Game Day Preview: Nashville Predators @ Boston Bruins

by Dirk Hoag on Oct 21, 2009 11:28 AM EDT

The Predators (2-4-1 on the season) resume their 6-game road trip tonight in Beantown, where the Bruins (3-4-0) are looking to rebound from a 4-1 defeat at Phoenix last Saturday.

Interestingly, the last time these teams met was on February 14th last season; David Legwand put together an "Alex Ovechkin Hat Trick", with two goals in regulation and one in the shootout to lift the Preds to a 3-2 win at the Sommet Center.

Is there any chance that we'll see a similar outburst from #11 tonight? With Jason Arnott out for the next 1-2 weeks, it would certainly be a good time for it...

Meet the Enemy

Stanley Cup of Chowder is SB Nation's Boston Bruins blog, so be sure to stop by and check out their preview; the quick Boston take on the game?

"The Bruins have made several roster moves this week, including trading Chuck Kobasew to the Minnesota Wild, trading picks to the Buffalo Sabres for Daniel Paille, placing Milan Lucic on the LTIR, and calling up Brad Marchand and Vladimir Sobotka. The new look Bruins will try to bounce back from a disappointing 4-1 road loss to the Phoenix Coyotes."

It's hard to forecast what the Boston lines will look like tonight given all the changes going on.

Boston Bruins Injuries

Questionable

Player	Injury Type	Injury Date
Dennis Wideman	shoulder	10/21/2009
Marc Savard	foot	10/21/2009

Out (IR / Out / Suspended / Physically unvailable)

Player	Injury Type	Injury Date
Milan Lucic	fingers	10/17/2009

Savard, the Bruins' leading scorer with 4 goals and 3 assists, did practice yesterday with the team.

UPDATE: From Kukla's Korner comes news that Savard will miss 4-6 weeks with a broken foot. That's a huge loss for the Bruins.

Meet the Good Guys

Without their captain and leading goal-scorer, the rest of the forwards will certainly need to step up their contributions. The lines are likely as follows:

Sullivan - O'Reilly - Dumont

Erat - Legwand - Ward

Goc - Wilson - Hornqvist

Jones - Smithson - Scatchard

Bouillon - Weber

Suter - Klein

Franson - Sulzer

Even Strength Play

TEAM	GP	TOI	GF	GA	GF/60	SF/60	Sht %	GA/60	SA/60	Save Pct.	+/- per 60
Boston	7	315	13	11	2.5	29.9	8.3	2.1	26.5	.921	0.4
Nashville	7	339.4	8	14	1.4	24.9	5.7	2.5	29.3	.916	-1.1

Not exactly a cheery picture for the Preds, but the Bruins aren't exactly tearing things up, either.

Boston PP vs. Nashville PK

The Bruins' power play currently stands 22nd in the league, with a 15.6% success rate. One problem area for Nashville has been the penalty killing, which sits 29th at 66.7%. Will new call-up Dave Scatchard see some time on the PK, perhaps? The Preds need to plug this hole quickly, as they have typically been a strong penalty-killing

Nashville PP vs. Boston PK

What did I tell you last time? Just... don't... ask.

Goaltending

Tim Thomas is off to a slow start this season, but with a starting spot on the US Olympic team up for grabs, he's certainly motivated to make an impression.

Tim Thomas

#30 / Goalie / Boston Bruins

Height: 5-11

Weight: 201

Born: Apr 15, 1974

	GP	MIN	W	L	T	EGA	GA	GAA	SA	SV	SV%	SO
2009 - Tim Thomas	5	300	2	3			16	3.20	154	138	.896	1

Dan Ellis may get the start tonight, based on Bryan Mullen's notes from Tuesday's practice.

Dan Ellis

#39 / Goalie / Nashville Predators

Height: 6-0

Weight: 188

Born: Jun 19, 1980

	GP	MIN	W	L	T	EGA	GA	GAA	SA	SV	SV%	SO
2009 - Dan Ellis	5	236	2	1			11	2.80	113	102	.903	0

Summary

There's opportunity on the table tonight for the Predators; Boston has not played like the regular season juggernaut of a year ago, and they've shuffled their roster significantly in the last few days. Especially with Savard and Lucic out of the lineup, can the Preds catch the Bruins in a state of disarray, perhaps?

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bleerrrghhh

Join me on the Hockey Blog Adventure! (or Twitter.) GO BRUINS! (and Wild!)

by Cornelius Hardenbergh on Oct 21, 2009 12:26 PM EDT reply actions

Lines from practice yesterday...

