Game Night in Smashville as the Nashville Predators close out the month of March with a visit from the Vancouver Canucks. Vancouver is on the second half of a tough back-to-back, winning last night in St. Louis. The Canucks need 4 or 5 points to finish the season safely in the playoffs, the Predators are looking to stretch their lead in the Central and put some heat on Anaheim for the Conference title.
All indications are that Shea Weber will miss tonight’s game with a lower body injury, the silence from 501 Broadway is deafening on this one. The Predators will be without their captain for the third consecutive game. Roman Josi has certainly elevated his game to compensate and the rest of the blue line will have to follow suit. Sunday’s loss to Calgary was not their best defensive effort and multiple quotes about being more solid on the blue line were evident post game.
From the Vancouver side, they are playing consistent hockey right now. They have flown under the radar in a recovery season after last year’s clown car. The addition of Radim Vrbata has been key to unleashing the offense, spreading the scoring out and putting less pressure on the Sedin twins. The Canucks are 6-3-1 over their last ten.
Offensively from Nashville, the top lines are recovering from their early March scoring funk. Mike Ribeiro and Filip Forsberg are back on the score sheet and the blue line continues to contribute as Josi has been on a point-per-game clip over his last eight games and keep an eye on Seth Jones who seems to love scoring on Canada as 6 of his 13 career goals have come against Canadian teams.
Expect Pekka Rinne in net after giving way to Carter Hutton on Sunday. Rinne has his swagger back between the pipes and always seems to make things tough on Vancouver. The Canucks started Eddie Lack last night, while the coach has given no indication as of this writing, I wouldn’t be surprised to see head coach Willie Desjardins go with Lack, who has done an amazing job filling in for the injured Ryan Miller.
The Predators are expecting their 28th sellout of the year tonight, some tickets are still available for the game, but they will go fast as game time approaches. Coverage is on Fox Sports Tennessee, 102.5 the Game and the Predators Radio Network. Pregame begins at 6:30pm on both media.
Here is your preview from nhl.com
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Random Notes
- Standings update after play on 3/29 – Nashville continues to lead the Central Division lead with 102 points, St. Louis trails by three points with 99. Anaheim leads in the Western Conference with 105 points. Chicago is six points behind the Preds. The Blackhawks and Blues have a game in hand over Nashville, the Preds have a game in hand over Anaheim. After their win last night, Chicago trails St. Louis by a single point for second in the Central and home ice in the first round. Two games remain between these two teams.
- The Western Wild Card – Minnesota (76 games played) owns the first wild card slot with 95 points, the Winnipeg Jets (76) are in the second slot with 90 points. The Calgary Flames (77) has the third slot in the Pacific Division leading the LA Kings (76) by three points. The Kings are two points behind the Jets for the final Wild Card. Dallas’ loss to Calgary last night has effectively snuffed any hope of a late run at the final wild card, with only five games left, the max points they can get is 94.
- Who Should Pred Nation Root for Tonight? – Concentrate all of your gold energy on the game at Bridgestone Arena… any kind of win tonight extends the Preds lead in the Central to five points and puts Nashville a single point behind Anaheim for the conference lead.
- Welcome to Smashville Rog Suggitt… he is raising money for the Make A Wish Foundation through visiting all 30 NHL rinks for a game in 30 days. He is in town for Game/Night 19… here’s a story from NHL Network on his quest. Get more information at his website.
- Tickets for Round One of the Stanley Cup playoffs are on sale in Smashville… but there ain’t a lot left… only available on Ticketmaster in the Predators home viewing area…
- The NHL in Vegas may go beyond the annual Awards show as the group trying to bring a team to Sin City has exceeded their target of 10,000 season tickets.
- Scott Burnside at espn.com is saying that the expansion fee for a team in Las Vegas could go as high as $500 million.
- Huge win for the Blackhawks last night over LA. The Kings return home for a couple of easy ones, Edmonton on Thursday and Colorado on Saturday. Only two playoff teams left on the Kings schedule so don’t count them out yet. Thursday April 9th could decide third in the Pacific as LA travels to Calgary. SportsClubStats.com has LA’s chances at the playoffs at 51.7%
- The Kings battered blue line took another hit last night as Andrej Sekera left their loss to the Blackhawks in the second period with a lower body injury.
- Mind games coming from Chicago? The tease of Patrick Kane’s early return has tongues wagging… nothing official… yet.
- St. Louis’ loss last night may be even worse as Vladimir Tarasenko sustained a lower-body injury in the third period last night and did not return. No information is available, but several tweets from St. Louis media indicated that the budding star was limping after the game.
- The Blues has only won one game in their last six.
- Congratulations to Arizona Coyote fans for actually cheering on their team last night. Not that it helped much, they dropped McDavid Bowl II 4-1 to the Sabres.
- After a Western Conference heavy schedule last night, the focus swings to the east tonight as 11 eastern teams are in action in the seven games tonight.
- Tampa Bay completed their season sweep of Montreal and clinched their playoff berth last night. Hab fans have to be relieved to know that there is no possible way for these two teams to meet in the first round. Bad news for Tampa is that their stud d-man Victor Hedman is listed as “questionable… for tonight’s game after only playing one shift in the third period of last night’s game.
- Seven games in the NHL tonight – Panthers @ Bruins, Hurricanes @ Capitals, Devils @ Blue Jackets, Lightning @ Maple Leafs, Senators @ Red Wings, Canucks @ Predators, Rangers @ Jets.
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