Brendan Leipsic put up fairly decent numbers prior to being drafted by the Predators. In 133 WHL games before being drafted, Leipsic had scored 91 points (44G – 47A) and tacked on 132 penalty minutes for good measure.

At the time, Jordin Tootoo was all but gone from Nashville and Rich Clune was still property of the Los Angeles Kings. At some point down the line, Tootoo’s role on the team would need to be replaced and it appeared that Poile had moved up in the Draft to get a player he could groom into a new Tootoo.

In fact, Poile, didn’t exactly hide what he wanted Leipsic to turn into.

“What I’ve been told is that this guy is one of those guys who is really hard,” Poile said on the day of the Draft. “He’s a little bit Tootoo-ish, a little bit Brad Marchand. I’m sure the best description is probably that he’s not fun to play against. Probably the opposition doesn’t like him too much. This is the guy you love, they hate type of thing. He’s not really big in stature, but plays really, really tough.”

Last summer, when the prospects came to Nashville for a week to work with the Predators coaches, Leipsic went into a little more depth about the notion that he wasn’t fun to play against.

“I played football when I was younger and I love to play physical,” Leipsic said. “It’s just part of my game. For me to be a smaller guy, I’ve got to work my butt off. I get in the other teams’ faces and nobody likes that.”

Leipsic was listed at 5’8″ when he was drafted. His team now lists him as 5’9″. The extra inch isn’t likely to blow away anyone away.

“I like getting in other guys’ faces,” Leipsic said. “That’s just the player I am. I like to play physical and I guess that agitates the other players.”

Luckily for Leipsic, his offensive explosion this season will probably turn some heads.

In 68 games with Portland this season, Leipsic ripped off a WHL-leading 120 points (49G – 71 A) with 103 penalty minutes.

Leipsic touted his competitiveness and his work ethic as his most valuable traits. However, he appears to have undersold another portion of his game.

“I never take a shift off,” Leipsic said. “I think I’ve got pretty good offensive skills.”

“Pretty good” offensive skills means more than doubling his prior year’s output. For a player compared to Jordin Tootoo and Brad Marchand, Leipsic managed to have a season far and away better than any season that the other two had ever had in Major Junior.

On Thursday, Leipsic was rewarded for his potential to become that Tootoo-ish Brad Marchand player that David Poile covets by signing his first NHL contract – the standard 3-year entry level deal with Nashville.

He’ll likely be in training camp in September and, based on Predators teams past, will likely stay in Portland until he is old enough to play in Milwaukee. However, Thursday marked the next step in the development of a player who may end up being one of David Poile’s biggest steals.

–

Photo: Sarah Fuqua

Unfortunately, he’s 49, he’s a defenseman and he’s retired. Also, he’s their new assistant coach.

Less than 24 hours after Darren Pang first leaked the news of Peter Horachek’s firing, the Predators have announced his replacement – former NHL All Star Phil Housley.

In perhaps a testimony to both the aging of the Predators franchise and to Housley’s longevity as a player, Housley actually appeared at Bridgestone Arena as a player on a handful of occasions with Chicago and Calgary. Until Mike Modano broke his record against the Predators, Housley had for years been the NHL’s highest-scoring American-born player. With 1,232 points in 1,495 games, the retired defenseman is one of the best American players to ever play the game. He is a member of both the IIHF Hall of Fame and the United States Hockey Hall of Fame.

Housley has only been out of the game as a player for 10 years, but has made his mark as a coach with the USA Hockey program. In January, he coached the United States to a gold medal in the  World Junior Championships. Most recently, Housley served as an assistant as the United States took the bronze medal in the World Championships; Predators general manager David Poile is a member of the United States men’s team advisory group.

Make no bones about it, the hiring of Phil Housley is a fantastic “get” for the Predators. Both Poile and head coach Barry Trotz were quoted in Nashville’s press release praising Housley’s skills as a player and both, interestingly, make reference to the team’s power play.

“Phil brings a unique skill set to our coaching staff,” Poile said. “He was one of the most talented offensive defensemen to play in the NHL, and he has worked extensively with young players during his coaching career. He will continue to focus his efforts on our young defensemen and assisting on the power play.”

