Author’s note: This is the second round of our joint-preview series, this time I’m joined by Justin Godfrey, Managing Editor of Raw Charge, For Hockey Fan’s Tampa Bay Lightning site. Justin and I preview tomorrow’s game for the Predators and Bolts, the latter of which is coming off a 3-1 victory last night.
Q&A – Nashville Predators (13-12-0, 26 points, 6th in the Central)
The Nashville Predators had a quick two-game road trip after losing two straight at home to former head coaches John Hynes with the Minnesota Wild and Peter Laviolette and the New York Rangers. Luckily, the Predators were able to outlast Chicago in a frantic back-and-forth affair and win in OT to put Nashville back over 0.500 and 8-2-0 in their last ten contests.
Filip Forsberg scored his 16th career shootout goal, which gave him sole possession of the franchise lead for Nashville. His 48 total attempts in the shootout are also a franchise record, breaking a tie he shared with Martin Erat (15 shootout goals on 47 attempts).
Q&A:
Justin Godfrey, Managing Editor – Raw Charge: So, how’s it going? It seems like the Predatorshave been playing some decent hockey lately (8-2) over their last 10. What’s been the secret to their success?
Bryan Bastin, Site Editor & Beat Writer – On The Forecheck: They blew it up and started over – the days of the dump & chase, defensive slogs and a defense first mentality are gone – and it’s a lot more fun under Andrew Brunette – even if the results don’t always get there. Ryan O’Reilly and FIlip Forsberg are on career paces, Roman Josi is still Roman Josi, and there’s a ton of young faces on offense, but struggles in the D corps and most importantly, in goaltending, has made finding consistency a bit of a struggle at times. When Saros is himself, this team can find ways to win any game – however they can always find any way to lose one too. They’re a young team that was blown up with guys like Ekholm, Duchene, Johansen all elsewhere in the West, so this 0.500 result is really all you can ask.
Godfrey: Ryan McDonagh. A large portion of the Lightning fanbase still pines for him. How has he been for y’all?
Bastin: Coach Andrew Brunette spoke about McDonaugh this morning, calling him one of the reasons for the 8-2-0 run in the last ten. Statistically, he’s not the McDonaugh of old, but he’s been extremely effective whether paired with Roman Josi or Alex Carrier. It’s good to have him back from injury, and Nashville fans are pretty happy with it too.
Godfrey: Have you seen any differences in the Barry Trotz era as GM and has their recent run of success changed your mind on if they are a playoff team? Are they now buyers, sellers, or do-nothing’ers [at the deadline]?
Bastin: Nashville has an abundance of holes to fill and plenty of cap space, but Trotz has been aggressive so far – he’s made multiple waiver claims, floated Tyson Barrie’s name for trades, and more, but if there are deadline moves, I imagine they’ll be for depth or prospects, but don’t be surprised if they look for another reclamation project like Gus Nyquist (which has gone very well so far).
Godfrey: It appears Filip Forsberg is really good at hockey, but who else should Lightning fans be worried about in tonight’s game?
Bastin: Ryan O’Reilly – this may have been the best free agent signing in Nashville in some time. We knew he was good, but he’s playing at a career-best level alongside Forsberg. Nashville fans were excited when he joined, but nobody predicted the impact he’d have and becoming one of the Predators leaders almost immediately.
Godfrey: With just over a quarter of the season gone, who has been the Predators MVP and who has been on the struggle bus?
Bastin: MVP: FIlip Forsberg – he had just one goal going into the month of November, and has exploded at a 41 goal pace. His defensive ability is starting to set him apart and he’s been the reason for Nashville winning more games than most expected thus far.
As for the struggle bus? Unfortunately that’s goaltender Juuse Saros. It hasn’t been a great start – and despite his usual slump to start the season – we’ve seen flashes of the elite play we’re used to seeing. His last similar poor start had him finish as a top 3 goalie, but it’s still concerning.
Godfrey: Nashville Hot Chicken or Barbeque?
Bastin: BBQ – I love hot chicken for sure, but pork barbeque is a perfect food.
Q&A: Tampa Bay Lightning (12-10-5, 29 points, 4th in Atlantic)
Bastin: Tampa is not far above Nashville in the standings, which is surprising as Nashville was expected to struggle. Has the absence of Andrei Vasilevskiy been the biggest factor, or are there other issues under the surface?
