The best thing about a new season of hockey is that, in some cases, you can forget the last one.
The 2024-25 Nashville Predators “won” the summer by bringing in big-name veterans such as Steven Stamkos, Jonathan Marchessault and Brady Skjei, but when the puck actually dropped, the Preds fell flat. Nashville got off to a horrid start and never truly recovered, missing the playoffs and registering themselves as the biggest disappointment in the NHL that year.
But the calendar has turned, and for 2025-26, the Predators are focused on the present.
“We’re not really worried about last year,” said coach Andrew Brunette. “It was beaten to death – I’ve beaten it to death for too long, so I’m just looking at our team this year, and we’re trying to build, we’re trying to get better. We’re trying to take another step and we’re climbing up the ladder, meaning I like the way our game is coming.”
The Predators dropped their first game in regulation on Tuesday night, on the second leg of a back-to-back against Toronto after beating Ottawa the night before. The Maple Leafs had their way with Nashville for much of the game, though you can debate among yourselves whether or not two empty-net goals distorted the final score of 7-4, or merely reflected the spirit of the overall contest. Both teams used their backup goalies, and both were playing their second game in as many nights, so everything else was even.
“We probably weren’t all that sharp in front of the net,” Brunette said. “Stick battles weren’t quite to our standard – a little bit slow early. I thought we got to our game in the second period.”
But at least the Predators aren’t digging themselves out of a hole right now. In fact, Nashville is currently a top-three seed in the Central, if you’re enough of a sicko to look at the playoff race eight days into the season. Nonetheless, it’s a better spot than they found themselves in last year, when the club lost its first five games of the year.
“We’re better this year than last year, that’s all I can really say,” said center Michael McCarron. “I can sense a difference. It’s a pretty determined group. Two years in a row we started pretty sloppy, pretty slow, no pace to our game. Now we have great pace to our game. We’re three-quartering-ice* teams, and we’re sticking with it, as well. Our resiliency and our determination has definitely shown through the first four games, where it didn’t show last year.”
(*I had never heard this term, so I followed up with McCarron, who explained that it meant turning the puck back on opponents when they try to chip it in at the defensive blueline and going the other way with it, playing fast and hemming teams in once the Preds are in the O-zone.)
NHL Power Rankings: Stars Start On Top As The Movement Begins
We can’t overreact yet, but the Stars and Hurricanes lead the way while the Bruins are the biggest surprise in the NHL power rankings.
The challenge now will be to keep marrying that determination with results. Nashville is of course in the deadly Central Division, and with Winnipeg, Colorado and Dallas all at the tops of their games, the Preds are basically battling the likes of Minnesota, Utah and St. Louis for a wild-card berth (unless one of those elite teams takes a massive stumble).
On the positive side of the ledger, starting netminder Juuse Saros is off to a hot start, while the offense has been nicely balanced: nearly every regular forward has already found the scoresheet through four games.
If the game against Toronto was an aberration, then Nashville can look forward to playing meaningful contests in late spring again. If not, it’s going to be another long season for the Preds.
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