The Nashville Predators long 26 day, seven of nine on the road, eight different city odyssey finally comes to a conclusion tonight with the Preds game against the Ottawa Senators in Canada’s capital. The Preds are coming off a franchise record nine goal performance that still has most of Toronto in apoplexy about the Leafs sudden, stunning collapse. Ottawa has had a few days off since their last game Saturday, concluding a west coast swing with a loss to the resurgent Calgary Flames.

The Senators sit 5th place in the Atlantic, but in a three way tie for 7th in the East. They have four wins on the road, four at home, but have proven to be adept at pushing teams to overtime to at least get a point at home, going 4-1-3 inside Canadian Tire Center. The Sens are floating a bit, going 1-2-2 in their last five… driving some line shakeups as they try and right the ship.

For Nashville, the mission is to keep the roll going. The Predators are looking for their fifth win in their last six games and to solidify their hold on the Central Division lead. The hot play of rookie sensation Filip Forsberg continues, the young Swede is performing at a point per game pace with 22 points in 18 games along with Mike Ribeiro and James Neal, Nashville has a lethal first line… Combine that with excellent defensive play and Pekka Rinne being well… Pekka Rinne, and you have a combination that is fun to watch and winning.

Game time is 6:30 pm on Fox Sports Tennessee and 102.5 the Game… pregame coverage begins at 6pm.

Here is the preview from nhl.com…


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Random Notes

- After a rough start to the campaign, Calle Jarnkrok is quietly heating up with a goal and two assists in the last two games.

- I’ve been wracking my brain trying to come up with a name for the Neal/Ribeiro/Forsberg line… seems like all the good ones are taken… but… how about The Nine Line? Forsberg wears 9… Ribeiro wears 63 (6+3 =9) and Neal wears 18 (1+8=9)

- Memo to one of my favorite websites… sportsclubstats.com … Any chance you can update your logos? Using old ones for LA, Nashville and Dallas. I know it’s picky…

- A couple of new rules are emerging from Tuesday’s NHL GM meetings. The dry scrape is scrapped as of Saturday’s games, we know that… but now we find out that the NHL video War Room can stop play if a good goal is missed on the ice instead of waiting for a stoppage. The other thing to watch is the discussion on 3-on-3 overtime, the GM’s are watching the AHL’s usage of it closely.

- The questions about the Dallas Stars are piling up. The universally declared winner of the offseason is two points out of the Western Conference basement, terrible at home and has the team’s excellent head coach Lindy Ruff scratching his head and calling it the “biggest test I’ve ever been through.”

- Congratulations to the Arizona State Sun Devils on their entry into NCAA Division I ice hockey. They start play in 2015-16. UAH may no longer be the southernmost NCAA D1 program.

- Best wishes to Pens forward Pascal Dupuis who has been diagnosed with a blood clot in his lung and will be out for six months.

- Former Pred Michael Del Zotto went down with a lower body injury last night in the Flyer’s loss to the Rangers.

- And speaking of the Flyers… several reports of an explosion from Flyer’s GM Ron Hextall after the Flyers dropped a 2-0 decision at MSG. Those that are surprised by this never saw the man play goal.

- Two games tonight… Flyers @ Rangers and Canucks @ Oilers.

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