Round One Complete, Preds Turning Attention to Jets as Playoffs Continue

They knew it wasn't going to be easy.
It never is this time of year, a series between two teams who will do anything to find a way to win and advance.
When the Predators met the Colorado Avalanche in the first round of the 2018 Stanley Cup Playoffs, the challenges were plentiful.

A likely League MVP in Nathan MacKinnon. A four-goal deficit to start in Game 3. A heartbreaking comeback by the Avs in Game 5 that sent the Preds back to Denver.
But as Nashville responded to that shocking defeat with a 5-0 triumph in Game 6 to punch their ticket to Round Two for the third consecutive season, they did so with their best game of the postseason thus far.
It was an outing that showed what the Predators are capable of when at their best. As Nashville Head Coach Peter Laviolette explained, it was the kind of effort the Preds expect from themselves, especially in the springtime.
"There's a thought that maybe a round is going to be easier, an opponent is going to be easy, and that's never the case," Laviolette said of facing the Avalanche. "If you made it to the final 16, there's a reason. You're a good hockey team, and you have to play better than the opposition. [The effort in the series] wasn't always great. There was a game in there I wish was better, there might've been some periods in there I wish were better, but it's hard to do that when the opposition wants the same thing."

The Predators found a way to move on, however, and that's all that really matters in the playoffs. For their trouble, they'll now draw a few games - potentially seven - with the club that has became arguably their biggest rival, the Winnipeg Jets.
The Preds and Jets finished in the first and second spots in not only the Central Division and Western Conference standings in the regular season, but also the entire League with 117 and 114 points to their names, respectively.
In a season series that was filled with speed, skill, physicality and plenty of scoring, Nashville emerged with a 3-1-1 record, outscoring Winnipeg by a 22-20 margin. That includes a Preds' 6-5 victory back in February in Manitoba that made just about everyone salivate at the possibility of a postseason meeting between the two.
Dream no more, hockey world.
"They're obviously a really dangerous team offensively, but there were some fun games," Preds Captain Roman Josi said of the Jets. "They're a great team. They have a lot of firepower up front, they've got a great goalie, great defense; it's going to be a fun series and I'm really excited for it."
It's not as if the Predators wouldn't already be confident heading into the series, which will begin later this week with Games 1 and 2 in Nashville, but the manner in which they were able to complete their meeting with the Avalanche certainly helps the equation.
Goals from five different skaters, a shutout from Pekka Rinne, undoubtedly their best defensive performance of the playoffs to date and a complete, 60-minute effort gives the Preds reason for optimism going against a fellow powerhouse like Winnipeg.
"It's definitely good for us to end in that way," Josi said of the Game 6 result. "I just thought throughout the whole game we played really well defensively. It's not just Pekka or the defensemen, it's all five guys on the ice who played really well. We're definitely going to need that against Winnipeg."

"We've always done a good job of having a good response after we have a game or a little bit of a stretch that we don't like," Nashville forward Austin Watson, who co-leads the Preds with seven points in the postseason, said. "For us to be able to go into a hostile road environment and win in Game 6 was good for us."
How much of that success will translate into this upcoming series remains to be seen, and although the Predators are plenty familiar with the Jets from their regular-season meetings, that won't necessarily provide any sort of advantage, either.
Instead, Nashville is approaching the meeting for what it is - a clash of two behemoths who want the same thing. The only way to attain it is for one to go straight through the other.
Buckle up.
"[The Jets] went through their first-round opponent pretty good, so I think we know what we're up against," Laviolette said. "We've seen them, we know their team, they know us and it should be a great series."