The Nashville Predators begin a critical back-to-back with a 4pm start against the Washington Capitals today at Bridgestone Arena. The Caps are on the back half of a back-to-back after a 2-1 win over the Edmonton Oilers in DC last night. In an odd schedule quirk, the Oilers are the Preds next opponent in a 4pm faceoff tomorrow.
The Washington Capitals are a team on a mission. After last year’s disappointing early exit from the playoffs, Washington is not worried about a second consecutive President’s Trophy, they are prepping for a long playoff run and a potential Cup. They hit Smaashville on a 8-1-1 run in their last ten and are playing like the Cup favorites that they are. Led by Alex Ovechkin’s 27 goals and TJ Oshie’s 24 goals, the are a scoring machine that has two more players knocking on the door of 20 for the season, Nicklas Backstrom with 18 and Justin Williams with 19. They are not just a scoring machine, they also know how to keep the puck out of their own net. Braden Holtby is putting in another outstanding season with a .932 save percentage and a GAA of 1.97. Holtby went last night against Edmonton so we could see backup Philipp Grubauer, who, in 16 games has posted a GAA of 1.98 and a Save % of .932
Nashville comes in needing to string together some wins, the win one lose one cycle they have been on will not gain you any ground in the playoff race. Filip Forsberg is doing Forsberg things with back-to-back hat tricks in the Preds last two games and he tends to play well against the Caps, the team that gave up on him very early when they traded him to Nashville for Martin Erat. The top line of Forsberg with Ryan Johansen and Viktor Arvidsson has been on fire lately and Forsberg has had six points (4g, 2a) in four career games against Washington. Definitely something to keep an eye on…
Don’t expect to see TJ Oshie, Brooks Orpik or Matt Niskanen tonight for Washington, they missed last night’s game against the Oilers.
With any kind of point tonight, the Predators will take over third place in the Central Division… at the beginning of this homestand, the thought was that Nashville needed six out of an available eight points… the Preds are on track to make that as they have three in the first two games. Game time is 4pm at Bridgestone Arena.
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Random Notes
- Where We Stand – After yesterday’s play, the Nashville Predators have 67 points in 60 games played and continue to stand 4th in the Central Division, tied in points with St. Louis. They are in the second Wild Card slot, trailing Calgary by a single point, however, Nashville holds two games in hand over the Flames. Per sportsclubstats.com, the Predators playoff chances are at 81%
- Strange to have both teams that the Preds play this weekend in town. Especially after Edmonton and Washington played each other last night.
- Today is the 40th anniversary of the release of SlapShot… watch out for some buried references tonight…
- Cody McLeod may be back in the lineup tonight… he has been skating and may be activated from IR before the game.
- Miikka Salomaki is also skating, he participated in yesterday’s optional skate… he may be getting close to a return as well.
- Hat sales are certainly spiking in Nashville given the run that Filip Forsberg is on… will Scoresberg strike again tonight? Filip has 20 goals in his last 33 games.
- Eight games in the NHL today, all times CST – 3pm – ANA @ LAK. 4pm – WSH @ NSH, NYI @ CBJ, NYR @ NJD. 6pm – MTL @ TOR. 7pm – PHI @ PIT. 9pm – SJS @ VAN, BUF @ COL.
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