The hot and cold Predators

Captain Shea Weber and the Nashville Predators sit fourth in the West with a 22-13-6 record. (Photo by Frederick Breedon/Getty Images)

Ryan Dixon
2011-01-10 15:12:00

The Nashville Predators have been a consistent team over the years, but they’re having some serious mood swings this season.

The Preds are currently riding a five-game winning streak, which will shoot you up the incredibly compact Western Conference standings in a hurry. Prior to its present run of wins, Nashville had dropped five straight, a sad stretch that just happened to follow another string of five straight victories.

The feast-or-famine Preds also have another five-game losing streak on the books this year, so who knows where the team will go from its current sweet spot.

The wins Nashville is getting right now couldn’t come at a better or tougher time. The club just completed its second-ever sweep through California and is three games into a piece of schedule that sees it play 10 of 12 away from home. Looking at the past 15 games, in the 10 wins by Nashville, it allowed one goal five times, two three times and zero twice. In the five defeats, the club gave up an average of 3.6 goals per game and managed to score more than one just once.

Keep that dial tuned to Music City, because you never know what’s coming up next.

THE HOCKEY NEWS POWER RANKINGS
RK.	TEAM	LW	OVERALL	P10	THE SCOOP
1		4	27-8-6	8-0-2	On pace for franchise-record 120 points
2		1	26-10-5	7-3-0	In the first 21 games of the season, sophomore James van Riemsdyk had no goals and was scratched four times; he has 10 goals in his past 20
3		2	27-10-5	7-2-1	Maybe Jakub Kindl can prove himself a worthy NHL D-man in Brad Stuart’s absence
4		8	25-13-5	6-3-1	Bolts have actually given up nine more goals than they’ve scored
5		10	24-12-6	6-1-3	Semyon Varlamov giving Caps the goaltending they need
6		3	26-13-4	5-3-2	0-1-1 with Crosby on the sideline
7		12	22-13-6	5-5-0	Sergei Kostitsyn has scored in five straight and has 20 points in his past 18 games
8		5	25-13-5	5-3-2	Stars GM Joe Nieuwendyk knows from personal playing experience what Jamie Langenbrunner can provide
9		21	23-18-4	6-4-0	Lubomir Visnovsky’s 33 points is fifth-best in the NHL among blueliners
10		14	25-15-3	6-2-2	Rookie D-man Ryan McDonagh getting a look with Michal Rozsival traded to Phoenix
11		18	23-18-3	6-4-0	Only Edmonton is worse at killing penalties than the defending champs
12		6	21-12-7	5-2-3	Tuukka Rask recently started three straight for the first time this season and we get the sense the B’s will rely on him more in the second half
13		22	21-16-5	6-3-1	Jose Theodore had played and won four straight for the Wild before Sunday’s setback versus Dallas
14		7	23-16-3	4-5-1	Never seem to have two scoring lines clicking at the same time
15		13	22-16-7	3-5-2	No team gives up more shots per game than the Thrashers
16		15	19-13-9	4-4-2	Jason LaBarbera turned in some solid goaltending for two games with Ilya Bryzgalov tending to a personal issue
17		9	21-15-6	3-5-2	Nine games without a win in regulation
18		19	20-14-6	5-4-1	Followed up a five-game winning streak with three straight losses
19		11	23-17-1	5-5-0	Locked up Jack Johnson to a seven-year contract; when will Drew Doughty’s deal get done?
20		16	21-17-5	4-6-0	Don’t blame power play for team’s troubles; it’s fourth-most efficient in the league
21		17	20-15-6	5-3-2	Win just 43.2 percent of faceoffs as a squad, worst mark in the league
22		26	18-18-5	5-4-1	Eighteen straight starts for Ryan Miller and counting
23		30	13-21-6	7-3-0	Goalie Kevin Poulin picked up the first NHL victory of his career with a 4-3 decision over the Avs on Saturday
24		28	16-20-4	4-6-0	Offense is alive; Leafs have scored five or more goals in three of their past four outings
25		23	18-20-2	4-4-2	Only eight teams have a better 5-on-5 goals-for/against ratio than the Cats’ 1.13, but their power play scores just 8.8 percent of the time
26		25	18-20-4	4-5-1	Tom Kostopoulos gone for six games after delivering head shot to Wings’ Stuart; probably a bit of bad timing with league’s best player (Crosby) currently out with a concussion.
27		27	16-20-6	3-4-3	Will some contender come calling about the services of veteran Chris Phillips?
28		20	20-19-3	4-6-0	Four wins in their past 14 and three came against troubled teams, Toronto, Ottawa and Calgary
29		24	13-20-7	2-6-2	Have a .176 winning percentage when trailing after one period
30		29	11-29-2	2-8-0	Sounds like Jason Arnott will be the next Devil to dance out of town