Nashville Predators Eliminated from Postseason
The Nashville Predators were officially eliminated from the 2022-2023 postseason despite a surprising late season push for the playoffs.
The Nashville Predators were officially eliminated from the playoffs tonight as the Winnipeg Jets defeated the Minnesota Wild by a score of 3-1 in regulation and secured the second wildcard spot in the West.
It has been a season of two very different storylines for the Nashville Predators. When the regular season began, the Predators signed Nino Niederreiter and defenseman Ryan McDonagh to give the team extra scoring in the top six and a Stanley Cup winning veteran in McDonagh to bolster the blue line. The partnership between McDonagh and Mattias Ekholm didn't materialize as planned. While Niederreiter found success offensively, the rest of Nashville's top six - especially Matt Duchene and Filip Forsberg - couldn't reproduce the career years they had in 2021-2022. High expectations were met more often with disappointment than fulfillment.
Two big pieces that Predators top six were lost to injury as the trade deadline approached. Filip Forsberg was injured in a February 11 games against the Philadelphia Flyers and has yet to return. Forsberg scored 19 goals and 23 assists before going down in overtime win, but that production wasn't anywhere near his 42 goals and 42 assists the previous season. Ryan Johansen was injured just ten days later in a game against Vancouver.
It was evident throughout the early part of the season that the last hope of fitting just one or two more pieces into the Predators puzzle wasn't going to give the franchise the deep playoff run they'd hoped for. After announcing on February 26th his upcoming retirement, general manager David Poile got to work at the trade deadline.
Poile traded Niederreiter, Ekholm. Tanner Jeannot, Michael Granlund, and filled the draft coffers with picks while bringing in Tyson Barrie and Cal Foote and prospect Reid Schaefer. Poile also began picking up the phone to Milwaukee as more players struggled with injuries down the stretch.
As the Predators closed a chapter on their previous core, the franchise also introduced - or reintroduced - some fresh faces to the fans including Tommy Novak, Luke Evangelista, Phil Tomasino, Kiefer Sherwood, Egor Afanasyev, Kevin Gavel, Jordan Gross, and Spencer Stastney. These players, with former, little, or no, NHL experience can into a locker room of future uncertainty and embraced the chance they were given.
It wasn't just young energy that revived a weary franchise and fanbase. The veterans who stayed around and stayed healthy could have thrown the towel in on a season of high hopes turned low expectations and cruised to the end of the regular season. They did not. Players like Tyson Barrie and Ryan McDonagh embraced the pivot and stepped up to help the newer faces learn and grow on and off the ice. Somehow this rag tag group who remained for this final stretch of hockey found something akin to magic behind an unassuming superstar goaltender who quietly went about his business of giving the Predators a chance in most every game he started.
This isn't the ending Predators fans anticipated at the beginning of the season, and (like most good stories), the trade deadline and injury plot twist resulted in a bittersweet ending. Nashville isn't through yet, though. They will still face two playoff teams later this week as they welcome Minnesota and the Colorado Avalanche to Bridgestone Arena for the two last games of their season. This Predators team may not be playing for the postseason, but they will be playing for their future Thursday and Friday.