From one veteran opponent to another, the Ducks now host a suddenly red-hot Predators team determined to shake off a slow start and climb back into the playoff race. The Preds visit Orange County with wins in five straight games, most recently a pair of high-scoring victories, 6-5 and 7-5, over San Jose in a home-and-home set.
"We're finding ways to win in games where early in the season, we didn't," longtime Nashville winger Filip Forsberg told the team's Beat Reporter Brooks Bratten. "And certainly the effort is there. But there's definitely things…we can tighten up, but we'll take the positive. Excited for the win and get ready for the next game.”
Added head coach Andrew Brunette, "We're believing. We seem to get tighter as a group every game. We’ve got some things to clean up. We're still trying to stack some things...I think we're starting to understand when we do certain things and play a certain way, it’s fun to play, it's good to play. We're getting rewarded for it, so we’ll keep chipping away where we are and fight to keep that feeling.”
Nashville was the NHL's most aggressive team last season, adding free agents Jonathan Marchessault, Steven Stamkos and Brady Skjei on long-term contracts. Stamkos and Marchessault now skate on the club's top line with Forsberg, and each are among the team's top-four scoring leaders this season. Stamkos, a two-time champion with Tampa Bay, has scored five goals in his last five games.
The Predators (18-22-7, 43 points) sit seventh in the Central Division, 10 points behind a playoff position.