There’s plenty of opportunity to pull seats up to bars in Music City. If you happened to park next to a self-pitying Predators fan on his fourth or fifth sip, you might get an earful about how, on two occasions that the Chicago Blackhawks eventually won the Stanley Cup, they could have easily lost a first-round series to Nashville.
And you know what, it wouldn’t just be the beverage talking.
A lot of things about the Predators get overlooked, including some of the tough turns that have played a role in the team never advancing past Round 2.
Regardless of whether or not they’ve deserved a better fate in the past or if they’re getting a raw deal just being in the deadly Central Division, the Preds must find a way to persevere. That will be a tough ask in Round 1, as Nashville faces an Anaheim Ducks team that many expect to make the final. In a season when the club finally addressed a long-standing need up front, the last line of defence seems to be giving out.
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Anybody who’s not a diehard Predators or Hawks supporter probably doesn’t remember the game that slingshoted the current Chicago dynasty to its first title in 2010.
Late in Game 5 of an opening-round series tied 2-2, the visiting Predators pulled ahead of the Blackhawks 4-3. Then, with 1:03 left in the third period, Chicago winger Marian Hossa took a major penalty for boarding that all but sealed his team’s fate. On its man advantage, Nashville — now within spitting distance of taking a 3-2 series lead home — simply tried to play keep away, until Martin Erat made an ill-advised centring attempt from behind the goal-line that caromed off the side of the net and right to Jonathan Toews. The Preds never got their sticks back on the puck and, with 13.6 seconds remaining, Patrick Kane shovelled home a backhand shorthanded to tie a game the Blackhawks, of course, went on to win in overtime.
Chicago won 11 of its next 13 outings en route to a championship. As for the Preds, at least Erat was traded for Filip Forsberg.
Last year, Nashville dropped a double-overtime heartbreaker while hosting Chicago in Game 1 of the first round, then lost captain Shea Weber in Game 2 to a dislocated knee that ended his playoffs. After a crushing triple-overtime loss in Game 4, the Preds trailed 3-1 in the series and wound up bowing out in six.
While Chicago deserves credit for its steely resolve in both cases, any nonpartisan could be convinced Nashville deserved a better fate in one of those sets.
Still, don’t expect any sympathy from the Ducks.
What Nashville knows it will get from Anaheim is the type of lockdown defence we often associate with Weber and Co. But while the Ducks were the stingiest squad in the NHL this year, giving up just 2.29 goals per game, the Predators were stuck in the middle of the pack. Part of that has to do with goalie Pekka Rinne, who hasn’t quite looked like himself since a knee injury forced him to the sidelines for a few weeks 15 months ago.
When Rinne went down in early January last year, he was sporting a sparkling .937 save percentage in 37 games. Following the hiatus, Rinne registered a .911 save percentage in 27 contests and the blended results were still good enough to earn him runner-up status in the Vezina Trophy race.
However, the big Finn won’t be on any of the ballots turned in this week, not after his .908 showing this year, including an .861 stretch in his final five outings. Rinne posted a .909 save percentage during the series loss to Chicago last year and there’s no way that gets it done against Anaheim this spring.
If there’s an upshot down south, it’s that the offence is better positioned than ever to find goals in crunch time.
The in-season acquisition of centre Ryan Johansen for defenceman Seth Jones was a franchise game-changer. The Preds enter this post-season with a six-foot-three No. 1 pivot who scored at a 66-point pace in 42 games with the club. Having Mike Ribeiro and Mike Fisher as 2-3 guys instead of 1-2 is a monumental improvement. Additionally, wingers Forsberg and James Neal both hit 30 goals this season and operate as capable triggermen on the first and second lines. Assuming no anvils find their way to key members of the defence corps, the blue line is still rock solid.
That just leaves the goaltending. If Rinne gets it together, a Nashville upset is absolutely on the table in a conference where seven of the eight teams could legitimately give the Eastern Conference winner a go in the Cup final. If not, the guy at the bar could stay as blue as the crease.
