“Wrap it up, we’ll take it”: the Nashville Predators accept President’s Trophy –

NASHVILLE, Tenn. — The Nashville Predators presented the President’s Trophy to the largest sold out crowd in the history of the Bridgestone Arena, wrapping up a regular season of play that is symbolically setting up a play-off season of high expectations.

The franchise’s first Presidents’ Trophy brought a fan intimacy to center ice that has been a hallmark of the club for the last 20 years. And though the house was rockin’ with pride, it was definitely not the hardware the fans of Nashville hope to see hoisted in center ice a few months down the road. It’s time to chase the hardware the Predators really want: The Stanley Cup.

The President’s Trophy is given to the team who wraps up the season with the best overall record in the NHL. “It’s definitely a good regular season for us, definitely something we can be proud of,” Josi said. “But now the real work and the real fun starts.”

The Predators accepted the Presidents’ Trophy before the game from NHL deputy commissioner Bill Daly and took a moment to remember the moment with a team photo on the ice. Fans then chanted “We want the Cup” for the defending Western Conference champs who lost the Stanley Cup in six games to Pittsburgh last year.

Nashville coach Peter Laviolette said he’d never coached a team that won the Presidents’ Trophy before.

This night was to remember all the personal milestones, including David Poile notching the most NHL games by a general manager, an accolade acknowledged earlier in the season. “It was nice to take a minute just to acknowledge that,” Laviolette said. “Our guys are proud of it. They worked really hard this year. They stayed focused for the entire year. It’s all been part of a vision of something bigger than what happened tonight.”

Indeed it has been a season of firsts through out this entire year.

The Nashville Predators are having a record breaking season this year, coming off of a 10 win streak, here are just a few of thier current accomplishments in the 217/18 season.

Other records and firsts for the franchise this season include:

•  1st Central Division title.
• A regular-season Western Conference crown.
• The Presidents’ Trophy as the League’s top point-getter.
• Franchise records in points and victories. And they’re still not done.
• Nashville Predators team has ever recorded 117 points
• Best home record posting a 66-21-13 record
• The Predators sold out their 102nd straight game with a franchise record 17,594; this streak began  almost two calendar years ago
• Pekka Rinne earned his 300th career game
• Predators went nearly a month scoring a point in every game, for a streak of 15.
• Nashville’s 15-game point streak

Filip Forsberg scored three goals for Nashville’s first hat trick of the season, and the Predators finished off the best regular season in franchise history by beating the Columbus Blue Jackets 4-2 Saturday night.

Goalie Pekka Rinne made 22 saves through two periods before being replaced by Juuse Saros. Rinne finished 42-13-4 this season.

The Predators scored three goals in the first period with Watson starting the scoring at 7:52 of the first and Forsberg adding a pair on the power play.
Forsberg scored on a snap shot at 11:04. Then he got his 26th goal of the season just before the buzzer for a 3-0 lead with a shot from the right circle that went off the post and then Korpisalo into the net. Officials reviewed the play, which crossed at 0.4 seconds before the end of the period.
With Korpisalo pulled, Forsberg got the hat trick with an empty-net goal with 39.4 seconds left as fans celebrated by tossing the giveaway visors onto the ice.
Forsberg tied his career high with 64 points and also became Nashville’s scoring leader for the regular season with Viktor Arvidsson (61 points) scratched.
Anderson got his 19th goal at 7:55 of the second, and Dubinsky pulled Columbus within 3-2 with a short-handed goal at 7:20 of the third.”We played a pretty good game,” Dubinsky said. “Obviously, we gave a couple power-play goals to them there in the first, got down 3-0 two a really good team.”

NOTES: Defenseman P.K. Subban played his 82nd game, the only player on the Nashville roster to play every game this season. … The Predators improved to 41-4-6 when scoring first and 23-4-4 when leading after one period. …

UP NEXT
Blue Jackets: Face Washington in the first round of the playoffs.
Predators: Hosting Colorado in Game 1 likely Thursday