Predators, Jets face off in NHL second round tonight
NASHVILLE — Playing the Winnipeg Jets is exactly why Nashville Predators coach Peter Laviolette wanted home-ice advantage in the NHL postseason.
That’s true even if their matchup is coming a round — or two — earlier than many would prefer.
The top-seeded Predators host the Jets tonight at 8 EDT to begin their bestof-seven Western Conference semifinal series, a showdown that pits the top two teams from this past regular season.
Nashville went 53-18 for its best regular season in franchise history and finished with 117 points to win the Presidents’ Trophy, which is accompanied by the right to start and end postseason series at home. The Jets, their Central Division rivals, went 52-20 and finished just three points behind the Predators in the quest for home-ice advantage.
This will be just the fifth postseason series since 1990 between the NHL’s top two teams from the regular season.
“They wanted divisional battles, got them,” Laviolette said. “This should be a big series.”
It’s the second straight postseason in which division foes and the league’s top finishers will meet in this round. Last year, the Pittsburgh Penguins, who wound up beating Nashville in six games in the Stanley Cup Final, advanced to the Eastern Conference finals by downing the Capitals in Game 7 in Washington.
Nashville and Winnipeg played so well that this series has been anticipated for weeks, one perceived as potentially so good it could be a Stanley Cup Final — despite the Predators winning the regular-season series 3-1-1. Nashville defenseman P.K. Subban dismissed such talk Thursday, noting this round remains a long way from the Stanley Cup Final.
But a thrilling series with lots of speed and goals? He doesn’t doubt the Predators and Jets can provide that.
“The thing about winning, and I’m sure you ask anybody who’s won a Cup, is the steps that it takes to get there,” Subban said. “You have to go through some thick walls, and this is definitely one of the thickest walls that we’re going to have to get through to get there.”
Nashville won its best-ofseven first-round series against Colorado 4-2, with the youthheavy Avalanche challenging the Predators in every meeting expect Game 6, a 5-0 blowout.
The Jets are in the playoffs for only the second time since the franchise formerly known as the Atlanta Thrashers moved to Winnipeg before the 2011-12 season. They won their firstround series against Minnesota in five games, shutting out the Wild twice and winning by three or more goals two times.
Ten Winnipeg players made their playoff debuts in that series, and Jets center Bryan Little said that makes his team an underdog — by just a little bit — as they prepare to visit “Smashville” and Bridgestone Arena.
“It’s going to be a really tough series and a tight series,” Little said, “so I think that’s why everyone’s so excited about it.”
Goalies for both teams are finalists for the Vezina Trophy, with Nashville veteran Pekka Rinne, 35, looking to win the award in his fourth time as a finalist and Connor Hellebuyck, 24, a first-time finalist. The Tampa Bay Lightning’s Andrei Vasilevskiy is the other finalist.
Hellebuyck, who is in the postseason for the first time, had a 1.94 goals-against average and a .924 save percentage against the Wild. Rinne’s numbers weren’t nearly as glitzy against Colorado, but he tightened up over the final three games with a 1.34 goals-against average and a .951 save percentage.
Even with Rinne and Hellebuyck in net, these teams combined for 42 goals in five games in the regular season, with Nashville outscoring the Jets 22-20. It was the most goals the Jets scored against any team in 2017-18 and also the most goals they gave up to any opponent.
Nashville has talented scorers in Viktor Arvidsson, Nick Bonino, Filip Forsberg, Ryan Johansen, Colton Sissons and Austin Watson, but the Jets can match Nashville’s depth with seven players scoring at least 43 points in the regular season, led by Blake Wheeler (91 points) and Patrik Laine (team-high 44 goals).
One more reminder why it’s good to have home-ice advantage: Nobody was better in the NHL at home in 2017-18 than the Jets, who went 32-7-2, and they have won 12 straight in Winnipeg. They haven’t lost at home since Feb. 27 — to Nashville.
Of course, the Predators were the league’s best away from home (25-9-7) during the regular season, and two of their first-round wins came in Denver.