Finishing on top no help to Nashville

Preds optimistic moving forward despite loss to Jets

NASHVILLE Winning the Stanley Cup seemed the perfect next step for the Nashville Predators after fighting all season for home-ice advantage throughout the playoffs.

Now they know that’s no guarantee of winning on home ice when it matters most.

The Predators followed their Stanley Cup final loss last June with the best season in franchise history, posting 117 points and winning their first Central Division title and the Presidents’ Trophy as the NHL’s best team in the regular season. Their dream of hoisting the Stanley Cup ended Thursday with a 5-1 loss to Winnipeg, their fourth home loss of the playoffs.

“It’s difficult,” Nashville coach Peter Laviolette said. “We had talked about what (home ice) meant and as this series wore on, it became evident that nothing really mattered. The home ice didn’t matter, the energy in the building, what was going outside of the building with regard to energy. What really mattered was the way the game was being played on the ice.”

The Predators lost their homeice advantage in Game 1 to Winnipeg and also lost games 5 and 7, being outscored 19-9 in Nashville.

They have plenty of company, becoming the ninth Presidents’ Trophy winner in the past decade not to win the Stanley Cup. Only Chicago in 2013 is the exception. The Presidents’ Trophy winner has won the Cup only eight times since the award was established. Washington, last year’s trophy winner, also lost a Game 7 in the second round.

The future looks bright with the top line of Ryan Johansen, budding superstar Filip Forsberg and Viktor Arvidsson all under contract through 2021-22.

“The positive thing is we’re a young team and we, for the most part, our team will be together for a while,” Johansen said. “Learn from it and come next year we’ll have more experience again and find a way to reach our goal.”

PEKKA’S PROBLEMS

The post-season could not have been much different than the regular season for goalie Pekka Rinne, who is favoured to win the Vezina Trophy in his fourth try after tying for the NHL lead with a careerhigh eight shutouts. Of goalies playing at least 50 games, he was first with a .927 save percentage and goals-against average of 2.31. He finished the regular season going 23-5-1 with the Predators earning 47 of a possible 59 points.

In the playoffs, Rinne was pulled from four games, three against Winnipeg and all in Nashville.

MISSING DEFENCEMEN

The scoring from the defensive corps disappeared in the postseason. The Predators led the NHL with 55 goals and 206 points from defencemen in the regular season, yet captain Roman Josi and Ryan Ellis did not score a goal in 13 playoff games. Matias Ekholm had one goal and eight points. Only P.K. Subban picked up from his careerhigh 16 goals in the regular season. He had nine points with four power-play goals against the Jets.

Learn from it and come next year we’ll have more experience again and find a way to reach our goal.