Leading up to the trade deadline on March 3, the Nashville Predators appeared to be looking ahead to 2023-24 and beyond after trading away Nino Niederreiter, Tanner Jeannot, Mattias Ekholm and Mikael Granlund for a king's ransom of draft picks.
But a weird thing has been happening simultaneous to all that dealing: Since Feb. 21, the Preds have earned a point in nine of their 11 games, going 8-2-1 in that stretch, including five one-goal victories, per ESPN Stats & Information. In that span, they rank in the NHL's top 5 in points percentage, penalty kill percentage, power-play percentage and fewest goals against.