The Pacific Division-leading Vegas Golden Knights will put their five-game winning streak on the line when they visit the Nashville Predators on Saturday evening.
The Golden Knights (44-20-8, 96 points) arrive in Nashville, the final stop on a three-game road trip, knowing they must be better from start to finish than they were in a 5-3 comeback victory over the Chicago Blackhawks on Friday.
“We knew we weren’t at our best,” Vegas defenseman Noah Hanifin said. “The effort’s always there with our group, but we weren’t executing. We knew we were capable of winning that game and just had to put together a good third period. … It was a fortunate two points not playing our best.”
Against the Central Division cellar-dwelling Blackhawks, Vegas blew a second-period lead and even trailed going into the third period before scoring three unanswered goals. The Golden Knights have a seven-point lead over the Los Angeles Kings for the division crown with 10 games to play.
“We can build off that third period,” Hanifin said. “Those first two, you’ve got to flush it. It’s another big opportunity for us to get two points and finish off a good road trip.”
The Golden Knights saw their big guns step up when they were needed most, but they also showed off their depth in the victory. Victor Olofsson not only snapped a 20-game goal-scoring drought with a second-period tally, but he cued the third-period comeback with a game-tying goal 126 seconds into the final frame.
“I haven’t scored in a while, so it definitely helps with the confidence and gives me a good boost,” Olofsson said. “I have a bit more pop in my stride and am attacking a bit more.”
The Predators (27-37-8, 62 points) were eliminated from playoff contention with a 3-2 loss to the St. Louis Blues on Thursday, a death knell in what has been a massively disappointing season.
“I know it’s the numbers, but I feel like we were eliminated a long time ago,” forward Ryan O’Reilly said. “We knew it was coming; we haven’t been great by any means. Myself, I haven’t been great by any means. So, it was expected.”
The defeat was a perfect microcosm of Nashville’s season, which began with promise after an offseason in which the club added a trio of big-name and big-ticket veteran free agents in forwards Steven Stamkos and Jonathan Marchessault and defenseman Brady Skjei. But the season quickly fizzled into a disaster.
The Predators led the Blues 2-0 lead at the midway point Thursday but watched the lead disappear and the game turn into a dismal defeat.
“Pretty much epitomizes the whole year in one game,” Nashville coach Andrew Brunette said.
The Predators have 10 games remaining and will have plenty of time for a post-mortem, but a few faults are easy to spot. Offensively, they are the league’s lowest-scoring team, and only the Chicago Blackhawks have earned fewer points on the road.
Nashville, which has only two victories in its past eight games (2-5-1), lost three times to the Blues in a 10-day span by a combined score of 11-4.
“We showed kind of where we are — why we are where we are versus where they are,” forward Filip Forsberg said.
–Field Level Media