Godfrey: The biggest problem they had was that they couldn’t get out of their own way. They would play like gangbusters for a period or two and then shoot themselves in the skateboot for five or ten minutes at a time and give up two or three goals. While Jonas Johansson was good as their starter, he didn’t have the ability Andrei Vasilevskiy has to bail the team out when they go through those weird stretches where they forget how to clear their zone or can’t string two passes together without turning the puck over.
The other issue is that, at times, they get a little too reliant on the power play (which is super awesome) and can’t generate offense at even strength unless Brayden Point or Nikita Kucherov is on the ice.
P.S. They give up a ton of shots and scoring chances. So that’s not always great.
P.P.S They’ve also been a hot dumpster fire in overtime. As in there have been at least three overtime games where they never touched the puck.
Bastin: 10 months later, how do Bolts fans feel about the Tanner Jeannot trade now?
Godfrey: It depends on the direction of the wind. If the team is winning, it’s hardly mentioned. If they lose a couple, he gets lumped in with a couple of other players (usually Mikhail Sergachev, Nick Paul, and Tony Cirelli) as to the reason why Julien BriseBois should be shot into the sun.
It’s unfortunate that he got hurt when he did last year (high ankle sprain in the next-to-last regular season game) because it felt like he was just acclimating to the team. Then he wasn’t 100% when he came back in the playoffs against Toronto and wasn’t as effective as he could have been in a tough series. So, yeah, that led to a lot of grumbling about the trade.
He’s played really well at times this year and then also taken some dumb penalties. Personally, I think he fits in well with what the Lightning want to do with their bottom-six forwards, which is to forecheck hard, create chaos, and just generally make the opposing team’s time on the ice miserable. Plus he punches really hard and that gets the people going. If he keeps playing the way he is, people will stop caring about the price. Heck, I’m old enough to remember when a large percentage through they gave up too much for Brandon Hagel and that seems to have turned out okay.
Bastin: Nikita Kucherov has been incredible (17 goals, 44 points)- do you think it’s going to be sustainable?
Godfrey: Yes. Dude is totally awesome at hockey and can keep this pace going as long as he stays healthy. The big change in his game is that he’s shooting the puck a lot more, at one point he was leading the league, and that just opens up so much more ice for him to zip passes all over the ice. Plus, his ability to mask if he’s shooting on net or passing to a teammate freezes goalies and allows him to pick the corners when he wants to.
There are so many different aspects to the way he picks up points that it’s just hard for teams to shut him down. Play him physically and he’ll find an open teammate. Play off of him and he’ll just shoot it by everyone. One part of his game that doesn’t get enough credit is how good he is along the boards. Despite being a relatively small guy (5’11, 182 lbs) he pops out of a lot of board battles with the puck.
Bastin: The Bolts seem to be in all kinds of cap hell – what’s the plan for the deadline in your mind?
Godfrey: I don’t know. Every year I write about how they have no cap room and no assets to trade and then JBB goes out and brings in some RFA that turns into a 20-goal scorer. I think he might look at adding to the defensive depth, as it gets real thin after their starting six (Phil Meyers is lurking in Syracuse if anyone gets hurt).
Chances are their big pickup was Vasy coming back. Conor Sheary has been on the IR and should hopefully be back soon which should help their forward depth so I think they stay put at the deadline. For once. Really, I promise.
Bastin: Tampa Bay had gone 1-4-0 in the last five before last night’s 3-1 victory against Pittsburgh. What were the biggest issues on the slide, and did last night start to correct them?
Godfrey: Outside of an absurd 8-1 loss to Dallas, they actually played fairly well in the other three losses. It was just a case of every mistake they made ending up in the back of their net. They also struggled to put the puck in the net as they were shooting something absurd like 3.4% over that stretch. They were doing a lot of the right things, but not seeing the results.
The wins against Dallas and Pittsburgh (yay a winning streak!) were more reminiscent of the old Lightning teams that got stronger as the game went on and locked down third period leads.
Bastin: Recommend a place in the Tampa area where fans could catch a hockey game – just one rule: please don’t say Beef O’Brady’s.
Godfrey: So many fond memories of Beef O’Bradys! Watched a lot of football and drank a lot of bad beer in those bars/restaurants. For me, the old standby is still Hat Tricks. It’s the original pre-game hangout ever since they built the Ice Palace/Amalie Arena and it’s still going strong.
Last Game Recaps
Wednesday, 12-06-23: Tampa Bay 3, Pittsburgh 1
Tuesday, 12-05-23: Nashville 4, Chicago 3 (SO)
How to Watch
Tonight’s contest will be broadcast on Bally Sports and 102.5 the Game. The puck drops at Bridgestone Arena at 7:00 PM Central.