The Nashville Predators fell 4-1 to the Vegas Golden Knights on Monday (Jan. 15) in a game that was closer than the final score would indicate.
Despite the end result, the Predators outshot, out-chanced and outhit the Golden Knights. Nashville had a 35-29 shot advantage, led with 57.75 percent scoring chances and brought the boom with more than twice as many hits as Vegas, led by a career-high 12 from defenseman Jeremy Lauzon.
Related: Predators’ Lauzon Is Earning the Respect – and Fear – He Deserves
“We played a pretty good game,” Predators captain Roman Josi said following the loss. “I felt like especially in the first, 5-on-5, we played really well. Even the second, I liked our second. They made a bit of a push, obviously, because they’re a great team, so that was expected, but we kind of ran out of gas a little bit out there.”
Despite the final score, The Captain felt the team performed well.
— Bally Sports: Preds (@PredsOnBally) January 16, 2024
Full postgame interview with @LyndsayRowley 👇@PredsNHL l #Preds pic.twitter.com/L59hSDJUl7
Josi isn’t wrong; Monday was by no means a bad loss for the Predators. It wasn’t even a bad outing at all, really – it was a solid performance by Nashville against a solid performance by the reigning Stanley Cup champions. Still, even though the former played well and the latter was without its top scorer, the fact that Vegas won Monday’s matchup handily illustrated the disparity between this Predators team and a legitimate Cup contender.
The Predators are a One-Line Team
In Filip Forsberg, Ryan O’Reilly, and Gustav Nyquist, Nashville has one of the best forward lines in the NHL. Among all lines that have played a minimum of 100 minutes together this season, the Predators’ trio ranks in the top 10 in expected goals for (19) with an expected goals percentage of 54.3.
Related: Predators’ Filip Forsberg Named 2024 NHL All-Star
The Predators’ top line is unquestionably one of their strongest assets. But their lack of consistent depth scoring makes it far too easy for opponents to turn that asset into a handicap. On Monday, the Golden Knights completely neutralized the Forsberg-O’Reilly-Nyquist line, holding the trio to 32 percent shot attempts and 25 percent expected goals. The result? Rookie Luke Evangelista scored the Predators’ lone goal in 35 total shots, while Vegas scored four goals with six fewer attempts.
VANGE GOAL pic.twitter.com/lrvAKsqbGP
— Nashville Predators (@PredsNHL) January 16, 2024
The Predators rely too much on their veteran core to generate any sort of consistency on offense, and it’s not sustainable. Josi led all players on both teams with 27:48 of ice time on Monday, while Forsberg, O’Reilly and Nyquist led all Nashville forwards with about 20 minutes each; it’s no wonder they “ran out of gas.”
The Predators Have a Talent Gap
Evangelista’s goal against Vegas was his second in as many games, and he and linemate Tommy Novak were arguably Nashville’s best players on Monday.
“He’s got some good consistencies,” Predators head coach Andrew Brunette said of Evangelista after the game. “He’s been playing better and better each night. So, I was happy to see it go in for him. He’s had a little stretch where he was getting chances that weren’t going in for him. It’s a big goal for us. He made some big plays.”
The Predators showed strong hustle and good energy against Vegas, and the final score should not reflect a lack of effort. They tried everything to break through, from stretch passes to dump-ins to carry-ins, but they couldn’t convert on any of their offensive zone chances because Vegas shut down any and all paths to the net with their defensive structure.
The effort was there for Nashville, but the polish was not. Players like Evangelista and Novak are still young, with fewer than 200 combined NHL games between them. With their top line rendered effectively useless by the Golden Knights, it’s both unfair and unrealistic for the Predators to expect their young, inexperienced forwards to carry the offense and generate quality chances against one of the most defensively sound teams in the NHL.
The Predators’ talent gap could be resolved by allowing more time to let the young forwards develop, adding some new faces to the mix, or – more realistically – a combination of the two. No one expected this team to become a contender overnight, but Monday’s game was a good illustration of where they are in the process of becoming serial winners – and how far they still have to go.
