December promises to be a busy month in Smashville as Bridgestone Arena will host 24 events in the facility’s 20th anniversary month. The Predators have nine of those dates in the 14 games scheduled for the month. Let’s take a look at the month…
December begins with a couple of off days before the first of three home back-to-back’s on this season’s schedule as the surprising New Jersey Devils come to town on Saturday who find themselves in playoff position as I write this. The Devils are the only team in the NHL that do not have a regulation loss at home, but on the road… a different story at 3-7-3 (sound familiar?) The back-to-back concludes with the wildly inconsistent Philadelphia Flyers, then the homestand concludes with the third matchup of the season against the Colorado Avalanche.
The Predators then head out for one of only three trips away from Smashville in the month as they hit Dallas for a crucial Central Division showdown with the Stars, then the SlapShot Radio road trip will join the team in the desert for a game against the Coyotes.
Three more at home follow as the Predators host a couple of Central Division foes in the St. Louis Blues and the Minnesota Wild. The homestand concludes with a Saturday night matchup against the New York Rangers. It’s Broadway vs. Broadway on the 20th anniversary of the date that Bridgestone Arena officially opened.
The Predators take off for a quick trip to the northeast for a back-to-back in Philly and New Jersey to complete the season series against these two Metropolitan Division teams, then back home for the holidays as the Predators host the Los Angeles Kings before the mandated Christmas break, then a critical post-holiday stretch sees the Preds hosting Minnesota and Chicago before closing out 2016 in St. Louis.
The month breaks down with 5 games (3 at home, 2 on the road) against the Metropolitan Division, 7 games (5 at home, 2 on the road) against the Central Division and 2 (1 at home, 1 on the road) against the Pacific Division. As this is written only two of the home opponents for Nashville in December have a winning record on the road, the Rangers are 7-3-0 and the Blackhawks are 6-5-1… as of 12/1.
The opportunity for the Predators to make a serious move in the standings is there… now all they have to do is take advantage of it.
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Random Notes
- Pekka Rinne’s November numbers are simply sick… 9-1-2 record, GAA 1.49 and a Save % of .949… Rinne led all NHL goaltenders in the month in all of these categories, tying in wins.
- Another astounding November stat revolves around the penalty kill… it only gave up one goal during the month, killing off 40 of 41 PK opportunities… 97.6% kill rate…
- Stick tap to John Glennon for the stats in the last two bullets… he has a really nice write up on Predators.com … check it out here.
- Ottawa goaltender Craig Anderson has taken a leave of absence from the team.
- Darren Dreger is reporting that the NHLPA will almost certainly reject the league’s offer to extend the CBA for 3 years in order for the NHL to participate in the 2018 Winter Olympics.
- Dreger also reported about a potential preseason game to be played in China before next season.
- All-Star Voting opens today at 1pm central. Click here to vote.
- Three games in the NHL today, all times central – 7pm – PIT @ NYI. 7:30pm – TML @ CGY. 9:30pm – SJS @ LAK.
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