The NHL Weekly Reader publishes every Friday. See something worth highlighting here? Hit me at greg.wyshynski@espn.com.
Before the 2017-18 NHL season, I predicted that the Nashville Predators would miss the playoffs after playing for the Stanley Cup last spring.
As of Thursday, they're atop the Central Division with a comfortable cushion ahead of the final wild-card spot, having added center Kyle Turris to what was already (apparently) a playoff-caliber team. And so, throughout the past three months, Predators fans have picked up my prediction as if it were a cold, dead catfish and smacked me across the face with it like a Victorian woman rejecting a boorish suitor.