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The Week Ahead For The Nashville Predators

By Dirk Hoag
The Winnipeg Jets make their first regular season visit to Nashville on Saturday.
The Winnipeg Jets make their first regular season visit to Nashville on Saturday.

As the Nashville Predators continue their pursuit of the Detroit Red Wings for 4th place in the Western Conference standings (and home-ice advantage in the first round of the playoffs), they can look forward to a wide variety of opponents this week...

Only 5 more home games left... take the OTF Discount and save on tickets!

Sunday @ Anaheim

Tonight the Preds skate at Anaheim, in a game which begins just 21.5 hours after the opening faceoff against Los Angeles last night. Even though Nashville had beaten the Ducks in all three meetings this season, those tired legs could make this an especially difficult matchup tonight.

You know who never seems to get tired legs? This ageless wonder, who leads the Ducks in scoring...

Teemu Selanne

#8 / Right Wing / Anaheim Ducks

6-0

196

Jul 03, 1970

GP G A P +/- PIM PPG SHG GWG
SOG PCT
2011 - Teemu Selanne 72 23 39 62 +7 48 11 0 3 190 12.1

Tuesday vs. Edmonton

Even though the Oilers are the most consistently awful team in the NHL over the last few seasons, they seem to give the Predators a tough time, and this season is now exception (Nashville is 1-2-0 against Edmonton so far). It doesn't look likely that we'll see Taylor Hall skate at Bridgestone, however, after he took a big hit against Calgary Thursday night.

Taylor Hall

#4 / Left Wing / Edmonton Oilers

6-1

194

Nov 14, 1991

GP G A P +/- PIM PPG SHG GWG
SOG PCT
2011 - Taylor Hall 61 27 26 53 -3 36 13 0 7 207 13.0

Thursday @ Pittsburgh

The Penguins are the hottest team in the NHL, having won 11 straight before getting stopped in overtime by Philadelphia this afternoon. Sidney Crosby is back and picking up points once again (5 assists in 3 games), and this will be our chance to check out Steve Sullivan against his former teammates. It sure seems like he made a good choice in free agency last summer:

Steve Sullivan

#26 / Left Wing / Pittsburgh Penguins

5-8

161

Jul 06, 1974

GP G A P +/- PIM PPG SHG GWG
SOG PCT
2011 - Steve Sullivan 70 14 25 39 -2 16 5 0 0 121 11.6

Saturday vs. Winnipeg

The Preds close out the week with an early start (6:00 p.m.) at Bridgestone Arena, as this game will be part of Hockey Night in Canada's broadcast. It will be shown in Manitoba, so you can bet that the Preds with roots there like Barry Trotz and Jordin Tootoo will want to put forth a special effort for the folks back up there.

The Jets are an intriguing team, as they're fighting for one of the final Eastern Conference playoff spots, and have a budding young power forward in Evander Kane, who is working towards his first 30-goal season.

Evander Kane

#9 / Center / Winnipeg Jets

6-2

195

Aug 02, 1991

GP G A P +/- PIM PPG SHG GWG
SOG PCT
2011 - Evander Kane 63 28 22 50 +13 45 6 0 4 248 11.3

Can the Predators hit their stride against this mix of East & West, playoff contenders and teams playing out the string?