There wasn't a lot of winning to be had for the Nashville Predators last season. 

Thirty wins during the 2024-25 season was the Predators' lowest 82-game total since the 2002-03 season, where they won just 27 games in their fifth season of existence. 

However, believe it or not, the Predators did win six regular-season series, three of which they went undefeated. Here's which teams Nashville had no issue handling during its infamous 2024-25 campaign. 

Vancouver Canucks 

Record: 2-1

Things fell apart for the Canucks toward the end of the regular season. They were a constant Wild Card contender throughout the year, but finished the season six points outside of a playoff spot. 

The Predators picked up a pair of wins over Vancouver in November and January, which included a 3-0 shutout to start the new year. Juuse Saros made 27 saves in the effort for his fourth shutout of the season. 

Steven Stamkos had three goals in two matchups against the Canucks, which included two goals in the 5-3 win on Nov. 17. 

Their final matchup of the season on Jan. 29 in Nashville ended in a 3-1 loss. 

Utah (Mammoth) Hockey Club 

Record: 2-1 

Scoring was tight between the Predators and the former Utah Hockey Club, now the Mammoth, as Nashville had 11 goals for to its 10 goals against. 

At the team's first-ever meeting on Nov. 9, Saros made 27 saves in a 4-0 victory. Filip Forsberg lit the lamp twice while Roman Josi had two assists. 

The next two meetings between Nashville and Utah came within four games of each other in the final four games of the regular season. 

On April 10, the Predators eeked out a 4-3 shootout win on the road. Despite allowing three goals, Saros made 39 saves on 42 shots and stonewalled Utah in the shootout. Forsberg scored his 31st goal of the season and the shootout winner. 

At this point, going into the final game on April 14, the Predators had an 8-3 scoring advantage on Utah. However, all of that nearly shifted in a 7-3 loss in Nashville. 

The Predators trailed by a goal going into the third period before they were outscored, 3-0, in the final 20 minutes of the game. 

Chicago Blackhawks 

Record: 3-1

The Predators won only one series in the Central Division this past season, and it came against the only other team ranked below them: the Chicago Blackhawks.

Nashville took three out of four games in the regular season, walking away with six out of eight possible points. 

After going down 2-0 in their first meeting on Oct. 25 in Chicago, the Predators rattled off three straight goals in the successful comeback effort. Gustav Nyquist had a goal and an assist in the second period. 

Jan. 16 was another 3-2 victory, but it came in a shootout in Nashville. Stamkos opened the game with a power-play goal and ended it with the winning goal in the shootout. 

Chicago would get its lick-back right before the 4 Nations Face-Off break on Feb. 7 in a dominating 6-2 win. Ryan Donato had four points (2 goals, 2 assists), and Nashville was outscored 5-0 from the end of the first period to midway through the third period. It was the Predators' sixth straight loss. 

However, the Predators ended the series on a high note. They walked away with a third 3-2 victory, this time in overtime on March 8 in Nashville. Stamkos scored all three goals, recording his 14th career hat trick. 

Carolina Hurricanes 

Record: 2-0 

The Predators extinguished one of the hottest teams in the NHL, the Carolina Hurricanes, this past season. 

Carolina, who made it all the way to the Eastern Conference Finals, struggled against Nashville. In their first meeting on Dec. 23, the Predators opened up a 4-0 lead and the Hurricanes couldn't catch up. Jonathan Marchessault had two goals and an assist in the 5-2 win. 

The final meeting, which took place on March 25 in Raleigh, had fewer scoring points. Nashville built up a 2-0 lead before Carolina cut it in half in the second period. It was a third-period goal by Luke Evangelista that gave Nashville insurance in a 3-1 win. 

Boston Bruins 

Record: 2-0 

Nashville outscored the Bruins by a whopping 10-3 margin in two games, with the first meeting coming in shutout fashion.

On Oct. 22, Juuse Saros made 33 saves to snap the Predators' five-game losing streak in a 4-0 victory. Ryan O'Reilly had a goal and an assist in the win.

The next meeting on March 4 in Boston, the Predators put up another big number on the Bruins in a 6-3 win. O'Reilly had two goals and an assist, bumping his season point total against the Bruins to five in two games, and Stamkos had a goal and two assists. 

It was a tight game going into the third period before the Predators outscored the Bruins, 3-1. 

San Jose Sharks 

Record: 3-0

It was goals galore between the Predators and Sharks this season as both teams combined for 28 goals in three games. 23 of those goals came within three days of each other. 

The Jan. 21 meeting in Nashville saw the Sharks build up a wide 5-1 lead before choking it away. Nashville scored six unanswered goals, led by a goal and two assists from Marchessault, for a 7-5 win. 

