The Nashville Predators are in Philly for a rematch with the Flyers tonight at Wells Fargo Center. After Tuesday night’s emotional comeback thriller over Minnesota, the team is on guard against a letdown. The Flyers, on the other hand, are coming off of a difficult overtime loss to the Winnipeg Jets in which they looked a lot like the Predators in the first two periods on Tuesday, sleepy and sloppy.
Home losses are becoming a real concern for Philadelphia. The “Philly Flu” used to be a very real thing as opponents were truly uncomfortable coming into the City of Brotherly Love. They have a very pedestrian 11-7-4 home record… not the kind of home record Philly fans are used to. You could make the argument that the Flyers are really in the thick of the playoff race because of their 18-7-2 road record.
The Predators hope to take advantage of a Flyers penalty kill that simply is not performing on Wells Forgo center ice. Their PK on the road is a respectable 85.3%, at home it is only 78.8%, a stat the Preds power play has to be looking forward to potentially taking advantage of.
Injuries are a concern for the Broad Street Boys, they list Zac Rinaldo, Ian LaPerriere, Chris Pronger, James vanRiemsdyk and Danny Briere as out. The Predators are fully healthy as they expect both Jerred Smithson and Francis Bouillon back in the lineup tonight.
Game time is 6pm central, Pete Weber and Terry Crisp have the call on Fox Sports Tennessee, Tom Callahan has the radio call on 102.5 the Game.
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The fourth annual SlapShot Radio fundraiser for C.A.P.E. is scheduled for Saturday. February 11th at Blue Restaurant in Murfreesboro. We've got a silent auction, great food and drink and we'll be watching the Predators take on the Boston Bruins from Beantown.
Mark the date on your calendars and join us at Blue! I will be publishing the silent auction items next week.
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Random Notes
- The Predators stand 4th in the Western conference, 2nd in the Central Division. They trail division/conference leading Detroit by three points. Nashville leads 5th place St. Louis and 6th place Chicago by 1 point. The Blues have two games in hand over the other three teams in the fight for the division, after tonight’s action, that game in hand number grows to three.
- Tuesday night’s win was the seventh come-from-behind (from a 2 or 3 goal deficit) victory for the Predators this season… they only had two of these all last year.
- Congratulations to Pekka Rinne, named the NHL’s Third Star of the Month for January. A well earned honor considering his sparking 11-1-0 record in the month.
- The Columbus Blue Jackets simply cannot buy a break, creating new ways to lose games. A clock controversy in Los Angeles may or may not have cost the Jackets a point last night… this year, if something bad is going to happen, it will happen to the Blue Jackets. That was Columbus’ sixth straight loss.
- In that Jackets/Kings game, I am not sure if it was a clock malfunction last night or operator error… it almost appears that the clock operator was anticipating a whistle. If you look at exactly when the clock stopped, the puck appeared to be frozen. I’ve watched a couple of different guys perform this thankless task. They get criticized and pounded on by referees during the game and coaches after the game for simply trying to get it right.
- What a snore-fest last night between the Rangers and Sabres…
- Big win by Dallas last night, derailing a desperate Anaheim team and getting their playoff push off to a good start.
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