There’s no secret to it, the Nashville Predators have struggled to produce during five-on-five play this season.
Nashville has scored 16 of their 21 five-on-five goals in five contests this season. The fifth installment came on Sunday night in Vancouver as the Predators achieved three five-on-five goals.
As of Monday Nashville’s 21 five-on-five goals rank 31st in the NHL, but what’s more pertinent is the powerplay is starting to execute the way it’s been drawn up from the start.
Forward Steven Stamkos had his first multi-goal performance in a Predators sweater against the Canucks & did it in his traditional fashion. He facilitated play with confidence & as lanes opened or closed he made the correct reads.
Stamkos’ 5th goal of the season. pic.twitter.com/V8Y7Tuiveq
— Nick Kieser🏒 (@KieserNick) November 18, 2024
On Stamkos’ first goal forward Ryan O’Reilly exited the corner with pressure & took a look up where he could have gone to the nearest defenseman or float the puck over to captain Roman Josi. The latter was chosen & Josi opted to swiftly dish a pass to Stamkos.
In the clip above Stamkos could have decided to move it back to Josi before his shot or fire a shot on the net. O’Reilly filled the slot to create traffic & all Stamkos needed was a quick window to beat goalie Kevin Lankinen on his glove side.
Lankinen had three bodies in front of him while Filip Forsberg was idle on the blocker side. In this situation, Stamkos didn’t even need to use the restraint lines inside the faceoff circle to guide his next move for his signature one-timer. Instead he flicked a wrister past Lankinen who had slim odds to make a save.
“I really liked our retrievals, & battles, we kept a couple of plays alive, & I thought Filip was really good at that. He seemed to be everywhere,” Stamkos said. “For me, I’m trying to have a little more of a shooter mentality out there. It’s nice to get a puck in some pretty good areas & some quality shots.”
Stamkos’ second goal on the powerplay was led by Forsberg’s clean entry into the offensive zone & finding Josi on the blue line.
The defenseman had Jonathan Marchessault along the wall to keep the possession alive after Forsberg’s shot ricocheted off defenseman Carson Soucy.
Marchessault strategically utilized his space along the wall for a give-and-go passing play with Forsberg before ultimately rifling a pass to Stamkos.
The marksman caught the pass in his office & wristed a shot past Lankinen less than three seconds later to take a 4-2 lead into the locker room after two periods.
Stamkos’ 2nd PPG vs Vancouver moves him to 11th all-time with 219 goals on the man advantage. He passes Jaromir Jagr & Mike Gartner.
Is this the Preds we’ve been robbed of? pic.twitter.com/MG7Hcf7cJW
— Nick Kieser🏒 (@KieserNick) November 18, 2024
“Sometimes you need a game where you get four or five goals & feel good about yourselves & build on that,” Stamkos said. “Sometimes it can be frustrating & it’s easy to let that snowball but if you can have a game like tonight where things started to go our way a little bit we can use that to fuel us moving forward.”
On their road trip, Nashville had zero powerplay goals on six opportunities before playing the Canucks.
The progress in movement & setup is starting to click at a higher rate, except now the Predators will need to keep it consistent if they continue to see approximately two powerplays per game.
Head coach Andrew Brunette shifted the lines up in Vancouver as forward Tommy Novak came back from a six-game hiatus due to an upper-body injury. Now he’ll aim to see if similar creative plays are clicking during even strength play.
Nashville closes out their road trip on Wednesday evening against the Seattle Kraken. In their last five games, the Kraken’s penalty kill has allowed four powerplay goals on 12 times being shorthanded.
Seattle’s penalty kill has seen light work lately only being shorthanded once in three straight games. The Kraken will be a tough out as Nashville concludes a 12-day trip.
Follow Nick Kieser on Twitter/X: @KieserNick
Photos courtesy of the Nashville Predators
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