“A coach with history as a defenseman who was offensively gifted and excelled on the power play is something we have never had on our coaching staff,” Predators Head Coach Barry Trotz said. “His insight and viewpoint will bring a fresh perspective to our team.”

For all intents and purposes, the Predators have hired a coach on a tremendous upswing who should be able to command respect  simply from his longevity as a player.

However, the reason Housley is in Nashville is because he filled an opening, an opening created when the Predators released associate coach Peter Horachek.

The organization has remained largely silent on Horachek’s firing, issuing no press release and only publishing a single statement on the news subpage of their website which was not distributed to the press.

The statement from Poile features all of the “thank you for your contributions” and ”best of luck in your future endeavors” that you would expect from such a statement. David Poile doesn’t burn bridges that don’t need burning.

According to Joshua Cooper at the Tennessean, Horachek was fired by telephone while he was getting ready to come to Nashville for team meetings. In fairness to the Predators, this was the organization’s first actual firing of a member of the coaching staff. In 2003, Paul Gardner – Horachek’s predecessor - was removed from the bench, but he was offered a position within the organization as a scout – an offer he ultimately refused. As unceremonious as it appears, David Poile had not fired a coach since January 1994 when he fired head coach Terry Murray and assistant John Perpich while with the Washington Capitals. He can probably be excused for not knowing how to swing the axe.

At first glance, it appeared that Peter Horachek was being blamed for the issues with the Predators during their horrendous 2013 season. Many, including me, questioned whether Horachek was being used as a scapegoat for Nashville’s failure to appear this season. When the Housley announcement came so quickly after the Horachek firing, the reasoning behind Horachek’s departure seemed a little clearer.

In the end, it appears not so much that Horachek was a scapegoat – it simply appears that the opportunity to hire Phil Housley was just too good to pass up.

Unfortunately for Peter Horachek, he was the odd man out.

As Darren Pang first reported on Twitter last night and as the Predators reportedly confirmed this afternoon, the Nashville Predators’ associate coach has been fired.

Horachek arrived in Nashville prior to the 2003-04 season after the Predators attempted to reassign assistant coach Paul Gardner to a scouting position before he ultimately departed the organization.

The former head coach of the ECHL’s Nashville Knights returned to Nashville after one season coaching the Predators’ AHL affiliate, the Milwaukee Admirals. Horachek also coached the Orlando Solar Bears to the final championship of the International Hockey League in 2001.

As a player, Horachek never made it higher than the AHL. However, when he joined the Predators as an assistant in 2003-04, it was timed perfectly with the franchise’s rise to prominence. In 9 seasons with Horachek at Barry Trotz’s side, the Predators made the playoffs 7 times.

Last season, with Brent Peterson’s retirement from gameday coaching, Horachek was promoted to associate coach. During his only full 82-game season as associate coach, the Predators had perhaps their best season in franchise history. The team finished 2nd in the Central Division and 4th in the Western Conference, while leading the league in power play percentage and finishing in the top 10 on penalty kills and goal scoring.

This season, Horachek’s 2nd as associate coach and 9th on the Nashville bench, the team finished last in the Central, 2nd to last in the Western Conference and with the 4th-worst record in the league. After finishing in the top 10 during the previous season in scoring, the Predators finished dead last in the abbreviated 2013 schedule. After finishing in the top 10 on the penalty kill, they finished 29th. After leading the league on the power play, they dropped to 17th. It was just a bad season.

But it was also a weird season.

There was a lockout that wiped out nearly half of it. Until the middle of January, players and coaches had no idea when, who or even if they would be playing in the coming season.

There is no denying that the Predators were ill-prepared for what laid ahead of them. They were terrible this season – absolutely terrible.

At the same time, this season is unrepeatable in the near future. Some coaches and coaching staffs figured out how to excel in the short, 48-game season. Others, such as the Predators stumbled through it.

There will not be another season like this one. Yes, the Predators coaching staff has shown an inability to get out of the early rounds of the playoffs, but they have shown continual improvement in normal seasons. There was nothing about this season that was evidence of a long-term trend from the Predators – nothing. In every category they struggled in – goal scoring, the power play, the penalty kill – they excelled in it last season. If it had been a long term issue, then yes, by all means, it’s time to clean house. However, nothing was a long-term trend. It was a one-off – it was strike one.

