The Nashville Predators remain in the win column after a huge win over one of the NHL’s top defenses, the New York Islanders. This is the second of a four-game road trip, in which the Preds have already amassed thirteen goals and two wins. As the Winter Classic, the New Year, and the remainder of the season approaches, the question arises if this trip will become the launch-pad for the Preds success.

First Period: Nashville takes an early lead

As with any defense-heavy team that plays Nashville, the Islanders were playing very close to the puck, but the difference in play here was in poorly fought corner battles. While strong, even play dominated those first few minutes of ice time, it was lost corner battle and a falling pass from Bonino that allowed Craig Smith to break the ice and put one past Thomas Greiss. 

The rest of the period saw some fiery back and forth play, as New York grew increasingly rough in hopes of equalizing. The rough game from both sides resulted in penalties for both Filip Forsberg and the Islander’s Nick Leddy. Rinne stood strong on the 12 shots faced that period and the stanza came to a close with Nashville ahead 1-0.

Second Period: Nashville defense lets in 3, Preds come back and net 4

Let’s address the obvious: Seven goals were tallied over the course of the second period. Yes, seven goals.

While seeing four unanswered Predators goals is supremely exciting and breathes new life into the Nashville fanbase, there is still the glaring issue that New York put three past Rinne in less than 6 minutes. While one of those was on an Islanders power play, the other two goals, from Nelson and Cizikas, came off of Nashville’s ability to hold onto the puck in New York ice. Both Ryan Ellis and Dan Hamhuis failed to collect even when in decent proximity of the puck. This is not the first time Hamhuis has allowed such a turnover to affect the game so heavily, as his handling of the puck against Las Vegas created enough room for the Golden Knights to tie it up with hardly any time left to play. If the Predators were not able to rally in the way they had, this game would be yet another story of some glaring defensive issues on Nashville’s part.

Thankfully, last night was not that night.

Less than thirty seconds after Cizikas’s short-handed goal, Filip Forsberg had and answer in the form of a Power Play goal. After a few smooth passes from Ekholm and Craig Smith, Forsberg was able to slide one between the legs of Thomas Greiss, it was also Smith’s second point of the night. However, Craig Smith wasn’t done either, netting his second goal of the night right from below the hash after receiving a pass from Kyle Turris. 

Just like that, Nashville is tied up and absolutely on fire.

 A good keep-in and slap shot from Ekholm allowed for a tip-in from Nick Bonino and yet another lost battle on the wall gave just enough room for Rocco Grimaldi to skate around the defense and put yet another past the short-side of Thomas Greiss. Both of those goals came within the last two minutes of the period and only 48 seconds away from each other.

Nashville ended the period at 5-3, with Thomas Greiss sporting a 55% save percentage on the period, and a 67% save percentage on two periods of play.

Third Period: New York gets rough, Preds score two more

New York, eager to hold onto their win streak and impressively low number of regulations losses, decided to start getting extremely physical with the Nashville lines, resulting in two game misconducts. While one of the pile-ups at the net also resulted in a roughing a misconduct on Nashville’s Craig Smith, New York’s desperately physical style resulted in the ejection of both Winger Ross Johnson and Defensemen Scott Mayfield. Johnson was ejected in the fallout of a charging call and Mayfield was given a double minor and subsequently sent to the locker room in the same incident that caught Smith.

Just before the call on Ross Johnson, Callie Jarnkrok was able to rocket one past Semyon Varmalov, who came in to replace Greiss. The assists came from Johansen and Yakov Trenin. It was also Trenin’s first point as a Predator. Just a few minutes later, Josi took a one timer from Ellis on a crowded lane, sending one right past Varmalov for Nashville’s seventh goal. Finally, on yet another lost recovery, Johansen was able to get a wrap-around on Varmalov, ending the Predators tally at eight goals. While the replays of Johansen’s goal shows several disgruntled New York players, Varmalov was not hindered by any Nashville men, he simply failed to get back up and guard the net.

Looking Back: Quality over Quantity continues

Nashville scored one in every three shots they took last night. Yes, that’s a 67% save percentage on the entire night for New York. This is also the second game in a row that Nashville has scored five or more in less than thirty shots on net. This Nashville roster is looking a lot more collected as this road trip goes on, this is in part thanks to Peter Laviolette spreading out Nashville’s stronger offensive producers with up and coming players like Colin Blackwell and Yakov Trenin. Hopefully, this calm and collected style can pull them through to the Winter Classic. 

Looking forward…

The Preds head to Ottawa this Thursday to take on the Senators. The game will take place at 6:30 PM CST and can be caught on Fox Sports Tennessee, ESPN+, and 102.5 The Game.

Only four games left until the Winter Classic…