The Nashville Predators' formula for winning in the playoffs? Start by adding 9 and 59 (2024)

NASHVILLE, Tenn. — They broke through in tandem nine years ago, Filip Forsberg as the Washington Capitals’ 20-year-old first-round pick in 2012 who scored 26 goals, and Roman Josi as a 24-year-old second-round pick in 2008 who complemented Shea Weber’s Norris-worthy sovereignty with 55 stylish points.

They’ve played for all four coaches in Nashville Predators history and both general managers — Barry Trotz the first of the four and the second of the two. He knew what he had in them when he agreed last year to leave coaching to replace David Poile as Preds general manager. But the coach Trotz chose to take the franchise into a new era, an era that has begun with a playoff berth foreseen by few outside the organization, didn’t know.

Now he does. Andrew Brunette has great players in Forsberg and Josi, working on careers that will warrant Hall of Fame inspection, providing the pulse for a franchise that is pointing up again. Just as it was in 2015.

“I think from afar you’re not sure, you know?” Brunette said of the two after Saturday’s 6-4 win over the Columbus Blue Jackets to cap Bridgestone Arena’s regular-season warmup of 41 games. “I think you’d seen the best of them at times, and at times you weren’t sure about them. Highly skilled guys for the most part, but not sure what they bring day to day. And I think that’s normal all through the league when you look at different teams. You don’t know. There’s games you look at them and you’re not sure where they went, you know? So I wasn’t completely sure what I was getting into.

“And then to work with them every day, to see how competitive they are, (their) ability to take over games, how unselfish of teammates they are, how they help the young kids out, how they help everybody out, they’ve been tremendous. They mean everything to this team. They’re the driving force of the group.”

In other words, the heartbeat. It beats like a ticking clock and makes the prevailing question as clear as ever one year into the Trotz-Brunette era: Can you put together a Stanley Cup-quality team around 33-year-old Josi and 29-year-old Forsberg while both are at the peak of their powers?

That will be answered by a difficult goalie decision, by enormous transactions to come and by the rate of development of prospects in an organization that has only one player under age 24 (22-year-old forward Luke Evangelista) in a regular role with the big club.

It’s not the question to ask this week. This week and until a favored Western Conference team knocks the Preds from the Stanley Cup playoffs, the question is the one Ryan O’Reilly posed when Trotz made him a surprise free-agent acquisition in July: “Why can’t we contend? Why can’t we?”

That was cute playerspeak at an intro newser, wasn’t it? The Preds have done enough in exactly two months — a 20-4-3 record and the underlying numbers to dismiss flukiness as a contributor — to make you wonder how O’Reilly could have known what’s to come. And that’s not to say the Preds should be considered contenders right now.

Best fans in hockey.

We'll see y'all in the playoffs! 💛 pic.twitter.com/yS6zBWdFsg

— Nashville Predators (@PredsNHL) April 14, 2024

But Nashville is playing like a team with a real shot to win the franchise’s first playoff series since 2018. And if you get one? This tournament can be as unpredictable as any. Juuse Saros — who along with Forsberg, Josi and Colton Sissons is part of the quartet remaining from the 2017 Stanley Cup Final run — looks like Juuse Saros again.

The power play is showing signs of sharpness. The top line of Forsberg, O’Reilly and Gus Nyquist is as potent as this franchise has seen. While the veteran quartet knows what it is to play for a Cup, O’Reilly, Ryan McDonagh and Luke Schenn know what it is to win it. Evangelista and Tommy Novak have a chemistry and skill level that could provide secondary scoring in the postseason. Role players are playing out of their minds all over the place.

“I feel like when we play well, we play such a complete team game,” Josi said. “I’m not sure a lot of teams play (like that), like all our lines are going. We need all four lines, all our D-men.”

And they have peak Josi and Forsberg. Josi should be a Norris finalist. The franchise leader in points (686) and assists (505) has 85 points entering the regular-season finale. Forsberg, the franchise leader with 286 goals, just topped Matt duch*ene’s single-season goals record and sits at 47, a hat trick in Pittsburgh away from 50.

47 FOR FIL! pic.twitter.com/q2kQ1uVJFR

— Nashville Predators (@PredsNHL) April 14, 2024

“I was thinking about it (Friday) when Fil got that record (in Chicago). Obviously, he’s the best goal scorer this franchise has ever seen,” Josi said. “So it was only fitting for him to get that record. I was thinking about that a little bit. We’ve been here for such a long time; everything we’ve been through together, that’s definitely something that connects us over the years. And it’s so much fun to see how well he’s playing this year and how big of a leader he is for our team. Just all around — the way he’s playing; he’s becoming a dad soon. All that stuff, it’s cool to see. It’s cool for me to be around for that many years with him.”

They don’t know how many more they’ll have, let alone how many more they’ll have with both of them among the best in their roles in the NHL. The idea is for Trotz to add significantly around them while that remains true, for timelines to cross and create a contender. In the meantime, Josi’s operatic skill set and Forsberg’s bursts of power can win playoff games. Let’s see how many.

“The best place in the world to play hockey,” Forsberg said Saturday, “is rocking Bridgestone Arena in the playoffs.”

He knows this as well as anyone.

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(Photo of Filip Forsberg, left, and Roman Josi: David Berding / Getty Images)