After staggering to a 6-12-4 start, the Nashville Predators have worked their way back toward the Western Conference playoff race. They finally gained confidence while winning five of their last seven games.
“Hopefully we can develop a little bit of consistency,” Predators coach Andrew Brunette said. “It feels like we’re getting close.”
The Predators continue that quest Thursday night when they host the St. Louis Blues in Nashville, Tenn., in a Central Division rivalry game.
Nashville is coming off a 4-3 shootout victory over the powerhouse Colorado Avalanche on Tuesday night.
“I think just our overall team game, we’re playing fast,” Nashville defenseman Brady Skjei said. “When we’re connected and we’re helping each other out, being available, passing the puck crisply, it’s a recipe for success for us.
“I thought the forwards did a great job (Tuesday) of holding on to pucks down low behind their net. I think that’s when we’re really successful.”
The explosive Avalanche earned points in 28 of their first 30 games this season, so Brunette was pleased to see his team stick to its preferred tempo.
“We kind of hung in there,” Brunette said. “We didn’t deviate from the game plan. We kind of executed what we talked about most of the game, especially in the third period. I thought we found our game a little bit.”
The Predators and Blues will meet twice within five days, with Nashville facing a St. Louis team that is missing several injured forwards.
Nick Bjugstad suffered an upper-body injury Tuesday night and joined Jordan Kyrou, Jimmy Snuggerud, Alexey Toropchenko and Nathan Walker on the shelf.
Mounting casualties prompted the Blues to sign free agent forward Robby Fabbri to a one-year, two-way contract and give Dillon Dube a professional tryout with Springfield of the AHL.
While those players try to integrate into the team’s lineup, the Blues will keep working to gain more stability with their incumbents. After beating Ottawa and Montreal over the weekend, the Blues lost to the Boston Bruins 5-2 at home on Tuesday night.
They have yet to string together three straight victories this season.
“You need streaks in a year,” Blues center Robert Thomas said. “You need to continue to feel good. The last two games were tough road games, it’s a tough back-to-back, and we were able to find a way. We had a lot of confidence coming in (Tuesday) and just weren’t able to get it done.”
The Blues had the NHL’s worst goal differential through Tuesday’s games at minus-30. The Predators were second-worst at minus-25.
Like the Predators, the Blues have shown recent signs of promise. But like the Predators, they have not been able to sustain it.
“Obviously, consistency has been a real big issue for us this year, and I think overall our game has been getting better,” St. Louis defenseman Justin Faulk said. “We just got to keep pushing and running and hope for the next one.”
