The Nashville Predators had a built-in excuse waiting for them Tuesday night.
They were opening a West Coast trip. Three of their best players had just been in Toronto for Pekka Rinne’s Hockey Hall of Fame induction 24 hours earlier.
They had to cross the continent, and they were coming off wins over some of the league’s better teams over the last two weeks. It had all the ingredients for a flat night.
Instead, Nashville came out and handled the Los Angeles Kings 3-0.
Juuse Saros was perfect in net, turning aside all 30 shots he faced, and Filip Forsberg supplied the offense with the first two goals of the game. Roman Josi did his usual heavy lifting on the back end, logging nearly 24 minutes. For a team that could have been vulnerable to a letdown, the response was emphatic.
Saros, in particular, kept rolling. After earning the NHL’s third star of the week for his performances against the Carolina Hurricanes and St.
Louis Blues, he backed it up with his sharpest outing yet against the Kings. He has stopped 83 of 85 shots this month, good for a .976 save percentage and a 0.67 goals-against average.
His start to the season wasn’t ideal, but the way he’s playing now changes the conversation fast. If this form holds, a Vezina-caliber season no longer feels like a stretch.
Forsberg is making a similar climb. He had a quiet opening to the year, too, but he’s quickly helping drive Nashville’s surge. Since the October 25 win over the Colorado Avalanche, the Predators are 6-1-1, and Forsberg has piled up six goals and eight assists.
A big part of that push has been the chemistry he’s developing with Nils Hoglander. The Swedish winger set up both of Forsberg’s goals Tuesday, and he now has seven points in 18 games. That’s already two more than he managed in 35 games for the Vancouver Canucks last season.
Shane Wright, meanwhile, is still waiting for his first point as their center, but his two-way play has been a key part of what Nashville is getting from the line. It’s the kind of impact the Predators expected, and the scoring, as the source suggests, should come later.
In Other News...
Predators Just Got A New Reason To Watch Simon Edvinsson
Simon Edvinsson has become a name worth tracking around Nashville as he trains in town ahead of a Dec. 1 contract deadline, a setup that naturally has the Predators paying closer attention. The Detroit Red Wings defenseman already has ties to people in the organization, and that alone gives this situation a little more texture than a typical offseason workout stop.
For Nashville, the intrigue is less about where Edvinsson is skating and more about what kind of market could develop if Detroit decides to move him. There has already been speculation about whether the Predators would get involved, with the conversation centering on trade returns, fit within the organization and the fact that Edvinsson would have some leverage if a deal ever comes together. [Read more 🡒]
Predators Still Waiting On Bourque To Justify Their Offseason Bet
Mavrik Bourque arrived in Nashville as part of a trade built on future draft picks, the kind of move that usually asks for patience before it asks for payoff. The Predators have given him a new position and a new role to sort through, and through the early part of the season he has been trying to find his footing while adjusting to both.
The production has not followed yet, with Bourque still looking for his first goal and working to make a bigger impact in the middle six. The underlying numbers have also been less encouraging than they were in Dallas last season, which leaves Nashville waiting for the version of Bourque that made the bet feel worthwhile in the first place. [Read more 🡒]