The Nashville Predators are heading home with a piece of history.

The Predators spent their week doing something that only one of 40 previous teams had managed: sweeping a three-game tour through the New York Metropolitan area. They sandwiched a 2-1 shootout victory over the Islanders and a 4-3 shootout triumph in New Jersey around a 3-0 blanking of the Rangers at Madison Square Garden.

The 2001-02 Los Angeles Kings are the only other team to complete a sweep of the three Big Apple-area teams (they're still the only ones to do it without having to go into overtime. The Calgary Flames are the only other team to go without a regulation-time loss on a three-game swing: They won twice and lost the third game to the Rangers in overtime in 1999-2000, then did the same thing three seasons later.

The Florida Panthers will try to duplicate the Predators' success this week, when they visit the Rangers Wednesday, the Devils Thursday and the Islanders Saturday. The Panthers made the same trip last season and lost all three games (one in overtime). They also lost all three games in 2000-01 -- making them one of three teams, along with the 1986-87 Kings and the 1982-83 Pittsburgh Penguins -- to go pointless on a swing though the New York area.