Hynes Makes Changes to Predators Defensive Pairings

After a rough start to the season, John Hynes changes things up with the Predators defense ahead of tomorrow's game against the St. Louis Blues.

The Nashville Predators' five game losing streak has prompted head coach John Hynes to make a few minor adjustments to the lineup. The Preds have struggled on both side of the ice and in net so far this season, but it is the defense that is getting the fine tuning heading into tomorrow's game against Central Division rival St. Louis Blues. 

According to Robby Stanley of 102.5 The Game, the reconfigured defense will mean splitting up the Ekholm/McDonagh pairing. Ekholm and Alexandre Carrier will team up while McDonagh will help out opposite Jeremy Lauzon. Mark Borowiecki, who has traded starts with Lauzon, will be out of the lineup after a scary injury in Saturday night's game against the Flyers. 

There is plenty of logic to this shift on defense. When the Predators traded for Ryan McDonagh the initial plan was to play the former Lightning defender and Ekholm together which meant Ekholm switching sides to accommodate McDonagh. That move could create an impressive shut down pairing, but the transition hasn't been exactly seamless so far. While splitting Ekholm and McDonagh up interrupts a chance for the two to continue to develop as that envisioned shut down pair, there are bigger needs defensively that separating the two veterans can help with in the short term. 

Roman Josi and Dante Fabbro have proven to be a strong top pairing for the Predators, playing together a majority of the 2021-2022, a season in which Roman Josi set league records for his offensive play. Fabbro's traditional stay at home defensive style is a strong compliment to Josi's more wandering play and allows the captain to create offensive chances the Predators could use right now. 

Likewise, Ekholm and Carrier played almost 779 minutes together in 2021-2022. The move to reunite these two shifts Ekholm back to the defensive side of the ice he is most familiar with and allows Carrier more of a chance to engage offensively than when he's playing with Josi. 

The move to play McDonagh with Lauzon is also a sensible shift, but one that comes at a cost for the Predators. Giving Lauzon time together with the veteran McDonagh provides more stability to that third pairing and frees Fabbro up to be the compliment to Josi that the Preds have seen before. This move, however, means McDonagh will be sacrificing ice time. While it is difficult to see a veteran defenseman with McDonagh's skills spend less time on the ice helping his team, the boost that this move offers may be a short term solution to jump start the Predators on both ends of the ice. 

The Predators will try these pairings out tomorrow night. Nashville will look to snap their five game losing streak as they welcome the Blues to Bridgestone Arena for a 7:00 pm CST puck drop.