, an explosive, exciting defence talent set to transform the Preds’ back end.
Subban especially was lauded as the final piece that could put the Preds over the top, and help them past the second round for the first time in franchise history. And, of course, that could still happen this year. Speaking with Andrew Walker on Sportsnet 590 The Fan Tuesday, ahead of Nashville’s game in Toronto against the Leafs, former Preds goaltender and current radio analyst Chris Mason said Subban will be just fine after he gets used to a few new challenges.
“You’re getting a guy that’s a really big personalty off the ice obviously, but also on the ice,” Mason said. “He’s the kind of player, it’s going take time for him to get acclimated with his teammates and find the right chemistry. I know they tried him with Roman Josi at the start. They’re pretty similar players in the sense that they love to hang on to the puck, to carry it and skate with it. So that wasn’t really going the way they’d hoped, so they split them up which I think is a good thing.”
LISTEN: Chris Mason talks Subban, Johansen, Predators
Getting used to new teammates is one thing, but by moving to a different conference, Subban also still needs to get used to seeing different opponents more often and adjusting to the style of play.
He has eight points in 14 games, but holds a minus-4 rating so far which is second-lowest on the team next to Josi. That could be attributed to the amount of minutes they play and the kind of talent they’re put up against, but for a team with a plus-2 goal differential, you’d hope Subban would improve in that stat, too.
“It’s a process,” Mason explained. “You gotta keep in mind, P.K.’s coming from the Eastern Conference to the Western Conference, which is also a big adjustment. I did that the other way in my career and it’s a different brand of hockey. The West is more I’d say, night in night out, kind of more of a playoff-style atmosphere, little harder, little less space in the neutral zone. Where I found the East, even now, is a little more open, a little more faster with high skill.”
Indeed, you have to figure Subban — and the Predators for that matter — will eventually settle in and find their footing. Nashville comes into Tuesday’s game in Toronto winners of three in a row, while Subban keeps logging monster minutes (no less than 22:17 yet this season) and is a plus-3 this month.
“He’s definitely shown flashes of greatness,” Mason said.
As for Johansen, who has just one goal and seven points so far, Mason spoke about the vast potential he teases about his game, but that neither Columbus nor Nashville has been able to harness yet. And maybe, according to Mason, some of the reason Johansen hasn’t reached his peak yet is because he’s too hard on himself in the down times.
“He’s talented,” Mason started. “One of the things, maybe the issue they had in Columbus, was trying to get that potential out of him and I think for different players it clicks at different times.
“He shows that sometimes where you’re like ‘well that’s the player everybody is expecting’ and then there are other times where maybe he’s a little hard on himself and can’t quite get to the level everyone is expecting. So I think that’s something that him as a player and a person is going to have to iron out and pull out of himself more often.”
