Only Stanley Cup will do for Predators
NASHVILLE – The Nashville Predators have earned this sentence: If they don’t win the Stanley Cup, this season will be a failure.
Kind of harsh, right? Takes like this usually have to cool on the counter for 20 minutes before they’re safe to touch. The idea that a team could have the greatest regular season in its history, win the Presidents’ Trophy for the best record in the league, reach its second consecutive Stanley Cup Final, come up just short again and have that “F” word applied to the whole thing seems … fouled up.
But it’s true, if we’re being truthful. There’s exactly one postseason outcome that can be called a success. The dizzying thrills of last spring’s surprise run to the final round for the No. 16 seed out of 16 playoff teams — which doubled the franchise’s all-time total of playoff series wins to six — can never be duplicated. It set the stage, though, for something that can be more satisfying: living up to expectations and anticipation.
National media on Predators
Neither has been anything close to current levels in the Predators’ 20-season history. This is Nashville’s first time as the odds-on favorite in Las Vegas to win it all. This is Nashville’s first time as the clear favorite in the media to win it all. Of 44 people making picks at USA TODAY, ESPN.com, NHL.com, The Athletic and The Tennessean, 25 have the Preds winning it all — Tampa Bay is next with seven nods — and 33 have the Preds reaching the Stanley Cup Final.
On an NHL Network roundtable discussion this week, analyst and former NHL goalie Kevin Weekes called Nash- ville his team with the most to lose in these playoffs, saying of the Preds: “This team has no holes. No weaknesses. None.”
“All the pressure in the world’s on them,” analyst and three-time Cup winner Scott Stevens agreed.
How Predators have improved
Now we get to see how they handle it, starting with Thursday’s Game 1 at Bridgestone Arena against Colorado, the No. 8 seed in the Western Conference. The Preds’ performance in the regular season, in which they were hyped incessantly and challenged regularly by opponents seeking statement wins, can only be seen as encouraging. They were mature, consistent, excellent.
And they are absolutely loaded and equipped to do this. They’re the right pick. General manager David Poile has done everything within reason to give coach Peter Laviolette enough depth and firepower for a two-month run.
A year ago the Preds got within two wins of a championship with key contributions from unlikely sources — Harry Zolnierczyk, Cody McLeod and Pontus Aberg with big goals; Freddy Gaudreau up from the minors to score his first three NHL goals in the Stanley Cup Final; Colton Sissons filling in at No. 1 center for injured Ryan Johansen and getting a hat trick to reach the final round.
Sissons is the only one of those players still around, though Gaudreau and Zolnierczyk are with the minor league Milwaukee Admirals and will be available if needed.
Poile dealt promising young defenseman Samuel Girard — now a key piece for the Avalanche — in a three-team deal to land Kyle Turris from Ottawa as Nashville’s No. 2 center.
He signed Nick Bonino, who was part of the Pittsburgh Penguins team that beat the Predators in June for their second consecutive Stanley Cup, and Bonino is the No. 3 center. Mike Fisher took a hiatus from retirement and is the No. 4 center. Poile dealt a first-round pick to Chicago to land feisty, skilled forward Ryan Hartman. Last year’s Nashville first-round pick, gifted forward Eeli Tolvanen, recently joined the team and gives Laviolette another option.
“Same great mind-set, great mentality with this group,” said Filip Forsberg, one of several returning stars who make up this team’s nucleus. “But we’re just a more skilled team.”
One big thing that’s changed
Everything is better, except the psychological perspective, which has completely flipped. This team doesn’t have the “No one believes in us” edge that fueled its upset of No. 1 seed Chicago a year ago and the run that ensued.
“I might have used it,” Laviolette said this week with a wry smile, because he used it liberally.
Now the Predators have no use for the fawning, pressure-cranking outside world.
“No offense to you guys,” Bonino said, “but whatever you guys write, the pressure you put on us, I don’t think we’re paying too much attention to that.”
They don’t need us to know the score, and the Predators’ disappointment would dwarf the city’s disappointment if they don’t win it all. Yes, the window will be open after this season. Yes, the NHL playoffs are wildly unpredictable and the Cup is the most difficult trophy in sports to attain.
But that, and only that, makes this season a success. Every other team would love to be in the same position. The Predators have earned it. Let’s see what they do with it.
Rexrode is a columnist for The (Nashville) Tennessean