Predators Preview: Nashville at Carolina

by Dirk Hoag on Sep 24, 2010 7:48 AM EDT in Nashville Predators Game Previews

Jonathon Blum will get another crack at preseason action tonight at Carolina.

The Nashville Predators will have a quick chance to avenge last night's 3-1 loss at Bridgestone Arena, by heading to Carolina tonight for a rematch with the Hurricanes. Some familiar faces will take to the ice again for Nashville, although about half the roster will make their preseason debut.

Let's take a look after the jump...

Nashville

The Preds have released the 20-man roster for tonight's game:

POS.	NO.	PLAYER	HT	WT	SH	Place of Birth	Birthdate
D	2	Aaron Johnson	6-1	205	L	Port Hawkesbury, N.S.	4/30/1983
D	7	Jonathon Blum	6-1	193	R	Long Beach, Calif.	1/30/1989
D	8	Kevin Klein	6-1	201	R	Kitchener, Ont.	12/13/1984
RW	10	Martin Erat	6-0	201	L	Trebic, Czech Rep.	8/29/1981
C	11	David Legwand	6-2	205	L	Detroit, Mich.	8/17/1980
LW	12	Andreas Thuresson	6-1	215	R	Kristianstad, Sweden	11/18/1987
C	13	Nick Spaling	6-1	196	L	Palmerston, Ont.	9/19/1988
C	16	Cal O'Reilly	6-0	188	L	Toronto, Ont.	9/30/1986
D	20	Ryan Suter	6-1	195	L	Madison, Wis.	1/21/1985
C	21	Jamie Lundmark	6-0	190	R	Edmonton, Alta.	1/16/1981
RW	22	Jordin Tootoo	5-9	199	R	Churchill, Man.	2/2/1983
RW	24	Matt Halischuk	6-0	186	R	Toronto, Ont.	6/1/1988
LW	28	Jonas Andersson	6-3	210	L	Stockholm, Sweden	2/24/1981
RW	29	Joel Ward	6-1	225	R	Toronto, Ont.	12/2/1980
D	32	Teemu Laakso	6-1	215	R	Tuusula, Finland	8/27/1987
RW	33	Colin Wilson	6-1	217	L	Greenwich, Conn.	10/20/1989
RW	45	Ryan Flynn	6-3	209	R	St. Paul, Minn.	3/22/1988
D	51	Francis Bouillon	5-8	197	L	New York, N.Y.	10/17/1975

NO.		GOALTENDER	HT	WT	SH	Place of Birth	Birthdate
31		Mark Dekanich	6-2	190	L	North Vancouver, B.C.	5/10/1986
39		Anders Lindback	6-6	205	L	Gavle, Sweden	5/3/1988

It's interesting to see how many guys we'll see playing in back-to-back games, including Mark Dekanich (who will presumably split the game 50/50 with Anders Lindback), Jonas Andersson, and Jonathon Blum.

A few veterans will make their preseason debut such as Martin Erat, Ryan Suter, David Legwand, and Joel Ward. It will be interesting to see if Kevin Klein and Francis Bouillon are paired on defense. They would be considered the incumbents to fill Nashville's 2nd D-pair, and if that's going to be the case, getting them as much game action together during the preseason would make sense.

I would also be very interested to see how Aaron Johnson performs, as he's in the thick of a battle for a final roster spot, but as of right now I don't see any audio or video available for tonight's contest.

Carolina

They haven't released their roster for tonight's game yet, but I'll plug that in once I see it. The folks at Canes Country were just happy to see their squad get a preseason win. I wouldn't be surprised to see their #1 goalie Cam Ward suit up for this one.

UPDATE: The Hurricanes have posted their lineup for tonight's game, but more importantly, they'll have a live video stream available! Head to Hurricanes.NHL.com at game time for the link...

Boychuk – Sutter – Kennedy
Jokinen – Skinner – LaRose
Bowman – Nash - Kostopoulos
O’Sullivan – Matsumoto - Blanchard

Gleason – Babchuk

Harrison – Carson

Sanguinetti – Rodney

Pogge

Murphy

Prediction

Hey, I'm not going to compete with Chris' dead-on prediction for last night's game!

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Comments

Last night, they announced on the pregame (radio from the Canes) that Justin Pogge would be in goal for a full 60 minutes. Canes have a 3rd in three nights Saturday in Atlanta; likely Ward will start that game. Other than that expect to see Jeff Skinner, Chad LaRose, and Joni Pitkanen tonight.

Twitter @HMof2

by Carolyn Christians on Sep 24, 2010 8:36 AM EDT reply actions