Phoenix Coyotes blog: Five For Howling
Somebody bring some cake, as tonight marks the 800th game in Nashville Predators history. The team sports an all-time record of 353-336-110. And oh yeah, You-Know-Who is going to be in attendance tonight. The two teams have each gone 1-1-0 in the two meetings between them so far this season, but appear to be headed in different directions these days.
Questions to be answered: (1) Can the Nashville offense build upon the four-goal effort in the third period against Chicago on Tuesday? (2) Will Ville Koistinen play on the wing again in favor of Ryan Jones? (3) Will the Sullivan-Arnott-Dumont line be featured, or will the line juggling continue?
Coyotes coming in: Tuesday night Phoenix lost 2-1 on the road in St. Louis, giving up a shorthanded goal in the 2nd period for the game winner. Since the All-Star break, the Yotes have gone 3-10-0, which has dropped them all the way down to 14th in the Western Conference.
Predators coming in: In their last game the Preds scored a huge 5-3 comeback victory over the Chicago Blackhawks at home, giving Nashville 17 points in 13 games so far this month.
Coyotes to watch: Phoenix captain Shane Doan continues to lead the way for his team; coming into this contest, he has 2G and 2A in his last 5. The mercurial Olli Jokinen, who, after having been acquired by Phoenix just last summer is already being rumored as trade bait, had a hat-trick in Los Angeles Saturday night.
Preds to watch: Steve Sullivan has four points (3 goals, 1 assist) in his last 4 games and may well be heating up. During the month of February, Pekka Rinne boasts a 7-2 record, 1.96 GAA and .937 save percentage.
Some seats are still available, so if you want to catch the game, you can use the special offer code "predators" via this link for discounted tickets.
You can also check out another pre-game preview over at Preds On the Glass.