Looking up and down the standings through the first quarter-or-so of the 2014-15 NHL season, and the usual suspects are present. No one comes as a particular surprise to anyone. Tampa Bay, Pittsburgh, Montreal, St. Louis, Anaheim. All of these teams were expected to be strong contenders in their respective conferences. Then there’s the matter of the Nashville Predators.
The Preds currently sit atop the Western Conference, tied with the St. Louis Blues for the most points in the conference, with 34. However, Nashville currently has a game in-hand over St. Louis, so their reign atop the West will continue. And it is one that has been well earned, if only through a first quarter of the season. Some additions up front, some breakout campaigns from players that were already on the roster, and the addition of a new coach have things completely turned around from just a year ago in Nashville.
Overall, this is not a team whose success should shock anyone. They’ve been a pretty regular contender out west for quite some time, when Barry Trotz was at the helm behind the bench. His defensive system made the Preds as tough as anyone to play against, in addition to an elite goaltender in Pekka Rinne, and supreme blue line talents like Shea Weber. Players like Rinne and Weber are still there, but they now have help.
Weber has players like Roman Josi, Ryan Ellis, and Seth Jones helping him out on the blue line, which could easily be described as one of the league’s best. They’re tops in the league in goals against per game, at a measly 1.96 per game, and they allow just 27.6 shots per game, which is the sixth best total in the league. But the blue line was always a staple of this Nashville squad. It’s what they’ve done up front that has done wonders.
The Predators were aggressive over the summer in adding some talent up front, namely forward James Neal. Neal has a solid 14 points in 23 games, including nine goals. Bargain bin pickup Mike Ribeiro has been a smashing success for the Preds as well, coming off of one disappointing year in Phoenix. He’s second on the team with 18 points. Filip Forsberg has been the offensive catalyst for the Predators, though, as he’s averaged exactly a point per game through the first 23 of the year, with 10 points and 13 assists to date, on his way to being named the NHL’s Rookie of the Month for November.
It shouldn’t come as any surprise that it’s Peter Laviolette behind this resurgence, either. When the Philadelphia Flyers fired him, it was a foregone conclusion that he’d probably land in a better situation than the one he left in Philadelphia. That has been the case. The front office got him some players to work with, in addition to the talent that was already there and underutilized by Barry Trotz. He’s a coach with a history of turning teams around and leading them to deep playoff runs, so this could finally be the year we see Nashville get over the playoff hump.
The thing about this Predators squad is that these aren’t Trotz’s boys anymore. This isn’t that defensive system that is extremely difficult to play against, but ultimately boring to watch. There is plenty of intrigue surrounding this team and enough marquee players that fans from all over should be tuning in to watch this club as the season wears on. While they may not be able to maintain their current pace, they’ll definitely be in the playoff picture as the season wears on.
