Game Night in Big D as the Nashville Predators get out on a quick two game roadie, tonight, it’s the Dallas Stars in the crosshairs for a crucial Central Division tilt. The irony of this one… both teams were expected to be contending for the division title and at puck drop tonight, both teams are out of playoff position. The Stars come into tonight’s game with a record of 10-11-6 for 26 points, the Preds stand at 12-9-4 for 28 points with two games in hand over Dallas.
The Stars are having their difficulties… the biggest one? Injuries, right now they list Ales Hemsky, Julius Honka and Patrick Sharp as out, Johnny Oduya as doubtful, Jiri Hudler is questionable, even though Oduya and Hudler practiced Wednesday. That’s a lot of talent to be missing from the lineup. Then there are their issues on the blueline and between the pipes. The two goalie system in Dallas just isn’t working, both goaltenders are hovering in the 3 range for goals against and the .900 range for save percentage… that is just not enough for the $11 million dollars the Stars are paying the two netminders.
The blueline is also hurting with Johnny Oduya on the sidelines. There is some good young talent on the Stars defensive corps, they just need time to develop.
Nashville comes into this game off a desperately needed win over the Avalanche and now needs to tighten things up a bit… we saw signs of that in the third period Tuesday night as the Predators closed out the Av’s well after a fairly sloppy first two periods. The road has not been friendly to Nashville, except when playing in the Pepsi Center, it is something that needs to get rectified if this Preds team is to make a serious run.
Injuries are an issue for Nashville as well, Anthony Bitteto, Ryan Ellis, Miikka Salomaki and Colton Sissons all remain on IR. Getting James Neal back in the lineup was a real boost for the Predators on Tuesday and they will need him again tonight. Game time is 7:30pm, coverage on 102.5 the Game and Fox Sports Tennessee.
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Random Notes
- Viktor Arvidsson’s performance so far this season has the Tennessean’s Adam Vingan asking if the young forward has played his way into expansion draft protection status. It’s a good question.
- The Predators are ranked 14th on the NHL Super 16, down from 12th last week.
- Interesting factoid from that NHL.com ranking, they note that Nashville is the only team in the league that hasn’t lost in regulation when scoring the first goal, they are 8-0-3 in those situations.
- Ten games in the NHL tonight, all times CST – 6pm – COL @ BOS, STL @ NYI, EDM @ PHI. 6:30pm – NJD @ MTL, VAN @ TBL, PIT @ FLA. 7pm – NYR @ WPG. 7:30pm – NSH @ DAL. 8pm – CGY @ ARI. 9:30pm – CAR @ LAK.
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