On August 2, the Nashville Predators will square off against the Arizona Coyotes in Edmonton, Alberta, Canada. It will not only be the official re-start of their 2019-20 season that was paused due to the global coronavirus pandemic but will also be the beginning of their Stanley Cup quest.
There are a lot of unknowns headed into the Stanley Cup Qualifying round. Will the teams who dominated the regular season be able to keep that dominance up after such a long break? Will the players who struggled use the pause as a way to hit the reset button? Do the Chicago Blackhawks and Montreal Canadiens (both finished in 12th place in their respective conferences) have any business still playing?
When it comes to the post-season, the Predators have a few question marks of their own. One of the biggest seems to be identifying the X-Factor for them when it comes to their play-in series with the Coyotes. In this series, we’ll identify three of them, the first of which being center Ryan Johansen.
The 27-year old center was having his worst statistical season since 2012-13 before the pause. A lot was made — and perhaps rightfully so — of his having a rotating cast of linemates. He wasn’t just flanked by his usual wingers Viktor Arvidsson and Filip Forsberg. Due to injuries and/or desperation to get something going, everyone from Craig Smith to to Calle Jarnkrok to Mikael Granlund was used next to him. After all, it’s hard to find chemistry when you’re rarely skating with the same guys.
There were theories that his struggles were due to the old coaching regime. Yes, he had success with Peter Laviolette behind the bench in the past but, in his 41 games under him this season, Johansen amassed just 26 points. Not exactly the numbers you expect from your $8 million per year center. But under Hynes he didn’t fare much better, posting just five goals and five assists in 27 games including a grand total of zero power play points.
While puzzling, there is reason for optimism.
As Ryan Porth and I talked about on Preds Insiders, some of the best hockey we’ve seen Johansen play in gold was during the 2017 Stanley Cup Final run and during the following playoff run in 2018. He was a point-per-game player over the course of those combined 27 games and, at times, seemed to take over for long stretches.
In short, the former fourth overall pick steps up his game in the post-season and that bodes well for a Nashville team that needs its star players to be its star players.
“Feeling great,” Johansen said about being back on the ice after the five-month pause. “As a group, we’re gaining confidence here with the work and time we’ve put in. And now it’s time to go out there and take another step in this exhibition game and go out there and win a game and gain some more confidence as a club.”
Knowing he needs to find chemistry as soon as possible due to the circumstances, Coach Hynes reunited Johansen, Forsberg and Arvidsson in camp. Those three were Nashville’s leading scorers among forwards in both the 2017 and 2018 playoffs. By contrast, when the Preds got bounced by the Dallas Stars in the first round last season, Johansen had just two points (both coming in losses), Forsberg had two as well and Arvidsson was held off the scoresheet altogether. Basically, if that line is going, big things are possible for Nashville. If they’re not? Well…
“We know what we’re capable of,” Johansen said. “We’ve had good success in this league playing together and done a lot of great things for our group. We love playing with each other, we love pushing each other and being difference makers for our group. We’re excited to be back and playing together, for sure.”
He’s not alone in that excitement.
“The familiarity has always been there,” Forsberg said. “It’s been a while since we played together but you can almost tell right away that you kind of know in the back of your head what the other guys are gonna do. Obviously there haven’t been a ton of game-like drills so far but, in the [time we’ve] had, I thought we looked good.”
While Forsberg is one of the most exciting players in the League and Arvidsson has a knack for scoring goals, their success is driven by their center, the playmaker. Furthermore, if the Matt Duchene, Mikael Granlund and Kyle Turris line is to have any success, the opponent has to be focused on shutting down their teammates on the top line. And that all starts with Johansen rebounding from his lackluster 2019-20 campaign.
“With the hectic season, coming back from this break, everyone seems to feel fresh and everyone looks fresh,” Johansen said. “As a group, it’s an opportunity for us to hit the reset button, go out there and understand what we’re capable of.”
What they’re capable of is a long playoff run. We saw the potential back in October when they were dominating opponents, rattling off an 8-3-1 record and scoring 48 goals in 12 games (a 4.00 goals per game average).
Then Halloween happened.
On October 31, the Preds hosted the Calgary Flames and jumped out to a 2-0 lead and didn’t allow a single shot on goal for 15:27. At the start of the third, they were up 4-1 and in complete control. All of a sudden, Rasmus Andersson, Elias Lindholm and Alan Quine scored to tie the game. Austin Watson then put the home team back on top with less than 90 seconds left, assumably rescuing the night. But then Matthew Tkachuk re-tied the game for Calgary in the final minute of regulation and then broke the hearts of Music City — while also making his case for Goal of the Year — with two seconds left in overtime.
Nashville hasn’t been the same since that third period. Not only did they drop six of their next seven but the rest of the calendar year produced a miserable 10-11-4 record. Yes, the team has improved since Coach Hynes took over on January 7 (16-11-1) but the inconsistency that frustrated so many fans remained. Back-to-back wins against the defending Stanley Cup champion St. Louis Blues followed by a listless 4-1 loss to the Carolina Hurricanes on home ice, for example.
But there’s been a five-month pause and, quite frankly, the struggles of the regular season seem like a decade ago.
“I think coming off the break, having an opportunity to talk with those guys, get to know them better, set some expectations, bring them back in fresh slate, they can be a very good line,” Hynes said. “And they have been a very good line. It’s nice to see them come back in the way that they’re practicing and working. It looks as though they’re ready to play some really good hockey.”
The fans are ready as well.
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