Right now, we have no further information. We may never have further information. On the surface, however, the whole situation seems bizarre. The season ended nearly a month ago and Barry Trotz has been in Europe for the past three weeks. A major organizational decision like this seems like something that would have been dealt with before he left to coach at the World Championships.

Until someone tells us otherwise, it looks like Peter Horachek has become the fall guy for Nashville’s dismal performance this season.

Peter Horachek was not sitting behind the bench telling players not to shoot. He was not telling them not to score. He was not telling Sergei Kostitsyn to quit on a play. He was not telling the linesmen in Colorado to not call Matt Duchene offside or to call a hand pass on Paul Gaustad in Minnesota. Peter Horachek did not injure Colin Wilson and Gabriel Bourque. He did not sign Ryan Suter to a long-term contract in Minnesota or replace Roman Josi’s open position on the roster with Scott Hannan. Peter Horachek did not cause the lockout. He did not limit the amount of practice time players were allowed to take each week.

None of that matters, though, since Peter Horachek is now gone.

It’s hard not to jump to conclusions as to why.

–

Until this season, the team had appeared in 7 of the last 8 Stanley Cup Playoffs. The lone miss was the 2008-09 season when the team finished in 10th place in the West, 3 points out of the final playoff spot.

In this lockout-shortened 48-game season, however, the Predators were never able to string together anything resembling consistency. They were only able to string together consecutive wins on 3 occasions, with the 3 streaks being 4 games, 3 games and 2 games. On 9 different occasions, Nashville was shut out – 3 times the number of shutouts that the team experienced in the full 2011-12 season.

When the dust settled, the Nashville Predators were on the outside looking in. In fact, they were well on the outside, finishing with the NHL’s 4th worst record.

“It was just a very difficult, unique year,” head coach Barry Trotz said. “With the injuries compounding on that, it became a little bit of a train wreck from a competitive standpoint. We played hard, but at the end of the day, we didn’t have enough bullets. We went into a fight – we had a knife, they had a gun. Unless we snuck up on them, we were going to lose that one.”

To say that injuries affected the team would be an understatement. Two of Nashville’s top 3 goal scorers – Mike Fisher and Gabriel Bourque – missed significant time on the season. Both Bourque and forward Colin Wilson suffered season-ending injuries – Bourque’s occurred while he was leading the team in goal-scoring, Wilson’s as he led the team in overall scoring.

In all, the team was so injury-plagued over the season that only 3 players – Roman Josi, David Legwand and Shea Weber – played in every game. In addition to Bourque, Fisher and Wilson, Paul Gaustad, Hal Gill, Patric Hornqvist and Brandon Yip each missed over 10 games due to injury. Defenseman Scott Hannan, who was traded at the trade deadline, also missed significant time with an injury.

However, the injuries affected the team beyond game production. In a season in which practice time was already limited, injuries would affect the personnel that Nashville had available to practice. Because of the condensed schedule, even players who appeared in more games would sit out practices so that they could be game-ready.

“We were coaching off of the seat of our pants,” Trotz said. “There were injuries – we’d get to practice and our trainer would come in and go, ‘You’re not going to have this guy tonight, you’re not going to have this guy.’ We would  go to players and say, ‘We’ve got to be honest – if you can’t practice, you shouldn’t practice because something is ailing you.’ We had a lot of guys who blocked shots and their foot would be swollen the next day and we’d be okay, let it settle down the following day instead of practice, get hit with another puck and just let it affect your performance.”

According to Trotz, at some practices the coaching staff would literally have to change the entire schedule for the day on the fly because there would not be enough players available to work on drills that were planned.

At the conclusion of the season, not only did the Predators finish in last in the Central Division, they finished tied for last in the league in scoring, second to last on the penalty kill and last in the league in shooting.

After Nashville lost to Columbus in their season finale, the team appeared to feel more of a burden on their shoulders than a relief of the end of a difficult season.

–

Going into Saturday night’s season finale against the Columbus Blue Jackets at Nationwide Arena, the Nashville Predators goaltender was 1-6-1 with a 3.97 goals against average and a .852 save percentage through 10 games in his return to Nashville. In addition, the Predators had only won 16 of their 47 games.

