Is it time for the Predators to panic?

October 12, 11:06 PMNashville Predators ExaminerJim Diamond

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After Monday night’s 6-1 drubbing at the hands of the Edmonton Oilers, has the time come for Nashville Predators General Manager David Poile and Head Coach Barry Trotz to hit the panic button on the 2009-2010 version of the team?

Despite the season being just four games old, something needs to happen, and the sooner it does the better. Both of the team’s victories were one-goal affairs that they very easily could have lost rather than won. The shootout victory in Dallas could have gone either way. The come from behind victory over the Colorado Avalanche was impressive, but was it just an apparition? Give the team credit for gutting-out those wins, but that early resiliency has been non-existent in the two games since.

If Pekka Rinne did not stand on his head Saturday, the loss to Buffalo could have been much worse. And other than a few shifts at the start of Monday’s game, there wasn’t a whole lot for the Sommet Center crowd of 12,179 to get excited about.

The defensive tandem of Dan Hamhuis and Kevin Klein is not working. Neither one seems to know where the other is on the ice nor do they seem to anticipate what the other is going to do. Sure these things take time, but this tandem has had all of training camp, several preseason games, and four regular season games to develop some sort of chemistry.

Hamhuis and Klein were -3 and -4 respectively last night, and it was a bad -3 and -4. On the game’s first goal, Klein pinched up leaving Hamhuis all alone to defend a 2-on-1 against Ales Hemsky and Shawn Horcoff. Hamhuis hung in no man’s land taking neither the player with the puck (Hemsky) nor the eventual goal scorer (Horcoff). Later, with the score 4-0, Hamhuis gift wrapped the puck to Patrick O’Sullivan on a blind backhand pass at the blue line. O’Sullivan passed to Andrew Cogliano who beat a helpless Dan Ellis to make the score 5-0.

The second line of David Legwand, Martin Erat, and Mike Santorelli has done nothing, a collective zero points in the team’s four games. When you see Legwand and Erat on the ice together, it is easy to see that a combined salary of $10.25 million (cap hit totaling $9.0 million this season) just does not buy what it used to.

Aside from the time Paul Kariya was on his wing, Legwand has not proven to be a number two caliber NHL center. He is very responsible defensive center, and is best suited for a number three center slot. Will he be making more than the average third line center? Yes, but in the world of economics, Legwand’s contract is what is known as a sunk cost. In other words, the money is already spent.

Following the game, Trotz sounded as if he has seen enough of Legwand and Erat together.

“The last couple of years, we’ve had Legwand and Erat tied together,” he said. “I’m not getting any production there, so maybe it’s time to move them around. I don’t think that I have a whole lot to lose.”

Does anyone else hear Beethoven’s “Ode to Joy” when reading that quote?

Save for his top line of Jason Arnott, Steve Sullivan, and Patric Hornqvist, and his top defensive pairing of Ryan Suter and Shea Weber, Trotz juggled his other three lines and two defensive pairings in the third period. This could have just been to change things up for the final period of a dismal game, but it may just be a precursor of things to come, and it probably should be.

Colin Wilson made his NHL debut Monday. Despite being sidelined since early in camp with a groin injury, Wilson looked fairly decent in his first game. Long after the game’s outcome was decided, Wilson set up a glorious scoring chance for Joel Ward with 12:10 remaining in the third. In the right circle, Wilson shook an Oiler defender with a smooth spin move before feeding Ward in the high slot. Ward’s one-timer was denied by an impressive glove save by Edmonton goaltender Jeff Deslauriers.

Wilson is the team’s second line center of the near future, and is likely pegged as the team’s number one center, possibly as soon as captain Arnott’s contract expires following next season. If he rounds into game shape quickly, why not give him a shot at the second center position now? There is a reason the organization went against its normal philosophy of letting players develop in the minors. He is a dynamic player that makes things happen when he is on the ice. That’s a trait that this team just doesn’t have enough of, and they are hoping he can display it – and do it quickly.

Trotz likes to talk about defining moments, and it is not too early for a juggling of his lineup to be a defining moment of this season.

Edmonton Oilers' Zack Stortini, center, is congratulated at the team bench after he scored his first goal of the game against the Nashville Predators.  Stortini had two goals as the Oilers won 6-1. In front of Stortini is Lubomir Visnovsky, of Russia. (AP Photo/Mark Humphrey)