Predators know they have work to do to keep up in second half

MONTREAL — After two years out of the NHL playoffs, there is new optimism among the Nashville Predators.

A stunning turnaround aided by a coaching change, the addition of veteran forwards James Neal and Mike Ribeiro and the emergence of 20-yearold forward Filip Forsberg have put Nashville in first place in the Central Division going into the all-star break.

Now they believe they’ve got enough pieces to keep up their strong play through the second half and do some damage in the playoffs.

“Absolutely,” veteran centre Mike Fisher said Tuesday. “We really believe in this group.

“We believe we’re a top team in this league and we are. We’ve shown it thus far. We’re really confident in the group we have, that we can win any night against other top teams.”

The Predators had not lost twice in a row this season going into a game Tuesday night against the Canadiens in Montreal, where they were without star goalie Pekka Rinne for a third game due to an injury expected to last three weeks.

Backed by Rinne and an impressive defence group led by Shea Weber, the Predators are the NHL’s stingiest team, allowing only 2.25 goals per game. But Nashville has been known as a tight defensive side in recent years.

The surprise is that they are tied for fifth in goals scored.

Part of that stems from the decision last summer to let the conservative Barry Trotz go after coaching the team through its first 15 NHL campaigns and bring in a more attack-minded Peter Laviolette.

Trotz is now performing wonders in making the Washington Capitals a winning, two-way club, while Laviolette will also be a coach of the year candidate for doing much the same in Nashville.

The second part of the season will determine if the Predators are for real, but it looks like it so far.

They certainly have the goaltending with Rinne. With Weber, they have the big No. 1 blue-liner every team wishes it had and he is backed by a group that can defend and move the puck.

It has worked so far but Weber knows there is a lot of hockey still be played.

“I was on this team a while back when we were in first place for a while, too,” he said. “We’ve had good teams since I’ve been in Nashville. It’s just been tough the last couple of years. There’s still a lot of season left and we have to keep it up.”