The Predators used the following lineup in practice yesterday before boarding the plane for Boston…

Sullivan – O’Reilly – Dumont
Erat – Legwand – Ward
Scatchard – Wilson – Hornqvist
Jones/Belak – Goc – Smithson

Bouillon – Weber
Suter – Klein
Franson – Sulzer

Ellis should start in nets tonight as he was the first to leave the ice, while Rinne talked 1-on-1 with Trotz in the corner and worked through a couple drills with Korn afterwards…

Predators Hockey: Live it, Love it...

by Seth Lake on Oct 21, 2009 12:39 PM EDT reply actions

It looks like Scatchard is intended as the safety net for the two young guys, giving Trotz the opportunity to move Ward up and try and get a little offense out of him.

It’s still staggering that the 2nd line here has a combined 1 goal and 0 assists through 7 games.

More fun than a stick to the face!
On the Forecheck is SB Nation's blog covering the Nashville Predators.

by Dirk Hoag on Oct 21, 2009 12:49 PM EDT up reply actions

With Thornton doubtful...

I’m not sure that the Preds will dress Belak over Jones.

Scatchard spent about 5 minutes after practice yesterday to work on his “skills” with Beeler. Dave has had 18 PIM’s in 4 games thus far with the Ads. I believe ten of those are from fighting…

Predators Hockey: Live it, Love it...

by Seth Lake on Oct 21, 2009 1:21 PM EDT reply actions

Lines

I will be happy with those lines

by Smashvillian on Oct 21, 2009 2:58 PM EDT reply actions

Does anybody else think the complete lineup overhauls after every game might be hurting more than helping?

by Lil cutie on Oct 21, 2009 3:59 PM EDT reply actions

How would you do it?

Injuries have played a big role in our lineup shuffles. Players coming back, players going out, players underperforming, etc. It’s the players themselves that have necessitated all of the lineup changes recently.

I give the coaching staff a ton of credit for their constant line shuffling at Washington in the last game too because it simplified the game for both the players individually and collectively as a team. Play the system, work hard, and keep your feet moving. If you met those minimum expectations you were rewarded with ice time, if you didn’t you rode the pine.

Remember too that the team had no practice time (no morning skates or scheduled practices) between getting drubbed for the second straight game at Dallas and taking the ice in Washington. The team has had three straight days of on-ice practice since then and with a morning skate today as well to work with they should have created more chemistry than Boston will have tonight after losing their top center (Savard) and going with an optional skate this morning…

Predators Hockey: Live it, Love it...

by Seth Lake on Oct 21, 2009 4:55 PM EDT up reply actions

I agree

The thing about playing with new linemates is that you tend to focus on the basics.

At some point, I expect electric buzzers installed in the players’ helmets, so whenever they try that extra pass, or Erat peels away from pressure, they zap ’em into shape.

More fun than a stick to the face!
On the Forecheck is SB Nation's blog covering the Nashville Predators.

by Dirk Hoag on Oct 21, 2009 5:32 PM EDT up reply actions

I understand that changes are necessary when players get hurt…I’m not concerned about that. But when players get mixed around after underperforming for one or two periods, I start to wonder. Maybe I’m overvaluing team chemistry and cohesion, but if those count for anything, this doesn’t seem like the right way to go about it.

And some of these changes don’t even appear to be performance related. For example, why are we switching up the defense after a relatively strong game in Washington? Against a great offense like that, two goals allowed isn’t a bad effort at all. Perhaps those d-pairings could become even stronger if they had a few games to skate together. But if the lines above are correct, we’re not going to find out.

Why are Legwand and Erat back together? Less than a week ago, everyone was screaming for them to be split apart. Has something drastically changed since then? And why are we putting our leading scorer on the third line? Will he be a bust again this year if he suddenly quits producing?

There appear to be far too many changes simply for the sake of change. Maybe Dirk’s point about new linemates focussing on basics is valid, but it certainly hasn’t worked up to this point.

by Lil cutie on Oct 21, 2009 6:15 PM EDT up reply actions

Dirk, sorry I couldn’t give you a better idea what the lines were going to look like. They could look something like this:

Marco Sturm – Patrice Bergeron – Michael Ryder
Vladimir Sobotka – David Krejci – Blake Wheeler
Daniel Paille – Trent Whitfield – Mark Recchi
Brad Marchand – Steve Begin – Byron Bitz

Zdeno Chara – Derek Morris
Andrew Ference – Dennis Wideman
Mark Stuart – Matt Hunwick

Tim Thomas
Tuukka Rask

Hopefully, we will see a good game between the Providence Bruins and Milwaukee Admirals tonight.

P.S. There is nothing wrong with being a vulgar Yankee

Stanley Cup of Chowder: A Hearty Serving of Hockey in The Hub

by Stanley Cup of Chowder on Oct 21, 2009 6:05 PM EDT reply actions