Predators head coach Andrew Brunette made it clear his team wasn’t playing up to expectations. The Preds responded with a record 18-game run.

-- Photo By David Zalubowski | Ap

Streaks, like records, are made to be broken. But it seemed for a long while like the Predators stretch of consecutive games without losing in regulation would never come to an end.

For nearly a month and a-half, the Predators earned at least one standings point in every game they played in their franchise-record 18-game points streak. Their record over those 18 games was an impressive 16-0-2.

The streak began after an embarrassing 9-2 home loss to the Dallas Stars Feb. 15 that now seems like it happened years ago. A bag skate of a practice – in which coaches have the players skate and battle more than a traditional practice – the next day followed by the well-publicized cancellation of the team’s planned trip to see U2 at the Sphere in Las Vegas, showed everyone – especially the players – that head coach Andrew Brunette and general manager Barry Trotz were not fooling around and that expectations for the group were much higher than what was being produced on the ice.

There was a definite cost associated with the change in plans. Instead of flying to Las Vegas following the team’s next game in St. Louis that Saturday, they flew back to Nashville before heading to Las Vegas that Monday, a day ahead of their game against the Golden Knights.

Moving charter flights, hotel reservations in multiple cities and unloading of prime tickets to see one of the world’s biggest bands at a fancy new venue was incredibly costly, but the benefit appears to have paid off for Trotz, the rookie general manager.

Now Trotz looks like he should be in the running as the winner of the NHL’s Jim Gregory general manager of the year award and Brunette the Jack Adams award as the league’s top coach.

Changing fortunes

The Predators were long shots, at best, to make the playoffs before the streak, but now are a virtual lock unless there is a marked late-season collapse, and odds are that Trotz and Brunette’s mid-February message would prevent that. As the early March trade deadline approached, the Predators looked like they were going to be sellers for the second consecutive year, but Trotz quickly went from a seller to a buyer.

It’s hockey cliché, but teams need their best players to be their best players in order to have success, and that’s exactly what happened over the streak. After an up-and-down season between the pipes, goaltender Juuse Saros won 12 games and boosted his save percentage above the .900 mark. It had hovered at or below for most of the season.

On defense, Roman Josi entered the conversation for the Norris Trophy as the league’s best defenseman and the Hart Trophy awarded to the player judged as most valuable to his team.

Brunette has leaned on Josi more, and the 33-year-old has played like he’s 10 years younger, seeing his ice time skyrocket, culminating with the final game of the streak, a 5-4 overtime win over the defending Stanley Cup champion Golden Knights.

In that game, Josi scored the game-winner 40 seconds into overtime, capping off a night in which he saw 28 minutes, 33 seconds of ice time.

Up front, Filip Forsberg has eclipsed the 40-goal mark for the second time in his career. During the streak, Forsberg scored 15 goals and posted a career-high seven-game goal-scoring streak.

All good things…

The streak ended with consecutive road losses in, of all places Arizona and more understandably Colorado, but it had to end at some point. For some reason, the Coyotes are the Predators’ kryptonite, defeating Nashville in three of the four matchups between the teams.

Colorado is battling for the top spot in the Central Division and Western Conference, so facing the Avalanche in the first round of the playoffs is a definite possibility for the Predators.

The Predators came out of the streak with a renewed life that will extend past the end of the regular season in all likelihood.

The general manager and coach did their jobs, and the players followed their lead and did theirs.