However, Mason was given the start against Columbus on Saturday night.

Through the first two periods, he was perfect. The Blue Jackets registered 22 shots on goal in the first two stanzas – Mason made 22 saves.

It was quite a turnaround from his performance on Thursday night in which he gave up 5 goals in 38 shots.

“I felt great tonight,” Mason said. “You get a couple of games and you get that feeling of playing games again, you get a little bit of a comfort zone and I felt pretty good tonight.”

Mason had only played in 10 of Nashville’s 48 games prior to Saturday night. Mason admits that he was not at his best and that – despite the loss on Thursday – the game experience helped him prepare for Saturday. He rode a 1-0 lead going into his last period of the season.

“It helps a lot just to have game time,” Mason said. “I’ve said it a million times – there’s no duplicating games. You can try to do it in practice, but until you get in there and get the traffic, get the bad angle shots and everything else that goes with the game, it’s tough to recreate. Having played a game in the last little while definitely helped me feel a lot better tonight.”

Unfortunately for Mason, Columbus’ Brandon Dubinsky scored a power play goal at 10:09 of the third period. Five minutes later, the newly energized Blue Jackets scored again to take a 2-1 lead. Columbus needed a win to have a chance at the playoffs. Nashville had been eliminated for a while.

In all, the Blue Jackets peppered Mason with 25 third period shots. Unfortunately, the only 2 that he missed made the difference. Columbus added an empty net goal at the end for insurance and the Blue Jackets took a 3-1 win to keep their playoff hopes alive. Ultimately, the night would end poorly for Columbus, as well, as both Detroit and Minnesota won, leaving them on the outside looking in as the season came to a close.

“Obviously, you don’t like losing, but sometimes you play hard and you end up losing games,” Mason said. “You saw a desperate team there. That’s the way they’ve been playing all year. They never give up. They scrap and claw. They threw everything at us in the third period. They won the game and did their part and I know now they probably need some help from other teams, but they did all they could and that’s what they’ve been doing all year.”

Mason stopped 44 of 46 shots in the game, but was still saddled with the loss.

“It’s tough,” Mason said. “I don’t know if it’s an awkward situation, but they had so much to play for, but standings-wise, we had nothing to play for. You just saw the desperation that they had been playing with and they’ve been doing that for the last month-and-a-half here. They just kept it at a level that we really couldn’t keep up with the whole game. That’s just the way it goes. We really would have loved to win that game, but in all honesty, they deserved to win that game.”

“(It was) maybe his best game of the year,” Nashville head coach Barry Trotz said. “He was as good as he’s been all year. I wish we would have got at least a point for him, maybe two for him. He had some huge saves.”

Mason agreed that the game was one of his better performances on the season, despite the loss.

“I haven’t played a lot,” Mason said. “I had a couple of good games to start the year and then I had a couple of not so good ones. Tonight was definitely one of the best.”

Chris Mason will be a free agent in July. He has played for Nashville on numerous different occasions since the team’s inaugural season. Saturday may have been his last game ever in a Predators jersey.

“One of the things I can say about Chris Mason – and I’ve had Chris a couple of times – he’s as good of a pro player as you’re going to find,” Trotz said. “When you talk about a pro player on and off the ice, I think he has a great work ethic. I believe he has some hockey in the future as a player or development coach or goalie coach. He’s going to be in the game. He’s a bright young guy who has a tremendous work ethic. It’s been a pleasure to be with him all the times we’ve had him.”

–

Photo Credit: Sarah Fuqua

Fifteen years later, he is the only player left from that inaugural season who has been with the team for the duration of their existence.

Thus, it serves to reason that the longest tenured Predator would be the first one to reach several franchise milestones along the way. He leads the franchise in games played, assists, points scored and, of course, goals scored.

With his first period tally on Tuesday night at Bridgestone Arena, Legwand became the first Nashville Predator to score 200 career goals.

“I took a shot to the net and got it through his legs there,” Legwand said. “(Calgary goaltender Miikka) Kiprusoff’s obviously a tough goalie to beat and you have to beat him with traffic in front of the net and I think we did a good job of that tonight.”

