Nashville Predators: Top 3 key players who must step up against Coyotes
The Nashville Predators need more from these players if they want to beat the Arizona Coyotes.
On Sunday, August 2, the Nashville Predators will start their play-in round series against the Arizona Coyotes. The Predators are favored in this series, and rightfully so. They finished the regular season as the sixth seed in the Western Conference while the Coyotes finished the season as the 11th seed.
However, the Preds can’t afford to take the Coyotes lightly. They’re a bit better than their record suggests and their goaltending is fully capable of stealing the series, especially since the series will only be a five-game series. If the Predators aren’t careful, they could easily be upset for the second straight season.
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Nashville’s the better team, but they’ll need more from these three players than they got during the regular season. These three Predators could very well determine how the series goes.
3. Pekka Rinne or Juuse Saros
It remains to be seen who will be the starting goalie for the Predators in the postseason. Whoever gets the nod will be going against one of the top goaltending tandems in the NHL. Both Darcy Kuemper and Antti Raanta finished in the top 10 in GSAA (goals saved above average), according to Evolving Hockey. The Dallas Stars are the only other team to boast two goalies in the top 10.
Juuse Saros will most likely be the starter since he’s clearly been the superior goaltender this season. He won’t need to be better than Kuemper and Raanta. That’s asking way too much. Saros will merely need to be good enough for the Predators to win.
Regardless of who’s in net for the Predators, the pressure will be on them to keep the Preds from losing the series. Especially since this series between Nashville and Arizona reckons to be a fairly low-scoring one. If Saros and Pekka Rinne don’t step up, the Predators will most likely be heading home early for the second straight season.