I don't expect the Nashville Predators will win the Stanley Cup this season. Fact is they'll do well to just make the playoffs.

The Predators are one of the lowest drawing teams in the NHL, ranking 28th in home attendance with an average of just 14,875 per game. They have scored three fewer goals than they have allowed and their top point producer ranks just 87th in league scoring. As for playoff history, the Predators have never made it out of the first round and own a 6-16 post-season record.

There isn't a less sexy team in the NHL and yet, going into Friday's play, they are the league's hottest team with seven wins in a row.

Since losing 4-3 to the San Jose Sharks Nov. 10, a game in which the Predators actually led midway through the third period, the Predators have beaten, in order, St. Louis, Montreal, San Jose, New Jersey, Columbus, Detroit and Colorado. In that span they outscored their opponents 23-13 and have turned a lousy 7-8-1 record into 18-8-1. They have a chance to match their longest winning streak in club history Friday when they face the Blues.

So what should we make of this team?

As well as they are playing, the Predators are what they are - a hard-working, budget-conscious team that competes hard every game, relies heavily on its defence and goaltending to win, and unfortunately probably won't go too deep into the playoffs, assuming they make it, because they will run out of gas. No team will work harder than the Predators just trying to make it into the playoffs.

Any success this team enjoys is directly linked to the man who stands behind the bench. Barry Trotz, 47, is the only coach the Predators have ever had and the fact he has never been named the NHL's coach of the year is ridiculous when you consider what he has been given to work with.

Let's be honest, aside from captain Jason Arnott, this team is not exactly loaded with special talent up front. J.P. Dumont, who led the team in scoring last season and is doing so again with four goals and 16 points in 16 games, would be a second-liner on most good teams. David Legwand, who has four goals and eight points during the winning streak, has not developed into the scoring machine the Predators thought they were getting when they selected him second overall in 1998, and you could make the case that at $4.5 million a season, he doesn't come close to delivering much bang for his bucks. Steve Sullivan is a nifty little performer, but having suffered back woes the past few years, is not putting up big numbers this year. And you have to think the Predators were banking on more than four goals and nine points from Martin Erat when they signed him to a seven-year, $26.25-million contract in the off-season.

The Predators will never scare opponents with their offence.

"More than anything we are seeing the evolution of our team," Trotz said. "In the past we tended to rely on guys like Arnott, Dupont, Sullivan and Erat, but now it is more of a shared thing.

"Also if you look at our defence, all of the players with the exception of (Francis) Bouillon are Predator draft picks. They are in the neighbourhood of 24- and 25-years old and they have grown up together."

Defence? Now that's a different story. Starting in goal, Pekka Rinne is developing into one of the best stoppers in the NHL and might just give Miikka Kiprusoff a run for his money in the race to see who will start for Finland at the Winter Olympics in Vancouver. Along with backup Dan Ellis, they give Nashville one of the best goaltending tandems in the league.

On defence, the closest thing the Predators have to a superstar is fifth-year man Shae Weber. A 23-goal scorer last season, the six-foot-four, 230-pound Sicamous, B.C., native is on pace to match that total again this season with six goals and 15 points in 21 games. Not only that, he brings a physical element to the table making him one of the best all-around defenders in the NHL.

Weber's supporting cast includes Ryan Suter and Dan Hamhuis, two excellent two-way performers, as well as Cody Franson, Francis Bouillon and Kevin Klein.

So here's the thing, as good as the Predators are playing now, is there any reason to believe this season will have a happy ending? Probably not. Unless GM David Poile goes out and spends some of the nearly $13 million in cap space he has remaining, there is no reason to believe this season will end any differently than last season when they failed to make it to the dance, or the previous four years when they were first-round casualties.

The Predators actually broke out of their financial shell a few times and brought in star players - Peter Forsberg and Paul Kariya - but it didn't help. So it is highly unlikely, given the team's financial situation, they'll go down that road again.

So as much as I admire the job Trotz is doing and the way this team is playing now, I don't suspect a long playoff run is in the cards. I hope I am wrong.