Seven straight wins away from home to start the season matches the third longest streak in NHL history

The Nashville Predators set the standard right from the start.

They opened the season with two games on the road — and won both. Since then they have won every other time they have been away from home, most recently a 4-1 victory Wednesday at Colorado that was the start of a five-game road trip.

As they prepare for Saturday’s contest at Dallas (1 p.m., Fox Sports-Tennessee), the Preds are the NHL’s best road team and their seven road wins from the start of the season is tied for the third longest streak in NHL history. Only the 2006-07 Buffalo Sabres (10) and 2009-10 New Jersey Devils (nine) have had longer runs.

“I think we know what we have to do,” center Nick Bonino said. “We come in the rink ready to play. [When] we’re on the road, we’re just eating dinner with the guys, hanging out and getting ready to play hockey. … We’re rolling the lines and we’re playing well.”

A rundown of the NHL’s best road records (through Thursday): Nashville – 7-0-0

Toronto – 6-0-0

Tampa Bay – 5-1-1

San Jose – 4-3-2

Philadelphia – 5-3-1

N.Y. islanders – 5-4-0

Vancouver – 5-4-1

In eight home games, Nashville averages 3.00 goals per game and 2.25 against. On the road, those figures are 3.86 and 1.86, respectively. The Predators are one of two teams (Pittsburgh is the other) that allow fewer than two goals per game on the road.

“We just stay focused and do our thing,” forward Colton Sissons said. “I don’t know if being on the road and just thinking hockey helps us. We’ve just been playing confident and playing really sharp on the road so far.”

The franchise record for consecutive wins on the road is nine, set last season (Feb. 10-March 18). From the start of that streak until now, Nashville has won 18 of its last 21 outside of Bridgestone Arena.

Dating back to Jan. 6 they are 21-2-3 in their last 26 road contests.

If the Predators win one more than half of their remaining 35, they will tie the franchise record of 25 road wins in a season they set in 2017-18, when they had the NHL’s best regular season record.

“Last year too it felt like we were really, really strong on the road, which is a good thing,” defenseman Mattias Ekholm said. “You obviously want to be strong at home too. But if you can have a really strong road record, that goes a long way usually because home should take care of itself.

“I just think we really come into buildings and try to take the atmosphere down right away. If it’s by scoring a goal early or having some good shifts at the start, we’ve really done that.”



