The month of love gets started tonight as the Nashville Predators welcome the Vegas Golden Knights to town. This is a Terry Crisp special tonight, the ole “spider doing pushups on a mirror” game. Two teams that have not been meeting expectations, two teams that have changed coaches, two teams battling for wild card spots when they had division title aspirations. In other words, two teams desperate to move up in the standings and remain in playoff contention.
Anything can happen tonight in Smashville.
Vegas comes in on the back half of a back-to-back after their bye week, winning last night in Carolina with Malcom Subban between the pipes so it would appear that we would see Marc-Andre Fluery manning the nets tonight. The Golden Knights are one of five teams with at least four players with 15+ goals, Max Pacioretty, Reilly Smith, Mark Stone, Jonathan Marchessault and Paul Stastny.
For Nashville, a two game road sweep has them (and Pred Nation) feeling better about themselves. The Preds have won three of their last four games and in the last two wins, while not being as consistant as they would like, they showed fight and resilience, something that has not always been evident. The top six is performing like a top six should and it appears that new head coach John Hynes systems are beginning to take root. There was less thinking and more playing in these past two games and that is a very good thing for this talented hockey team
Goals from Matt Duchene and Ryan Johansen certainly doesn’t hurt and the show of emotion from these two players, the fire shown is another needed element. Both players have been quoted as needing to display that and they are.
The next thing on the Predators agenda is to bring that same resilience and fire back to Bridgestone Arena, where Pred Nation is waiting to explode in support of their team. Waiting… hell … desperate to show why Smashville is… well Smashville. Smashville Saturday Nights have been a little rough this season as the Preds are 2-4-1 on Saturday night’s so far this season, with five Saturday home games left in the season, the complete the turnaround as they have won 2 of their last 3 Saturday night home games.
Game time is 7pm … very limited tickets remain for the game. Coverage on 102.5 the Game and Fox Sports Tennessee.
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In an almost criminally under reported story, Predators GM David Poile got his 1507th career win as a General Manager, making him the winningest GM in NHL history.
Not a single story on NHL.com about it… sheesh, if you can’t count on the leagues website to report it, who can you count on.
Congratulations Mr. Poile! And thank you for all you do for Nashville.
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Where They Stand – a daily look at where the Predators are in the playoff race.
As play opens for the month of February, the Nashville Predators are in the 9 spot in the Western Conference, three points behind Arizona and four points behind tonight’s opponent Vegas. They have three games in hand over both the Coyotes and the Golden Knights. The Preds trail Dallas by five points and Colorado by seven in the Central
Impact games tonight – VGK @ NSH, CHI @ ARI, STL @ WPG.
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Random Notes – Presented by
- Matt Duchene is definitely heating up with 13 points in his last 15 games. As are Ryan Johansen and Kyle Turris with four points each in their last four games. Oh… and don’t forget Filip Forsberg… seven points in his last eight games.
- Roman Josi just continues his Norris-worthy season posting 50 points in 50 games.
- The next point Josi posts will be his 400th career NHL point, the next goal Filip Forsberg scores will move him to 3rd on the franchise goal scoring list.
- Certainly good to have Colton Sissons back in the lineup, after shaking of some rust, he had a solid game Thursday night in New Jersey.
- The Preds road record is recovering nicely… and they will have more opportunity to improve next week… now about that home record…
- Today’s games – Noon – CBJ @ BUF, VAN @ NYI. 1pm – FLA @ MTL. 6pm – STL @ WPG. OTT @ TOR, NYR @ DET, DAL @ NJD, COL @ PHI. 7pm – VGK @ NSH, BOS @ MIN. 9pm – EDM @ CGY. 9:30pm – ANA @ LAK, TBL @ SJS.
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SlapShot Radio is back for our 12th season as Zack, Brent and I are now on Monday night’s this season. The best hour of hockey talk on the longest running hockey show in the southeast … 7pm Mondays on 102.5 the Game.
Our sponsor list continues to grow. Not only are we welcoming back
Drs. Jane Bacon and Aileen Kruger at Hermitage Family and Cosmetic Dentistry … make your appointment at (615) 872-7762 and our good friend Carter Church, Your Murfreesboro real estate expert with Weichert – The Andrews Group. And our newest sponsors…
Cool Springs Wines and Spirits! The largest spirit store in all of middle Tennessee! And La-Z-Boy Nashville! Three locations, locally owned and operated, check out La-Z-Boy in Murfreesboro, Hendersonville and Cool Springs!
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