Predators on the bubble

Nashville entered the final weekend of the National Hockey League regular season still alive, one point behind the last Western Conference wild-card berth after beating Minnesota 2-1 on Saturday, April 11. (nhl.com) Steven Stamkos scored his 40th goal of the season and added an assist in that win at Bridgestone Arena, and Juuse Saros made 33 saves for Nashville. (nhl.com) The standings were tight enough that Nashville’s margin was a single point, with the Predators at 79 points through 75 games before Saturday’s result and chasing the final wild-card line in the West. (hockey-reference.com) (tennessean.com) That race has been crowded for days. National Hockey League playoff-scenario listings for April 11 still included Nashville in multiple Western Conference clinching combinations involving Dallas and Minnesota, a sign that the bracket had not settled with one week left in the season. (nhl.com) The Predators have spent most of the season trying to climb back from an uneven first half. Hockey-Reference listed them at 35-31-9 entering Saturday, with 220 goals scored and 249 allowed, numbers that left them below break-even but still in the hunt. (hockey-reference.com) The Western field around them was unsettled too. ESPN’s standings page showed Colorado, Dallas and Minnesota in the Central Division playoff positions, with Nashville and Winnipeg still outside the automatic top three and St. Louis marked eliminated. (espn.com) That is why one Nashville result kept carrying outsized weight: two standings points for a win, one for an overtime or shootout loss, and almost no time left for teams below the cut line to make up ground. (nhl.com) Nashville’s immediate task was simple by Saturday night: keep winning and wait for help elsewhere. In the season’s last few days, the Predators were close enough that every scoreboard update could move them toward the Stanley Cup Playoffs or end the chase. (nhl.com) (usatoday.com)