The Nashville Predators’ postseason will inevitably go down as the season of “we’ve never done it like this before”. Playing their last meaningful game 145 days prior to puck drop on August 3 means setting accurate levels of hope for the Preds’ post season success. It is a tricky business.
In a typical postseason, fans could weigh momentum, recent statistics, player performances, and injury reports to form better-educated and emotionally-safer expectations. Not only does the pandemic of 2020 mean that ship has sailed, the Predators’ consistent inconsistency throughout the 2019-20 season up until March 10 bombed that ship, set it on fire, and stoically saluted while watching reasonable expectations sink into the deepest depths of the ocean.