That said, Nashville did do it last year. Then again the Blues made a improbable run to make the playoffs two years ago.

For better or worse I took them down a notch becuase they are playing with fire having struggling special teams.

I’ve had them ranked anywhere frmo 6th to 11th as I worked through my rankings.

Sometimes you have to make controversial decisions. We’ll see where the rest go. I’m sure to stir the pot when the East ranks go up :)

Yet, a team that fielded special teams units as bad as they were last year was still a 100 point team.

Trotz and company have never fielded a penalty kill unit as bad as last season, so I fully feel that will be much improved.

I just don’t see the Predators finishing behind Minnesota, Calgary or St. Louis this year.

I think they finish no lower than 9th in the conference, being in the hunt for the playoffs until the end.

Unless their PP efforts are much, much better, I see another first round exit (provided they are fortunate to make the cut).

The special teams ranking is what dropped them. Bottom five in both. I know they have depth of scoring up front, but I had their top 6 listed fairly low. I debated the teams that have a lot of “good” players in their top 6 quite a bit. The ones I had less questions about ended up higher than the others.

I’m really interested to see what Wilson and Hornqvist do.

It’s easy to see why Nashville is such an enigma for you. Your calculations put a premium on scoring from the top six and greatly diminishes the impact of depth scoring. It’s the same reason that other national media tend to underrate Nashville- particularly offensively. Looking at Nashville over the years, they’ve always been a team that relies on that depth scoring.

Last season, Nashville had 8 FORWARDS with double-digit goals and at least 30 points. Weber and Suter obviously chipped in a fair number of points as well.

This year will see Colin Wilson have a full year (35 GP last year) and the addition of Lombardi and Kostitsyn. Essentially, those three will be looked at to replace of the combined production of Jason Arnott and Jared Smithson (likely back to the fourth line)- a total of 74 pts including the 15 chipped in by Wilson last season.

Last season saw the Predators produce goals, overall, at a rate that was 18th best in the League. Factor out their horrible special teams play (both sides) and the 5-5 GF/GA ration was 12th.

I’m not sure where I’d rank Nashville, honestly. Offensively, I believe that they will improve (getting 74-ish pts from that trio should not be too difficult). Defensively, I believe that there are legitimate questions behind Weber and Suter. That said, to me, special teams improvement (or lack thereof) will be the determining factor as to whether Nashville will make the post season for the sixth time in seven seasons.