Things couldn’t be going a whole lot worse for the Nashville Predators than they are right now. The team is 5-8-0 to begin the season and if not for a dramatic comeback (and a gift from Joel Quenneville and the Florida Panthers coaching staff), the Predators could be in the midst of a six-game losing streak.
As it stands, the Predators have lost five of their past six games and you can sense some frustration starting to boil over. Here’s the latest edition of Stanley’s shots.
- Where is the offense going to come from?
This team has a huge problem offensively and it’s tough to see where the answers are going to come from. They’re just not very dangerous, and they have a hard time finishing on the chances they are able to create when they get there.
Predators forward Matt Duchene joined us for his weekly visit on Robby & Rexrode on Wednesday and put it pretty matter-of-factly.
“We’re in a tough spot right now,” Duchene said. “We’ve scored three goals in the last three games. You can’t win like that, bottom line.”
The Predators rank 27th in the NHL with 2.31 goals for per game. You’re simply not giving yourselves a chance to win with any sort of consistency whatsoever if those numbers don’t improve. Again, unless some top players start producing like they haven’t in more than a calendar year at this point, it’s hard to see where that offense is going to come from.
- Could this just be what this team is?
Predators fans are upset and rightly so. This team has been steadily on the decline for the past few seasons and the signs are pointing toward that trend continuing so far this season.
There are certainly some disappointing individual performances that have plagued the Predators to begin the season. There are players that have been very productive in the NHL that have not been productive for the Predators over the past couple of years. And perhaps the most frustrating part about the team is there are players that you KNOW can be productive because we’ve seen them do it before for significant stretches of time.
However, that simply hasn’t happened with any sort of regularity over the past two seasons for some top guys. Ryan Johansen, while injured right now, has been unproductive when he’s been in the lineup for the past two seasons. Duchene has not lived up to expectations. Viktor Arvidsson only has two goals in 13 games to begin the season. Filip Forsberg has been the lone forward this year that has produced at a high level.
The simple truth of the matter seems to be that the more time that goes by, the more it seems like this team just is what it is….which is somewhere right around average to below average. That’s not a good place to be.
- Could a “rebuild” be on the horizon?
I’ll admit it, I was not thinking about a rebuild for the Predators heading into this season. Roman Josi, Ryan Ellis, Mattias Ekholm, Duchene, Johansen, Arvidsson and Forsberg should all still be in the prime of their careers. It just didn’t seem like the time to rebuild with that being the case. I was firmly entrenched in the “retool” category.
The more I watch the Predators play, the more I’m starting to think that a rebuild may be inevitable. They look absolutely lost out there at times. There’s still time to dig themselves out of the hole they’ve created for themselves, but the confidence that they’ll do that is dwindling by the game with many Predators fans.
The Predators nibbled around the edges with the changes they made this past offseason, leaving pretty much all of the core players intact. If things continue to go poorly with this group, that mindset has to change. You can’t wait around on this core anymore.
- Juuse Saros……have we seen enough?
One of the big questions I had about this team heading into this season was “What exactly is Juuse Saros?”
I think we’ve seen enough from Saros at this point to know he’s a “good” NHL goaltender. He’s had his moments where he’s looked awesome. But is he a “franchise” type of player? That was a question the Predators needed to figure out this season.
I’ve seen nothing at this point that would tell me that the answer to that question is “yes.” Saros has a goals-against average of 3.68 and a .881 save percentage. That’s just not good enough.
To be fair, those numbers certainly aren’t all Saros’ fault. He’s been hung out to dry on several occasions this season and the penalty kill for the Predators has been atrocious. However, you also need a franchise goaltender to bail you out of some of these situations with more regularity than Saros has demonstrated that he can do to this point.
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