The next game on Jan. 24 in San Jose had more fireworks. There were 53 combined penalty minutes and 11 combined goals. The Predators had a 5-2 lead before the Sharks came back to tie the game.

It was a power-play goal from Fedor Svechkov that allowed the Predators to escape with a 6-5 win. Forsberg had two goals in the win. 

There were still many penalties but fewer goals in the final meeting of the season on March 11 in San Jose. The Predators logged 14 penalty minutes to the Sharks' 20 in a narrow 3-2 win to close out the season series.

Kieffer Bellows cracked a 2-2 tie in the third period to give Nashville the green light to victory. 

 

Canadian winger Jake Virtanen, 28, has signed a one-year contract with Dukla Michalovce, the Slovak Extraliga club announced on Wednesday.

Virtanen, who played in the NHL for the Vancouver Canucks from 2015 to 2021, spent last season playing for the DEL’s Iserlohn Roosters, where he recorded 19 points in 46 games.

Born in the Vancouver suburb of New Westerminster, BC, Virtanen played junior hockey for the WHL’s Calgary Hitmen.

Picked sixth overall by hometown Vancouver in the 2014 NHL Entry Draft, Virtanen’s career never met its expectations. He recorded exactly 100 points in 317 NHL games spread over six seasons before his contract was bought out by the Canucks in May 2021 after allegations of sexual misconduct surfaced against him. He was cleared of all charges in 2022.

Since then, Virtanen has played in Russia with Spartak Moscow, in Switzerland with EHC Visp and in Germany with the Fischtown Pinguins and Iserlohn. 

Dutch Winger Leaves NHL, Signs In KHLDutch-Canadian winger Daniel Sprong, 28, has signed a one-year contract with CSKA Moscow, the KHL club announced on Wednesday.

Internationally, Virtanen represented Canada at one IIHF U-18 World Championships and at two World Junior Championships, winning a gold medal at the 2015 World Juniors.

During his time in Vancouver, Virtanen became somewhat infamous for the “Shotgun Jake” campaign. Whenever Virtanen scored a goal, fans would post a picture or video of themselves on social media “shotgunning” a beer – puncturing the side of the can and quickly drinking its contents – using the hashtag #ShotgunJake. 

Since being promoted to the top Slovak league in 2019, Michalovce has finished second in the regular season twice and made the semifinals three times. Last season, the team finished ninth and lost in the play-in round before the quarterfinals.

Photo © Marc DesRosiers-Imagn Images.

Interview: Filip Chytil 100% Healthy ‘Knock On Wood’; Canucks Have ‘Great Potential For The Future’Last season was an eventful one for Filip Chytil that saw him get traded for the first time in his NHL career, but it ended prematurely due to a concussion on March 15. Back home in Czechia for the summer, his summer training is in full swing.

NHL.TV is a popular streaming service available in over 200 countries for watching NHL games, a nice luxury for Toronto Maple Leafs fans who live overseas. That, however, is set to change.

The league announced Wednesday that NHL.TV will be moving to the streaming service platform DAZN for all nations outside of Canada, the United States, and the Nordic nations, beginning with the 2025-26 season. According to the press release, NHL.TV will be available on DAZN as a standalone subscription or as an add-on to existing DAZN packages. This service will cover nearly 200 countries worldwide, excluding the U.S., Canada, and the Nordics (Denmark, Finland, Norway, and Sweden).

Essentially, the NHL.TV service as it was previously known will no longer be available directly through the league in any of the remaining countries. This move mirrors similar transitions in North America, where NHL.TV previously shifted to streaming partners. In Canada, NHL.TV’s offerings are now under the Sportsnet+ Premium banner, while in the United States, NHL.TV is exclusively available through ESPN+.

It is currently unclear if any functionality will change under DAZN’s management of the package. Previously, under NHL.TV, every game was available and archived for over a decade, including home, away, and national broadcasts. DAZN holds international NFL rights, was the broadcast home of the FIFA Club World Cup 2025, and streams over 90,000 live events annually.

