The Nashville Predators hope to pick up where they left off at the holiday break when they kick off a six-game road trip against the St. Louis Blues on Saturday.
Nashville, fifth in the rugged Central Division but just three points out of a Western Conference wild-card spot, won its last three games before the break, including a 3-2 overtime victory at the red-hot Minnesota Wild on Tuesday.
Steven Stamkos, playing in his 1,200th career game, scored 53 seconds into overtime for his league-leading sixth game-winning goal of the season for the Predators, who have bounced back from a dismal 6-12-4 start to win 10 of their last 14 games.
“We’re starting to believe here,” Stamkos said. “This group has obviously gone through a lot of adversity the past year and a bit. We didn’t have the start we wanted to have this season, but the growth is there and guys are starting to believe.”
Nashville finished a disappointing seventh in the Central Division with just 68 points last season, third fewest in the NHL. When the Predators stumbled out of the gate again this season, rumors began circulating that head coach Andrew Brunette could be on the hot seat and the team was fielding offers for key players like center Ryan O’Reilly, who leads the team with 32 points (11 goals), and Stamkos, who is three goals shy of 600 in his career.
General Manager Barry Trotz then came out publicly in support of Brunette, and the Predators rebounded to get back in the playoff race.
“We never quit,” Stamkos, who helped lead Tampa Bay to back-to-back Stanley Cup championships in 2020 and 2021, said. “Although it wasn’t great at the beginning of the year, we’ve stuck with it. We’ve come to the rink every day, and we’ve worked.”
Brunette is optimistic that the holiday break won’t halt his team’s momentum.
“Obviously, you’d like to keep going, but it’s not like it’s a week off,” Brunette said. “So a few days off, go back to work, back on the road, and I think everything we’ve gone through this year as a group, we’re pretty battle-tested, we’re pretty resilient.”
Next up is a trip to St. Louis for the third of four regular-season meetings with their Central Division rivals. Nashville won the first two, with Stamkos scoring four goals in a 7-2 home win on Dec. 11, and Filip Forsberg netting a hat trick in a 5-2 victory on Dec. 15 in St. Louis.
The Blues split two games on a Florida road trip just before the break, knocking off the two-time defending Stanley Cup champion Florida Panthers, 6-2, before dropping a 4-1 decision at Tampa Bay on Monday.
“Come away 1-1 against those two elite teams, you take it, but we’re a results-oriented driven league,” St. Louis head coach Jim Montgomery said.
“It was a good measuring stick for us,” said defenseman Justin Faulk, who scored his 10th goal to tie for the team lead in the loss to the Lightning. “I think it showed us we’ve got more to go, and we think so, too.”
The Blues, three points out of a Western Conference wild-card spot, went 3-2-1 in their final six games before the break.
“We’ve made strides here the last 10 days,” Montgomery said. “We’re playing more consistent, competitive hockey. I think right now, with our record (14-16-8, 36 points), we’re not happy obviously, but we’re fortunate to be within striking distance still of the playoffs.”
Both Nashville and St. Louis have 36 points, but the Predators have a pair of games in-hand and have two more wins than the Blues.
–Field Level Media
