It’s Game Day in Smashville for a rare October matinee as the the Nashville Predators welcome the Edmonton Oilers to town for a rematch of last Saturday night’s tilt in Oil Country. A game the Predators took 3-0 for their 13th consecutive win over the Oilers. A streak that began in October of 2014, one that the Oilers are determined to end.
The Oilers hit town fresh off a 4-1 win over the defending Stanley Cup champs and are playing very good hockey. The Predators have started the season 8-2-0 and won on Thursday night in New Jersey in overtime, coming from behind multiple times to do it.
The most interesting question to be answered may be in net. For Edmonton, there is talk of starting backup netminder Mikko Koskinen for the first time this season as the Oilers are playing the front end of a back-to-back, finishing tomorrow night in Chicago. The Predators are holding their cards pretty close to the vest as Pekka Rinne was back on the ice yesterday taking part in practice. As I write this, Rinne is still listed on IR, but those things can change quickly. Given how well Juuse Saros has played, especially against Edmonton, there really is no reason to rush Rinne back into the net.
A key for the Predators today is to build off the power play success they saw Thursday night. Special teams has been a bugaboo for the Predators this season and it needs to be addressed and fixed. A big part of the power play has been the struggles of the second line, especially Kyle Turris and Kevin Fiala. Turris appears to be getting to where he needs to be, but Fiala continues to struggle to start the season. Special teams in the third period were excellent on Thursday night, something to build off of for today’s game.
Defensively, Nashville simply needs to execute the game plan from last Saturday night in the same way. They did a great job slowing down Connor McDavid and Ryan Nugent-Hopkins by clogging up the neutral zone a playing their most sound positional game of the young season.
Game time is 2pm, doors open at noon for today’s matinee. Coverage on 102.5 the Game and Fox Sports Tennessee. Radio pregame starts at 1pm, TV pregame starts at 1:30pm. Very limited tickets remain. There is a party on the plaza that gets going at 11am.
See you at the Bridge!
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Random Notes
- Tolvanen Update – Rough game for the youngster last night, going scoreless and a -2 in Milwaukee’s 3-2 overtime win over Cleveland. The Ad’s are back in action tonight at home against Manitoba.
- Don’t forget to bring canned food to the game today for the annual Second Harvest Food Drive.
- Juuse Saros has yet to surrender a goal to the Oilers… he has faced 77 shots and made 77 saves.
- Nashville is on national TV again on Tuesday night as Vegas hits town… NBCSN will be carrying the game.
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