Wild Game Day number 12
Opponent: Nashville Predators (7-2-2 16 pts) Site: Xcel Energy Center, St. Paul, Minnesota Time: 7:00PM CT TV: Fox Sports North (FSN)
Last Season Results: 12/20 Predators 6 @ Wild 5 (OT) 1/10 Predators 3 @ Wild 1 2/26 Wild 4 @ Predators 2 3/17 Wild 3 @ Predators 2 (OT) 4/9 Wild 4 @ Predators 2
Tonight the Nashville Predators come to town looking to repeat the success they had in St. Paul a year ago. The Wild on the other hand are looking to extend their 3 game winning streak in this division series. All 3 of those Wild victories came in Nashville and all were played after the acquisition of Devan Dubnyk.
Neither team has played since the weekend and both are coming off road losses. The Predators are wrapping up a four game road trip that saw them win one in San Jose lose one in overtime in LA and then drop the final game in Cali 4 to 2 to the Ducks on Sunday.
This will be the Predators first divisional game while the Wild bring an impressive 3-1-1 divisional record into tonight's game.
The Predators are built from the goal line out with Pekka Rinne, a Vezina Trophy finalist a year ago and perennial all-star between the pipes. The defense is one of the best units in the league led by Shea Weber and Roman Josi. Seth Jones is an amazing talent and he is just scraping the surface of his true potential. Combine that with last season's ot hero in St. Paul, Mattias Ekholm, Ryan Ellis and the addition of notorious Wild nemesis Barret Jackman.
The Predators bring a balanced scoring attack and play a very up tempo game with their defense very involved in the offense. James Neal leads the team with 7 goals and is always a threat along with second year center Filip Forsberg.
Devan Dubnyk will once again get the call in goal and this will be a match up of two of the leagues best at that position. These teams are very similar in how they are assembled with strong goaltending very solid defense corps top to bottom and balanced scoring from every line. Special teams will be key tonight as they are in every big game. The Wild will need to be better in that area than they showed Saturday in St. Louis.
Let's Play Hockey!