The Nashville Predators were one of the league’s top teams a year ago despite a number of question marks surrounding them to begin the season.

They had a new head coach in Peter Laviolette, after they let the only coach the franchise had ever known go in Barry Trotz. Mike Ribeiro was brought in to be the team’s No. 1 center after being bought out by the Arizona Coyotes, with fellow top-six center Mike Fisher sidelined with an Achilles injury to begin the campaign.

Netminder Pekka Rinne suffered a major hip injury the year prior and whether or not he would return to Vezina Trophy form was up in the air. This all coming along with missing the playoffs the season prior with a record of 38-32-12.

Nashville answered those questions by getting off to a quick start. They went 17-6-2 through their first 25 games of the season. The team’s first losing streak didn’t come until game 45 of the year as they fell to 30-10-5. Then, the wheels began to fall off over the course of the last 20 games of the year with the team going 5-12-3 headed into the post season.

To begin this season, the Predators are 12-7-4 and yet this year’s story has started with a different tone compared to last.

In October, Nashville went 7-1-2 and seemed as if they were going to be that same dangerous team we saw out of the gates last season as they out scored their opponents 28-20.

November on the other hand, was a horrid month for the Predators as they dropped five of their last six contests of the month for a record of 5-6-2. Four of the six losses came in the fashion of being shut out and Nashville was out scored 29-38. The goal difference may not scream panic, but when you take into account 14 of the team’s 29 goals came over the course of two seven goal games the mindset is a bit different.

The Predators have fewer goals as a team in their past six games (6) than Evgeni Malkin does on his own over that same span (7). — Adam Vingan (@AdamVingan) November 29, 2015

Despite their struggles as of late, the Predators have been doing a number of things well. Nashville is the NHL’s top possession team with a Corsi-For percentage of 57.8 percent since November 20 when their five losses in six game stretch began. They also out shot their opponent in eight of their 13 games played in the month.

On the contrary, games are not solely won by out shooting your opponent – Nashville is 5-6-3 this season when out shooting the opposition – nor does having an impressive Corsi automatically win games.

In their last six games, the Predators’ shooting percentage sits at the bottom of the league at three percent. Special teams have been abysmal as well with the team going 1-18 on the power play and killing off just 68 percent of opposition’s PP chances.

Things are not good in Nashville at the moment; there is no way to avoid that statement. Their “PDO” however, which combines a team’s shooting percentage and save percentage to approximate luck, the Predators have been the second most unlucky team in the NHL over their tough six game stretch with a PDO of 92.6.

On top of being just flat out unlucky, there are positives to take from Nashville’s poor play lately. For starters, the team sits at 12-7-4 on the year and fourth in the Western Conference standings. Secondly, they are only just over a quarter of the way through the season and having a tough go of things before the midway point as opposed to the latter half can be good.

The Predators saw what an impressive bunch they had last season to begin the year and with the same players on the roster this season, management has to be thinking those same successes can be achieved throughout this season. There is still plenty of time for the Predators to plug holes in the lineup whether it be with the personnel they have or via a trade down the line if the possibility arises.

Nashville gets the Arizona Coyotes and Florida Panthers on home ice to begin December in hopes to get back to their winning ways.