When the NHL set the season schedule in July, team executives had no way to know just how perfectly exciting the Nashville Predators’ April finale would end up. Staunch play from the team’s veterans and key contributions from bright young talent have kept the team — barely — in the Stanley Cup race, with seven games left in the regular season.
After recovering with a shootout win Thursday night over the Los Angeles Kings, Nashville’s playoff chances hover around 30 percent. Securing the second wild card slot — the team’s most likely path to the postseason — in the relatively weaker Western Conference would give the team a first-round series against hockey’s best, the Colorado Avalanche, led by Olympic stars Nathan MacKinnon, Brock Nelson and Cale Makar. But it would mark an unexpected finish for a team that sold valuable players for draft capital just weeks ago, signaling the front office’s intent to rebuild rather than double down on a roster that started the season at the bottom of the league. A wild card slot would also mark the team’s 10th return to the playoffs in 12 years — no small feat for a smaller-market Southern franchise.
Hockey ranks teams based on points accumulated via wins and overtime losses. After the Preds' walkoff win Thursday night, Nashville sits inside a cluster of playoff hopefuls that includes five of its next six opponents. Two — the Kings and the San Jose Sharks — are exactly tied with the Predators for the final wild card spot, lending every match the do-or-die weight of the playoffs. It’s possible the Preds’ entire season will come down to the last possible games, particularly an April 13 match against the Sharks at Bridgestone Arena.
Since the Olympic break, the Predators have crawled back into relevance behind steady veteran play from familiar names like Roman Josi, Ryan O’Reilly and the mustachioed Filip Forsberg, joined by more recent pickups Steven Stamkos, Erik Haula and Jonathan Marchessault. Besides the 31-year-old Forsberg, all are over 35 — seniority that brings leadership and perspective as well as years of physical wear at the highest level of a sport known for bone-crushing hits. Now in his fourth season with the Predators, winger Luke Evangelista has solidified his role as a younger face of the franchise. He deftly flipped in a sliding puck Thursday night to seal his team's critical win over the Kings.
Today’s professional sports are full of perverse incentives. Perhaps a third of the NBA is losing on purpose to marginally improve draft odds, and MLB pitchers are throwing into the dirt amid gambling probes. The Predators may somehow get the best of two worlds. The trade-deadline roster shakeup netted future draft picks for signing future prospects and made young players like Zachary L'Heureux, Ryan Ufko, Reid Schaefer and Matthew Wood go-to options gaining valuable NHL experience.
Executives and coaches weigh trade decisions, and players play. Forsberg and Josi have brought the same brilliance night after night because they simply want to win. Sometimes tight playoff races depend on other teams’ results; the Predators now control their own fate.
