One reason why the Nashville Predators find themselves just four points out of the division lead is because of their dominance against their divisional opponents. Following last night’s 3-1 win over the Blues, the Preds pushed their Central Division record to an astounding 12-2-2, the best intra-division record in the NHL.

“The division is so hard and you have to take all the points you can right now,” forward Martin Erat said after last night’s game. “It’s going to be a battle until the end. In the end we always have to play against St. Louis, Detroit and Chicago.”

Through Saturday’s action, the Preds are in second place in the division and trail Detroit by four points. St. Louis is one point behind the Preds, but has two games in hand. Chicago’s recent struggles have them sitting in fourth in the Central, six points back of Detroit.

The Preds may have done well against the Columbus Blue Jackets this season (5-0-1), but they’ve also experienced success against a very good Blues team. Barry Trotz’s club has won all four meetings against St. Louis, all essentially by one goal (two shootout wins, plus a pair of two-goal wins with an empty netter). What’s the difference between two teams so evenly matched?

“It’s always a one or two goal difference; it’s been that way the last four games we’ve played them,” Erat said. “They are hard games and right now we are winning more, maybe scoring more on the power play and getting better goaltending.”

Though the Preds gained four out of a possible six points this week, they actually lost ground (one point) to Detroit. With the difficult schedule ahead of them, the Preds just have to continue to play well.

“With how tight it is in the Central Division, it (divisional record) might be a tiebreaker,” head coach Barry Trotz said last night. “The points may not be the difference. It may be regulation wins or head-to-head. We’re just trying to win as many as we can.”

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The Morning After:
Yesterday’s results:
Predators 3, Blues 1

Smashville 24/7 3 stars of the night:
1. Pekka Rinne, NSH (42 saves)
2. Martin Erat, NSH (1 goal, 2 assists)
3. Jaroslav Halak, STL (34 saves)

Recaps around the blogosphere:

Play of the game:
http://nhl.cdn.neulion.net/u/videocenter/embed.swf