(Top image credit: John E. Sokolowski-Imagn Images)

You’ll Need Prime Video To Watch These 6 Key Maple Leafs Games in 2025-26Amazon’s streaming service, Prime Video, has released its upcoming schedule of games for the 2025-26 season, which will exclusively feature six Toronto Maple Leafs games for the second consecutive year. Prime Video's Mark Shopiro Previews What NHL And Maple Leafs Fans Can Expect From Season 2 of Amazon's CoverageAmazon has just completed its first season streaming NHL games in Canada when the digital giant wasted no time in unveiling plans for 2025-26 at their annual upfronts in Toronto. Entering the final year of a two-year deal with Rogers Sports & Media, to broadcast games on Monday night, a weekly live look-in show called 'Coast-To-Coast' on Thursday and a docuseries titled 'FACEOFF: Inside The NHL', the digital giant appears poised to build off their opening year. Auston Matthews to be Mic’d Up for US TV Broadcast of Toronto Maple Leafs Game Against New York RangersMatthews was also mic’d up for a games last season against the Los Angeles Kings and Arizona Coyotes.

It's no secret that the New York Islanders have struggled to land top-flight free agents. While success on the ice plays a massive role in accomplishing that, Long Island isn't a place that many players really know much about. 

When players think of New York, especially if those players are from across the Atlantic Ocean, their first thought is New York City, because that's all they know -- completely understandable. 

The New York Rangers, as an original six franchise that frequently appears on national television, play a significant role in this, which means the Islanders must work even harder to market their franchise.

Once players get to Long Island, whether they knew about it or not, they very rarely leave.

Josh Bailey, Cal Clutterbuck, and Thomas Hickey are just a few recent players who, after their playing days came to a close, remain. But, going back to the glory days for the franchise, the likes of John Tonelli, Butch Goring, and Bobby Nystrom still reside on Long Island. 

So, how do the Islanders do a better job marketing their franchise as a true hot-spot destination?

The easy answer is you just give Islanders star forward Mathew Barzal a microphone and ask him what he loves about being on Long Island.

On Tuesday, Barzal did his first-ever podcast interview, outside of 32 Thoughts, when he jumped on the ForePlay Pod with his bud, Isanders' super fan Frankie Borrelli.

When the conversation about the Islanders' future started, Borrelli paused before thanking Barzal for committing to Long Island, as he's currently about to enter the second season of an eight-year extension worth $9.15 million.

Borrelli asked Barzal why he ultiamtely decided that this is where he wanted to be long term.

"And another thing too, is like, it's underrated on the island," Barzal said. "Like, people don't, and I think we've said it so much, but it really is. I mean, the other day, we go play on one of the nicest golf courses in the world, and then Chris Stapleton is 10 minutes away, and all the boys stick around. But even aside from that, UBS Arena is incredible. Our practice facility is wicked. It's tight. You're 30 minutes, 40 minutes from the city, the best city in the world."

Just listen to the way Mat Barzal speaks about Long Island. The impact that Barzy has had on hockey on the Island is second to none. Ever since the day we drafted him he embraced us and remained loyal to an area that he knew nothing about. #Isles

That's my next Captain. pic.twitter.com/TPlM5HizTh

— Isles Rumor (@IslesRumor) July 29, 2025

Barzal bragging about Long Island is nothing new. When he signed his contract, he spoke about the fans and the beaches and the city, all that good stuff. 

But now, with Lou Lamoriello out, having the ability to go on podcasts and promote the Islanders franchise and the way of life here could play a part in landing free agents. 

As mentioned previously, especially in hockey, the chance to win is the biggest advertisement. And while the Islanders may not be a Stanley Cup contender yet, Barzal's high praise for the prospect pool and his excitement about the team's potential in the next three years is an advertisement that might attract some free agents to consider the Islanders. 

No. 1 overall pick Matthew Schaefer, by just the way he talks and carries himself, on top of the on-ice talent that he is, should help in marketing the Islanders as a premier destination.

Having Mathieu Darche at the helm now, someone who understands the importance of transparency, the importance of marketing, and the importance of fan engagement, is vital in everything we've just discussed. 

Until the Islanders do land a coveted free agent, talk is cheap. 

However, unlike years past where the Islanders are salary-cap strapped, Darche's decisions this past offseason actually have the Islanders in a good spot come next summer, especially if he trades a player or two on expiring deals by the 2026 NHL Trade Deadline or makes some cap-clearing moves at the 2026 NHL Draft.

Islanders Will Have Money To Spend Next Summer But How Much Is The Question?The New York Islanders’ contracts are all but finalized.

Under Lamoriello, the Islanders never truly had the money to be competitiors in the free agent market. The Hockey Hall of Fame executive did his damage around the trade deadline, landing the likes of Bo Horvat, Kyle Palmieri, and Jean-Gabriel Pageau over the years. 

But, especially with salary caps rising and more teams having money, getting pending free agents to agree to premature extensions is only going to get harder. 

Branding matters and Barzal is doing the best he can to make sure people know that Long Island is a slept-on spot. 

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PHOTO: Brad Penner-Imagn Images