Three games into their current road trip the Nashville Predators are 1-2 overall. Nashville boasts a 5-2 win over Edmonton — their first in Rogers Place since Oct. 20, 2018 — before taking on the Calgary Flames on Tuesday night.
Through three road games, the Predators have been outscored 11-9 seeing two starts for goaltender Kevin Lankinen. The netminder had previously seen 40 minutes of action back on Oct. 17 as the Oilers forced Juuse Saros out of the net after a four-goal first period.
Here’s a look at the three likes regarding the Predators play as of late:
Ryan O’Reilly
The veteran centerman has been Nashville’s most productive player on offense while the team has been away from home. He has five points in three games scoring his fifth career hat trick against the Oilers on Saturday. O’Reilly now has two games scoring four points against the Oilers in his career.
He’s also averaged the most time on ice by a forward (19:46) and converted 62% of his faceoffs. Playing in all 11 games for the Predators O’Reilly has a 5.5 expected goals average according to Money Puck which ranks 14th among all positions.
Filip Forsberg
It may not be the best start to a season he’s had in the goal-scoring department but Forsberg is the team leader with 12 points in 11 games. Two goals may not be attractive to the fans, however, he’s expected to have 4.8 goals so far and is currently 12th in the NHL with 45 shots converting 4.4% of the time.
Forsberg is tied with O’Reilly scoring five points in the first three games on the road and leads the group with four even strength points. Six of Forsberg’s assists have been primary ones this season and two coming in Edmonton as O’Reilly scored a hat trick.
Jeremy Lauzon
While Lauzon may not be the most flashy there’s been glimpses of how brash he can be out on the ice. He’s been a mainstay in Nashville’s penalty kill playing 6:37 so far on the excursion out west and into Canada. Nashville is currently 6-for-10 killing penalties on the road before facing the Flames.
Lauzon has primarily played with defenseman Tyson Barrie this season, and in doing so has been able to sit back to play stay-at-home defense. The defenseman leads the team with 32 hits along with Cole Smith not far behind with 29. According to NHL Edge Lauzon spends 42.4% of his shifts in the defensive zone and has occasionally been seen on the rush generating chances on offense.
Three dislikes from Nashville’s play on the road:
Costly Penalties
Aside from the San Jose Sharks allowing 20 goals (6 powerplay goals) in two games the Predators have allowed the second most powerplay goals against with four in the last three contests. Three of Nashville’s skaters have four penalty minutes with 24 overall, the more disciplined the better off this group will be. On the contrary, Nashville would rather have skaters like Tommy Novak and Forsberg more of an opportunity to thrive on the powerplay.
Puck Possession
Nashville has been preaching fast-moving transitions this season under new head coach Andrew Brunette. So far the Predators’ offensive zone time sits at 41.1% with the league average being 40.8%.
Lately, the offense has seen 180 chances thus far on their trip according to Natural Stat Trick & the Predators have 11.53 expected goals for with 9 finding the back of the net. More chances have been falling for Nashville as the analytics show, but it’ll be something to watch the rest of the trip.
Injuries
While it’s not a controlled area of concern for the Predators they’re out three players at the moment. Cody Glass and Luke Schenn have been on injured reserve while defenseman Ryan McDonagh missed Saturday’s game with a lower-body injury and is considered day-to-day.
The positive out of McDonagh being out was Marc Del Gaizo being able to make his NHL debut in Edmonton notching his first career point with an assist on Nashville’s first goal.
Cody Glass was placed on injured reserve back on Oct. 30 and was said to miss the next week or two with a lower-body injury. Glass and McDonagh would be the earliest to return to action either on the road trip or possibly on Saturday when Nashville returns to play the Arizona Coyotes.
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