A Meeting With The Jets

The 2020 EHE Playoffs have arrived!

The Nashville Predators have officially punched their ticket to the post-season. In consecutive seasons the Predators will be in the playoffs, and for the 3rd time in their history, as they will attempt to erase the sting from losing to the Stars last year in the conference finals. 

"It is a relief to make the post-season, it's been a really up and down year, but the players really dug their claws in deep in the month of May and catapulted us into a firm playoff position." Wolf said. In the month of April, the Predators were sliding from their firm grip of 2nd place in the central, only mustering 3 wins in the month of April, things began to look bleak for the club as they saw the Blackhawks overtake them in the standings and were tied for points at one point with the Jets.

"We didn't panic. We knew we were struggling. But I know what this team is capable of and if you just let our star players play, it was going to be a matter of time before we got out of that funk."  Wolf continued "At the trade deadline I could have made some changes, but I didn't want the team to think there was no faith there for them to get the job done. So I stood pat, because I do have faith in this club to get the job done." The Predators played on and ended up scorching the month of May and steamrolled through opponents to claim back 2nd place in the central division.

And with that, they face the Winnipeg Jets in the first round. The Nashville Predators have yet to play the Jets in post-season hockey, so this will be the first matchup in their history. The Predators took the season series 3-1 and outscored the Jets 23 to 12 in their 4 regular season matches, winning their last matchup blowing out the Jets 9-2 just two weeks ago.

"If you use that narrative, sure, it's easy to look like we may have an advantage, but I don't buy into those statistics. The playoffs are a different beast. I expect a really hard fought and close series. We learned our mistakes from last year, where we were looking just a little too far ahead instead of focusing on one game at a time." Wolf explained. Which could be referencing last season when the Predators had a 3-1 series lead on the Dallas Stars in the conference finals. "We hadn't even won the series yet and I was already drawing up strategies for the cup finals. We got excited, we got too overly keen on the next series that we lost focus on the series we were in." The Dallas Stars went on to win the remaining 3 games of the series to stun the Predators. "Honestly, that series still hurts. But we grew from that as a team. It was a gut check reminder that no matter what high you're riding on in the playoffs, you can go through 3 series of exciting hockey where it seemingly seems like no one is going to stop you, and then out of no where it's just over. The party's over, and you're left sitting in the press box wondering how months of hard work and anguish to get where you were can just end at the sound of a game 7 3rd period buzzer."

With many great teams in the playoffs this season, and the juggernaut Dallas Stars firmly at the top, it will be a tough task for any team to advance forward. "That's where the faith comes back in.... we know the odds are against us, but I believe in this team, maybe we can make a little more noise and headlines than we did last season, that's our goal." What those headlines will be are yet to be known, but they'll be made one way or another.

With that said...good luck to all the playoff teams, except Dallas!