Steven Stamkos Finally Scored, but the Nashville Predators are 0-5-0

15 comments

1. I had seen, going into this regular season, in no particular order of ranking, the Dallas Stars, Avs, Jets, Preds and maybe Utah HC as strong candidates to finish in the top-five of the Central Division. Yes the Blues last summer offer-sheeted d-man Phil Broberg and centre Dylan Holloway from the Oilers but I had seen those moves as perhaps quite minor, and not likely to move the needle all that much. Yet between those two acquisitions, Broberg has been on fire via having put up six points, five of them assists, over his 1st 6 non-preseason games with his new team and has a +6, tied with Pavel Buchnevich for team lead in that last category.

   Yet although the Blues had a rather quiet 2024 off-season, the same cannot be said for the Preds, with the first day Central Daylight Time of free-agent frenzy having meant a huge binge that had included signings of eight players, with all but one-time Dallas Stars goalie Matt Murray to multi-season contracts. Evidenced by five losses, all in regulation, this regular season, it’s become increasingly clear this season has almost become a lost one. I plan to watch the relevant episode of the Preds-themed Locked On Sports podcast, if I am available to do so; very much like last week Monday CDT I have no plans to leave my place of residence. Definitely looking forward to claims by the cohost or cohosts of the episode because I believe there will be much discuss about how this Preds’ season has so far very much gone off the rails.

2. I think you two are lying to yourselves, the situation is dire and your answer is well nobody said we’d win the cup this year, it’s ok. No ladies, it’s not, we want accountability, and his name is Bruno

3. We’ll be out of the hunt by Thanksgiving

4. If comments double, sorry, not showing all, a 5-15 start necessitates playing .700 hockey to get to maybe 95 points, still not enough to get in

5. When Preds plays Hawks they will win their first win. So if first 10 games doesn´t get snowballed 0-80 or anything then all gets beter at some point.

6. It starts with the captain. Defense has been atrocious, and Josi is the leader of that defense. Four defensemen are -5 or worse. Outside of a 2 assist game, Josi has 1 point in 4 games. So, he's not defending much and he's not creating offense much. Skjei has been even worse (he's just not the captain). -6 and 1 point in 5 games.

   Bottom line forwards are also not doing their job. Sissons and McCarron are -8 and Smith is -7…with 1 point among the three of them. They're not playing shutdown minutes while the weapons recharge. If this team can't figure out defense, they're always going to be chasing the game and trying to dig out of a hole. People always think Nashville has "a great defense", but that hasn't been the case in years. They have no discipline or accountability, and something needs to be done to send a message. Healthy scratch Josi for a game if necessary. Wake them up.

7. How about Sissons, on the strong side with empty net, getting destroyed by Larkin, TWICE! He showed up for the face off but critical draws the lights are too bright. Meanwhile hall of famer just sits there and watches. Nice call Bruno

8. The man has no idea that there's a whole ketchup lore story line attached to his name now. Welcome to Nashville 😂

9. I don’t even want a win I just want A POINT.

10. How does the head coach not get any blame for being the only team without a point with this much money spent on talent.

11. Brunette is a terrible coach. We need an experienced head coach to run an experienced veteran team.

12. i'm beginning to Panic

13. You two are mistaken on many things. Tkachuk was 24 when Florida traded for him. Regardless, the Panthers still had Barkov(2 OA), and Ekblad(1 OA) as their pillars. Lastly, when teams spend to the cap on aging veterans, it’s because they plan on “going for it”. Do you think Stamkos will be better at 37??🤦🏾‍♂️

14. After that goal got called back on Saturday it seemed like they lost their Mojo and the "here we go again" started. In general they're playing like the big stars are gonna step up and take care of everything and that's not happening. Also I'd put O'Reilly with Stammer and Marchy and see what happens.

15. Puck luck is making the issues this team has seem catastrophic when they are really quite fixable. That's not an excuse, that's just the reality and that's just hockey. But that's not to say this team is without some glaring issues that are well within their control. The 4 respectable 5 on 5 lines the Preds could roll last year are just not there right now and I can't understate how much I hated the loss of Sherwood this offseason as he was not only a catalyst for the 4th line but likewise the entire team. He made McCarron look at lot better than he actually is and it's already showing. Trotz bet on the wrong horse there and both bottom six centers seriously need to step up or step aside. They seem like great locker room guys but they're not playing NHL caliber hockey.

    Which brings me to having Marchessault on the 3rd line with Sissons. He's a trigger man who needs to be playing with playmakers. With Sissons level of play right now that's going to do more to minimize Marcheassault's value than "get the 3rd line going". I really liked Bruno's approach to lines last season but so far this year he's been sporadic because of the results and it's stunting their growth.

    I'm not ready to burn the house down like some fans seem to be already. I get being the last team without a point coupled with the high expectations is extremely disappointing but they just need to plug some fixable holes and get a few more bounces. I believe this team can find their groove with a handful of tweaks. To me the top 6 is just snakebit and the bottom 6 needs to be reevaluated because their poor play has been coupled with rightfully poor results.