Match-up - Nashville Predators (21-8-2) @ Columbus Blue Jackets (14-15-3) Road/Home records - 9-6-1 -------------- 7-8-2 TV - FS-TN, FS-O Puck drop - 7:00 p.m. ET Season series - 1-0 Nashville Last 10 - Preds: 7-3-0 ------------ Blue Jackets: 8-1-1 Projected starting goalies - Pekka Rinne vs Sergei Bobrovsky
Projected lines for the Predators via DailyFaceoff.com:
Filip Forsberg - Mike Ribeiro - Craig Smith Colin Wilson - Mike Fisher - Matt Cullen Derek Roy - Calle Jarnkrok - Taylor Beck Eric Nystrom - Olli Jokinen - Gabriel Bourque
Roman Josi - Shea Weber Mattias Ekholm - Ryan Ellis Victor Bartley - Seth Jones
Projected lines for the Blue Jackets:
Nick Foligno - Ryan Johansen - Jeremy Morin Matt Calvert - Brandon Dubinsky - Cam Atkinson Corey Tropp - Alex Wennberg - Jack Skille Adam Cracknell - Michael Chaput - Jared Boll
Jack Johnson - David Savard Kevin Connauton - James Wisniewski Fedor Tyutin - Dalton Prout
Injured: Scott Hartnell, Artem Anisimov, Nathan Horton, Mark Letestu, Ryan Murray.
Game notes:
- The Jackets have been outshot by a pretty significant margin for most of this winning streak, and they're going to be in tough winning that battle again tonight as Nashville is one of the best possession teams in hockey. Columbus is a 41% possession team (ahead of only Buffalo) during their 8-0-1 stretch and if that doesn't improve dramatically, and fast, the Jackets are going to start losing games again and fall out of the race.
- With the way the Jackets are playing right now they need Sergei Bobrovsky to be at his best on a nightly basis, and lately he has been. He has posted a .900SV% or better in eight of nine, and has risen his season save percentage to .921 as a result.
- Filip Forsberg started the season on fire and hasn't really cooled off since, as he has 31 points in 31 games and eight in his last seven contests. He's big, strong, skilled and fast so he'll be a tough player to defend. The Jackets will need to pressure him quickly every time he touches the puck because he'll make them pay if he has time.
- A quick start will be key in this one. Columbus has struggled to come from behind at times this season and Nashville is 7-1-0 when leading after 20 (12-1-0 after 40) so they're not exactly an easy opponent to come back on.
- Even with this magical run the Blue Jackets are on they still have a ton of work to do if they want to make the playoffs. At this point they're seven points back of a wild card spot and have no games in hand so they need to keep winning games, and often.
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