Nashville Predators Tickets

The Nashville Predators sit near the bottom of the Central Division standings, but they still have playoff aspirations.

Because of the way the Western Conference playoff race has unfolded, the Predators find themselves just a few points away from the eighth and final seed.

To make a late push and try and obtain that final seed, the Predators have been looking to make a trade to help their club but have found them extremely difficult to come by.

It looks like the team will have to rely on the players on the roster only if they want to make a push for the postseason.

The upcoming schedule bodes for such a push, as the Predators get four straight games at home before traveling to Philadelphia to take on the Flyers.

Scoring has been an issue for Nashville, which has found it hard to put the puck in the back of the net at times this season. The coach has mixed up the lines lately and it has helped to significantly increase scoring, so I'd expect to see a lot more of that as the season winds down.

J.P Dumont leads the club with 44 points, which includes a team-high 32 assists. Jason Arnott leads the Predators with 22 goals.

Pekka Rinne and Dan Ellis have each played 33 games this year, but the former has been much more effective than the latter.

Rinne is giving up just 2.25 goals per game and sports a 92.2 percent save percentage. Ellis is giving up 2.93 goals per game and saved only 89.9 percent of the shots he has faced.

The Predators have a chance at grabbing one of the final spots in the Western Conference playoffs, but so do a number of other teams. They have little margin for error the rest of the way if they want to reach the postseason.