Legwand admitted that he was unaware that his 200th career goal was imminent.

“I try not to think about it, but obviously it’s been 4 or 5 games since I got one so it was nice to get it here,” he said.

Nashville rookie Austin Watson scored his first career goal in the same game that Legwand scored his 200th.

“Congrats to Leggy,” Austin Watson said. “That’s something pretty incredible. 200 goals – it felt hard enough to get the first one. It’s an awesome milestone for him and nice to share a moment here.”

Losing Streak Snapped: With a 4-3 win over the Calgary Flames, Nashville snapped a franchise-record 8-game skid. The streak started at Bridgestone Arena on April 4 against the Columbus Blue Jackets. Six of the 8 losses during the streak came at Bridgestone Arena and all but the last one at Chicago were in regulation.

Goo Goo-less: Nashville never managed a “Goo Goo Goal” in the 2012-13 season, failing to register a goal in the final minute of the second period in any game at Bridgestone Arena to earn fans a free Goo Goo cluster.

First Point: In addition to Watson, Filip Forsberg recorded his first career point, an assist on Legwand’s 200th career goal. Forsberg, the 11th overall pick in last year’s NHL Entry Draft, was acquired at the trade deadline from the Washington Capitals in exchange for Martin Erat and Michael Latta.

Spaling Scores: While Nashville is no longer undefeated at Bridgestone Arena when Nick Spaling scores, they do have a fairly stellar record. Spaling scored a power play goal in the second period to tie the game. With Nashville’s victory, the Predators’ record at Bridgestone Arena when Spaling scores is 16-1-1.

Quote of the Game: “We won the game. We hadn’t won in a while. We weren’t quite sure what to do.” – Predators head coach Barry Trotz

–

PuckScene Three Stars

1. Austin Watson – Watson’s first career goal gets an automatic vote as the First Star of the game.
2. Shea Weber – Had the first assist on 2 goals on a night that the Predators broke a long losing streak.
3. David Legwand – Scored career goal number 200, provided an answer to Calgary’s early goal.

“It was incredible,” Watson said. “I wasn’t sure – I shot it through a screen, so I didn’t really know and just based it off of the fans’ reaction, but it’s exciting. It’s a milestone and it’s great to experience here at home.”

At 3:17 of the third period in Nashville’s game against Calgary on Tuesday night, the rookie Watson found the back of the net for the first time in his young NHL career. On a night when the Predators were playing their home finale at Bridgestone Arena in a season in which the playoffs have long been out of the picture, Watson gave the sellout crowd something to smile about.

“It’s incredible,” Watson said. “We gave the fans something to cheer about at the end of the game. They’ve been supporting us and they’ve been incredible, which I’ve seen since I’ve been here.  To see how excited they were for a great win tonight was pretty special.”

“I didn’t know what to think. It was kind of crazy. I kind of blacked out a little bit and got pretty excited. It’s one of those things that I’ll never get to experience again, so it was pretty awesome.”

The goal came on a play that was initiated by forward Craig Smith, who earned the first assist on the goal, which beat Calgary netminder Miikka Kiprusoff.

“It was a great look,” Watson said. “He sucked in the 2 d and popped it over to me. If that doesn’t happen – and Klein driving the net, too – if those two things don’t happen, we don’t get a shot there.”

Watson’s goal gave the Predators a 3-2 lead. Nashville would extend the lead to 4 and hold on to snap a franchise-record 8-game losing streak by defeating the Flames 4-3.

“It was huge for us and it was great to contribute to a win,” Watson said. “That was awesome to have in front of fans on the last home game.”

Drafted in the first round by the Predators in the 2010 NHL Entry Draft, Watson made his NHL debut on April 7 at Chicago. The Michigan native skipped the NCAA route and played 4 seasons of Major Junior in Canada before joining the Milwaukee Admirals this season. In his five NHL games prior to scoring his first goal, Watson had just two shots on net and had yet to register a point.

While he obviously wanted to contribute to the team’s scoring sooner rather than later, Watson had to remind himself to be patient.

