With only two weeks remaining in the regular season, the Nashville Predators are taking a serious bite out of the competition.
Over their past 21 games, the Predators have posted a record of 14-2-5, the best among all NHL teams since Feb. 12. And after grabbing at least a point in 19 of those 21 games, they're now only two behind the Chicago Blackhawks in the Central Division, thereby rising from the ranks of wild-card hopefuls to legitimate Stanley Cup contenders.
That they remain wholly underrated is just fine with forward James Neal.
"That's OK with us," he said of the Predators' status as apparent playoff prey, according to Adam Vingan of The Tennessean. "We don't need to ruffle any feathers, I guess you could say. We're going to make noise here, and we'll just continue to keep playing good hockey. Eventually, teams will catch on. Don't want to jinx anything, just want to keep getting better as a team and continue to build our confidence."
As things stand, the Predators have a strong hold on the first wild-card spot, which would mean an opening-round matchup with the Los Angeles Kings. But after beating those Kings by a score of 5-2 less than a week ago as part of this current run of success, the Predators aren't too concerned about entering the postseason as underdogs.
So confirms defenseman Roman Josi, who set a single-season team record for most assists by a defensemen during Saturday's win over Columbus.
"I think it's good to fly under the radar," Josi said. "We know what we can do and we have a lot of confidence right now and we know how we can play. It doesn't bother us too much if we don't get the national attention."
Winning a playoff round or two would certainly change that.
