It’s game night in Smashville and an ole friend has come a-callin’. The Detroit Red Wings make their only Bridgestone Arena appearance this season tonight… and y’know… they never call, they never write… huh… they move to the other conference and our friendship goes down the drain… :-)
These ain’t your dad’s Red Wings… when’s the last time you have seen them at the bottom of the conference standings? Yeah… if you started following hockey when the Preds started in 98, you ain’t never seen it before. There is a serious risk of this Red Wing team missing the playoffs for the first time since Bush 41 was president.
Although, the hockey gods smiled on them last night at Joe Louis Arena as they got a pinball goal late to win 5-4 over the soon-to-be-homeless Islanders. That snapped a five game losing streak for the Wings, three of those at home. They are battered and bruised with Brendan Smith, Johan Franzen, Steve Ott and Jimmy Howard among the five names on IR and they lost all-star Franz Nielsen in the second period of last night’s game with an upper body injury.
There are some familiar names, Henri Zetterberg, Thomas Vanek, Dylan Larkin and Niklas Kronwall… but there are even more that aren’t too familiar, Nick Jensen, Anthony Mantha and Xavier Oulette to just name a few. With seven players in double digit goals, they are handling the offense by committee. There is a 4-way tie for the team lead in goals, Vanek, Tomas Tatar, Mantha and Larkin all have 12 goals. Between the pipes? Who knows? Jimmy Howard is in Grand Rapids on a conditioning stint, Petr Mrazek got the win last night. Do the Wings go with Jared Coreau tonight?
For Nashville, they are getting healthier, waiting for the imminent return of Roman Josi to the lineup. When Josi returns it will only leave Miikka Salomaki on IR. With the Mike Ribeiro situation coming to a resolution… several reports have the team waiving the 36 year old center yesterday after a freelance reported in Montreal said reported Thursday that Ribeiro requested a trade from the Preds. We should find out later today if/when he clears… I would doubt that he would report to Milwaukee…
The Predators will be counting on the lethal first line of Filip Forsberg, who is now ahead of his goal scoring pace from last season… Ryan Johansen, who has eight points in his last six games and Viktor Arvidsson… who has been at a point-per-game clip over his last seven games. Defensively, the team got back to playing hard nosed hockey on Thursday night, the Preds really seem to react positively to teams that challenge them physically as Edmonton has tried to do in their last two games against the Oil.
In the net, expect Pekka Rinne as Marke Mazenec has been called up from Milwaukee and Juuse Saros has been sent down to get some work. It wouldn’t surprise me to see Rinne go tonight, Tuesday and Thursday in New York before Saros returns to take one of the back-to-back home games next weekend.
Game time is 7pm tonight… good luck finding a ticket for this one. Game coverage starts at 6pm with pregame on 102.5 the Game, TV pregame starts at 6:30pm and game coverage gets going at 7 on both media.
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Random Notes
- Where We Stand – After last night’s play, the Nashville Predators have 58 points in 51 games played and stand 3rd in the Central Division. Nashville trails the division leading Minnesota Wild by 13 points (-1 GIH) and 2nd place Chicago by 9 points with two games in hand. Nashville leads 4th place St. Louis by three points. Calgary is in the first wild card slot, Los Angeles is in the second.
- Calle Jarnkrok has been another Pred on fiore over the last few weeks. He has five points in his last four games and has a 65% faceoff win percentage in his last three games.
- The Preds are 8-0 when Ryan Johansen scores.
- The entire Central Division is playing today, including an intriguing matchup in Dallas as they host Chicago… I wonder what snark the scoreboard operators in Big D have in store?
- Thirteen games in the NHL today, all times CST – Noon – WSH @ MTL, LAK @ PHI. 2pm – WPG @ COL. 6pm – TOR @ BOS, OTT @ BUF, ANA @ TBL, CAR @ NYI, NJD @ CBJ. 7pm – PIT @ STL, DET @ NSH, CHI @ DAL. 9pm – MIN @ VAN. 9:30pm – ARI @ SJS.
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