“‘Stay the course’ is the biggest thing,” Watson said. “It’s not going to come if you start pushing for it too hard and start getting frustrated. We just wanted to play a good solid game and be good defensively and whatever happens that we can create offensively would happen.”

Since coming to the NHL, Watson and a few other eligible players have been shuttling back-and-forth between Nashville and Milwaukee. Unlike the Predators, the Admirals were in a playoff push and have qualified for the AHL postseason. Watson has not only appeared in 6 NHL games since April 7, he’s also appeared in 4 AHL games. That’s 10 games in 17 days. It would be easy to understand if his play was somehow lethargic, but he is not.

“I have a little bit of an adrenaline rush right now,” Watson said. “We’re happy with the win, obviously. Personally it’s an exciting moment and we’ll get ready for Detroit (on Thursday).”

Essentially, Watson is playing for two teams right now. He’s trying to close out the season with the Predators and when the season ends Saturday, he will help the Admirals in their playoff matchup against the Texas Stars.

“The systems are fairly similar,” Watson said. “There are changes here and there, but it’s about playing hard and playing wherever you’re at. We’ve got a good group of guys here that help us out, the guys who are coming back and forth. We’re just trying to make a difference in both places.”

Nashville’s David Legwand scored his 200th career goal on a night when Watson scored his first. The veteran forward was optimistic about what Watson will bring to the table for Nashville in coming years.

“He’s a big strong kid,” Legwand said. “Shooting pucks and getting pucks to the net is a big thing and he did a good job of that tonight.”

“Getting pucks to the net and playing a simple game is what he’s going to bring to the table for us,” he added.

As for the puck itself, one of Watson’s teammates snagged it from the net.

“I think Clune grabbed it and that’s a nice gesture by him,” Watson said. “Everybody has been great here just helping me to try to get comfortable.”

In the end Watson’s goal was the first of what Nashville hopes will be very, very many in the future.

“It’s something you dream about and it’s even better than the dream when it finally does happen,” Watson said.

–

Photo Credit: Rachel Rosato

For the first time in franchise history, Nashville had lost 7 consecutive games in regulation.

In those 7 games, Nashville has only managed to score 8 goals. Two of those goals came off of the stick of Bobby Butler.

Butler, claimed on waivers earlier this season, is not only playing to break the losing streak – he’s playing for a contract. While Nashville is officially out of the playoff hunt, there are still several young players fighting for jobs. After being bought out by one team and put on waivers by another in the last year, Butler is definitely one of them.

“It’s good to get a couple, but I’ve got to keep working hard,” Butler said. “Everyone’s in the same position. I just wish we could get some wins.”

While the Predators went down 2-0 to Vancouver early on Monday, they rallied in the second period. Butler’s goal at 11:40 of the second period tied the game at 2. It was his 2nd goal with Nashville and his 6th point in 16 games as a Predator. He has scored at a higher rate in Nashville than several players who have been with the team for the entire season.

“I just got a great pass from Bartley up the boards,” Butler said. “I saw a chance to kind of cut it to the middle and take a shot and it got through.”

“It was good to tie it up,” Butler said, “but then they came back and got three on us, so it’s never fun when you lose.”

At 17:02 of the 2nd, Vancouver’s Jason Garrison scored a power play goal to put the Canucks back in the lead for good. The Canucks then tacked on 2 more goals for good measure, giving Vancouver a 5-2 win.

With 38 points and just 4 games left, Nashville has officially been eliminated from making the playoffs. Detroit, currently in the 8th and final Western Conference spot, has 47 points. The most the Predators can earn is 46. In fact, Nashville is only 3 points out of the last place spot in the Western Conference, a position they have not finished in since the 1999-2000 season.

The 7-game losing streak ties the worst losing streak in franchise history, matching a stretch from November 20 through December 2, 1999. However, during that stretch the Predators managed to take the St. Louis Blues to overtime. This current losing streak is the longest in franchise history consisting of all regulation losses.

With the team mired in a franchise-record losing streak and with the playoffs no longer in the picture at all, the team has still been very vocal about continuing to put forth an effort in every game. Despite the effort, the losses keep coming. Butler, however, was not about to admit that he was content to lose.

“You just have to worry about the next game,” Butler said. “You do the best you can to prepare and try to get the win.”

