Predators coming into their own after successful road trip
ST. PAUL, Minn. — What is it about pre-All-Star break road trips that seem to galvanize the Predators?
Last January, Nashville engineered a four-game sweep through Western Canada, a streak that the team pinpointed as the turning point of its season.
In comparable fashion, a 4-2 come-from-behind victory against the Western Conference-leading Wild on Sunday sealed a highly successful road trip, with the Predators winning four of five and heating up for the first time.
“It feels similar for sure,” Predators captain Mike Fisher said. "I think we really kind of found the way we know we need to play. If you do that, over time you’re going to find consistency, and I feel like we’re doing that.”
When the Predators left Nashville more than a week ago, they were on the fringes of the Western playoff picture, doing enough to hang around. Five games later, they returned much more entrenched in the race, holding third place in the Central Division.
The Predators accomplished that by showcasing the brand of hockey that can make them difficult to defeat — fast and physical with strong puck possession, tight defense and stout goaltending,
"We've been playing really good road hockey," said Predators forward Filip Forsberg, who scored three game-winning goals on the trip and has 11 total goals in his past 17 games. "Just got to take that back with us to Nashville now."
There was adversity, too. Twice Nashville overcame two-goal deficits, defeating Colorado on Jan. 14 and Minnesota on Sunday. In the first three games, the Predators were without their top two defensemen — Roman Josi and P.K. Subban — because of injury before Subban made his return from a 16-game absence during Friday's win against the Oilers.
The Predators also hurdled peculiar obstacles, starting with a mechanical issue that grounded their Jan. 13 flight to Denver, delaying it to the following morning for a game that afternoon. A blown fuse cut off electricity and water at their Edmonton hotel Friday, and a mix-up at the Edmonton airport Saturday led to their personal belongings being left behind, retrieving them Sunday in Minnesota.
“It hasn’t been the smoothest (trip), a lot of things out of our control,” said Predators coach Peter Laviolette, who became the 25th NHL coach to win 500 games Sunday. "Not necessarily the fault of anybody in particular, but things have just happened, and our guys have just rolled with it and stayed focused and played some pretty good hockey. … It was a good road trip where the guys really dug in and made some noise, made up some ground.”
Starting with the four-game winning streak last season, the Predators earned points in 27 of their final 36 games (21-9-6), tied for the fourth-best record in the NHL within that span. A similar push would cement their place in the postseason.
"We’re finding different ways to win, getting big goals at big times and playing a good solid team game, getting contributions from everyone,” Fisher said. "It feels good.
“We knew how important this road trip was, and the position we were in starting it. It’s tested us in a lot of different ways, but we’ve played real hard. We’re coming into our own.”
Reach Adam Vingan at avingan@tennessean.com and on Twitter @AdamVingan.
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PREDATORS vs. SABRES
When: 7 p.m. Tuesday
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