Tonight's battle will be a doozy, and since I suspect many of you are going to the game tonight, I'll open the thread here a little early to allow for pre-game discussion. As always, here's some material to chew on:

First up, check out the pre-game report.

John Glennon's afternoon update confirms that Ryan Jones won't play, but at least Jason Arnott is making progress in his recovery. As always with concussions, however, it's hard to say when he'll be able to return.

The View from 111 sets the playoff-style atmosphere for tonight. The OOrange County Register talks about how confident the Ducks are coming in.

Interested in the NCAA hockey tournament which starts in just a few days (featuring Preds prospect Colin Wilson with #1 Boston University)? Head over to the Western College Hockey Blog and fill out a bracket, then!

The Predators' "Hockey Memories" series continues with Dan Hamhuis. Talk about a small hockey world - when he went with this youth team to a tournament one year, Cody Franson was his team's stickboy, and Shea Weber was stickboy for one of the other teams!

And sure... there are lots of Preds banged up tonight, but Radek Bonk is ready to go! Are you???

He's baaaaack...