–

Photo Credit: Sarah Fuqua

Through 43 games, the Predators have been shut out 9 times. In last season’s 82-game schedule, the Predators were only shut out 3 times.

The 9 shutouts rank as the 3rd most in a single season in franchise history behind the 2000-01 team, which had 12, and the 2002-03 team, which was shut out 10 times. Remember, both of those teams played in 82 games. If the Predators were shut out at the same pace over an 82 game season, they would be shut out in 17 games.

Of the 9 times the Predators have been shut out, 5 have come on the road and 4 have been at Bridgestone Arena. Only the Detroit Red Wings’ Jimmy Howard has shut Nashville out twice, while the Blues, Red Wings, and Blackhawks all have multiple shutouts on the team.

Perhaps a harbinger of things to come, on January 28, the Predators were shut out by Chad Johnson of the Phoenix Coyotes. Johnson, who had not appeared in an NHL game in over two years, had only one NHL win to his credit prior to the game.

In addition to the 9 shutouts, the Predators have also only scored 1 goal in 7 games. That means that in 16 of the 43 games that the Predators have played, they have scored 1 goal or less – that’s 37.2%.

Given the large percentage of shutouts, it’s not surprising that the Predators are in last place in the league in scoring with just 2.23 goals per game.

–

Photo Credit: Sarah Fuqua

In a trial-by-fire of sorts, Predators head coach Barry Trotz sent Forsberg onto the ice for his first NHL shift against the Detroit Red Wings’ top line – Pavel Datsyuk, Henrik Zetterberg and – for Sunday night – Justin Abdelkader.

“I was just going into the game and giving him an opportunity,” Trotz said. “I know it’s a big task – you think I’m always protecting guys. I had a ‘plan b’ in place if he was not going to be able to handle those guys and he seemed to be okay.”

At 18 years, 244 days, Forsberg was the third-youngest player ever to play in a game for Nashville. Only Scott Hartnell (18 years, 171 days) and teammate David Legwand (18 years, 243 days) were younger when they first appeared with Nashville.

Despite his youth and inexperience, the young Swede had 18:37 in his North American debut, a 3-0 loss to Detroit. Forsberg also managed 2 shots on net, 1 hit and had a takeaway during his inaugural game.

“He’s going to be fine,” Trotz said. “I mean, he’s 18 years old and he’s playing against Datsyuk, Zetterberg and Franzen. We’ve been playing these guys for 14 years and it’s hard to find guys who can play against those guys night-in and night-out. I thought he did a fine job.”

“I like to play a lot,” Forsberg said. “I made some good things (happen) and had some bad things (happen), too. Hopefully, I can step things up a bit before the next game.”

Forsberg was acquired by Nashville in a trade on April 6 that saw long-time Predator Martin Erat head to the Washington Capitals with Nashville prospect Michael Latta. Drafted 11th overall in the 2012 NHL Entry Draft, Forsberg was a highly regarded Swedish prospect who has been playing against adults in Sweden’s professional system since he was 16 years old.

Despite his experience playing in Sweden, Forsberg admitted that the NHL was an entirely new experience.

“It is a big difference from where I’ve played,” Forsberg said. “Of course the players have so much more skill than I am used to, but it was high tempo out there.”

With Nashville mired in a 6 game losing streak and out of the playoff picture, Forsberg’s debut provided a rare bright spot for the team.

“He played well. He’s a young guy,” Predators goaltender Pekka Rinne said. “He played with energy and you can tell he’s a good player.”

“He made all the good plays,” Trotz said. “In the first period, he made a couple of really good plays on the power play. He has a real poise. I like his intelligence. He sees the ice well. He’s not rattled.”

“He was good,” Nashville captain Shea Weber said. “Obviously, he is very nifty and good in small areas with the puck and made a couple of quick plays and almost scored in the second. He is going to be a good player.”

After Sunday night, Forsberg has very little time to catch his breath with the Predators playing the second half of back-to-back games at Bridgestone Arena on Monday night against Vancouver.

However, with one game under his belt, the teenager did not seem to be over his head in the slightest.

“He doesn’t seem fazed,” Trotz said.

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Photo Credit: Sarah Fuqua