It’s difficult to illustrate how boring the Nashville Predators have been to watch in the first 10 games.
Every game is a defensive battle. Shots at the net are throttled. Goals are rare. Penalties constantly disrupt the flow of the game. Slow, plodding attacks are thwarted at both ends. Outside of a handful of high danger chances, there’s little to get fans out of their seats.
Somehow, they’ve won four games, but it’s hard to get excited about any of them. Sometimes you wonder if the Predators are even playing the same game as the rest of the NHL.
Coach Andrew Brunette says that’s by design.
“We’re not going to be a rush team,” Brunette said after a 3-2 loss to the Dallas Stars on Oct. 26. “We’re going to have to be a certain kind of team.”
What kind? An offensive black hole, generating just 2.5 goals per game. That’s the third-worst offense in the league, and it’s accompanied by the second-worst power play that scores only 9.7% of the time. The penalty kill has been outstanding, stopping 88.9% of opponents. But that only makes games more sleepy with fewer goals on the board.
If you attended the 5-4 win over the Los Angeles Kings on Oct. 25, you were treated to a rarity: nine goals and a thrilling nine-round shootout, clinched by rookie Ozzy Wiesblatt.
But if you went to any other home games, you saw the opposite. A 2-1 win, a 3-2 overtime loss. A 5-2 loss, a 2-1 win. It’s like someone found a dial in Bridgestone Arena labeled “Goals” and turned it all the way down.
By the way, goal scoring is up across the league — teams are averaging 3.08 goals per game, up from 3.01 last season, according to Hockey Reference. The Western Conference has some seriously good offensive teams, like the Utah Mammoth, who are on a seven-game winning streak as of Oct. 27.
The Winnipeg Jets have scored four or more goals five times already. The Vegas Golden Knights have a top-10 offense, even with Mark Stone injured. The San Jose Sharks, who are below the Predators in the standings, have Macklin Celebrini and Will Smith scoring multiple goals per night.
The Predators have 11 skaters who have yet to score, including top-six forwards Luke Evangelista and Fedor Svechkov. Ryan O’Reilly is the team’s leading scorer with nine points — and that ranks 41st in the NHL.
“When we do certain things that play to our identity, I thought we were really good,” Brunette said after the Dallas loss. “We kind of dominated stretches of the game, where we looked like a team that was really dangerous. Then we get swayed from it a little bit. I think it’s a little bit of human nature. You want it to be easier.”
By the smallest of fractions, the Predators are better than last season through 10 games. They’ve won four games, up from three. They have 10 points in the standings, up from seven. Goaltender Juuse Saros has been better — his save percentage is up to .909 from .896.
Tactically, there’s more to like about the Predators. Defensive adjustments made over the summer are working. Puck management has been better along the blue line, leading to fewer odd-man rushes the other way. Skaters are “sweeping the porch” for their goaltenders, as Brunette likes to say.
But unless the Predators unlock some offense somewhere, it doesn’t look like there’s going to be a lot of scoring these next 72 games.
Next up, the Predators host the Tampa Bay Lightning at Bridgestone Arena on Oct. 28 (6:45 p.m. CT, FanDuel Sports Network).
Alex Daugherty is the Predators beat writer for The Tennessean. Contact Alex at jdaugherty@gannett.com. Follow Alex on X, the platform formerly called Twitter, @alexdaugherty1. Also check out our Predators exclusive Instagram page @tennessean_preds.