The Nashville Predators are a frustrating team aren’t they?
The highly unusual 2019-20 season for the Predators has come to an inglorious end at the hands of the twelfth-seeded Arizona Coyotes in four games. It wasn’t a sweep (Predators managed at least one win in the best-of-five series), but it certainly isn’t what the team wanted this year.
Nashville’s window of championship contention has seemingly slammed shut. Ever since the team’s miraculous run to the Stanley Cup Finals in 2017, the Predators have been on a steady decline and yet to reach that same height again.
With Stanley Cup contender status and a Presidents’ Trophy in 2017-18, the Predators seemed like they might run it back to the finals in 2018, but a hot Winnipeg Jets team dispatched the Predators in six games in the second round.
The 2018-19 playoffs were even more disappointing, as the Predators lost in six games to the Dallas Stars in the first round of the 2019 postseason. There, the cracks of the team really started to show, especially the stale coaching from Peter Laviolette and an abysmal power play.
Once again, the power play unit sucked the life out of the team in 2019-20. Actually, the offense in general didn’t perform very well either, despite the talents of centers like Ryan Johansen and Matt Duchene and an allegedly elite winger in Filip Forsberg.
The only offensive line that played up to par at all this season was the first line, consisting of Johansen, Forsberg and Viktor Arvidsson, who is my favorite forward on the roster. Even then, they still couldn’t put much past Coyotes’ goalie Darcy Kuemper, who, to be fair, played lights out in the series.3
The frustrating thing about the Predators is that historically, the team has had a wealth of defensemen and goaltenders, but offensively, they’ve never had a true game-breaker.
Most of the Predators’ top forwards, such as Johansen, Duchene, Forsberg and center Kyle Turris weren’t even drafted by the team. All of these aforementioned players were acquired via trade. To me, and I’m sure many other Preds fans, this reinforces two unfortunate truths.
The first truth is that the team’s general manager since their inaugural 1998 season, David Poile, can’t draft elite offensive talent. In his 22 years with the franchise, Poile, according to Sports Illustrated, has only drafted one player that has scored 500+ points for the team – winger David Legwand, who was the Predators’ first draft selection way back in 1998.
Sure, Poile isn’t afraid to make big trades, which landed the team some talent over the years. But it isn’t good enough; the Predators need to develop their own offensive players. The team can’t continually rely on sacrificing assets in order to secure scoring help.
The second truth is that the Predators are the exception to the “defense wins championships” mantra that is present in sports. I can name plenty of solid defensemen the team has drafted over the years, such as Ryan Suter (now with Minnesota), former captain Shea Weber (now with Montreal), Seth Jones (now with Columbus), Roman Josi, Ryan Ellis and Mattias Ekholm. But even with all of those amazing defensemen, the Preds has yet to win a Cup.
The team was also blessed with the goaltending of Pekka Rinne for years. Yet, every year it seems like a lack of offensive production dooms the team.
This year’s playoff disappointment puts Poile on the hot seat now more than ever. For the last couple years, it seems like the team has done nothing but stagnate in the realm of mediocrity, which isn’t acceptable with this much talent on the roster.
As a die-hard fan of the team, even I have to admit that the usual narrative around the Preds has gotten old. It wasn’t until after their Finals appearance in 2017 that the Preds were looked upon as a legitimate contender rather than a likable underdog.
The narrative now is that the team is stuck in a short-term span of mediocrity and is full of underachievers (Matt Duchene in particular). The team doesn’t need a complete blow-up, but something drastic needs to happen.
Sadly, the Predators weren’t able to secure the first overall pick this year, robbing the team of a game-breaking player that they never had. Nashville has always had a stacked defensive core, goaltender, and a somewhat competent offense, but never someone who could take control of a game.
The Preds’ offensive problems showed in last year’s playoff loss to Dallas, as Nashville only managed 12 goals in six games, averaging out to two goals a game. That’s not good enough.
This year, that problem has only become more apparent, along with the lack of chemistry within the team. That, combined with the constant back-and-forth between goaltenders Rinne and Juuse Saros, equaled out to a poor 2019-20 regular season.
Nashville needs a drastic change. I like what David Poile has done for the team in his time here, but he needs to step down and hand the reins over to someone else or really evaluate his approach to the team. The Preds aren’t going to win a cup with this core.
