Predators vs. Penguins Game 3 Projected Lineups

Well, here we are. It’s do or die time.

The Preds will need to have their best effort on the ice tonight. The only question, will they have their best players on the ice? Peter Laviolette was, um, rather terse at his press conference this morning, so we turn to the Twitter experts for some thoughts.

According to Tom Gulitti with NHL.com, we could see Harry Zolnierczyk and P.A. Parenteau in the lineup, possibly replacing Cody McLeod and Vernon Fiddler.

Who knows!?

Elsewhere, even though Colin Wilson skated this morning, there is speculation that he still won’t play.

So how might this affect the lineup tonight? Harry Z last played in Game 3 of the Western Conference Final, logging only 6:12 TOI in that game. Parenteau last played in Game 4 of that series, logging only 7:44 TOI.

Here’s my take on how this might shake out.

Forwards

Pontus Aberg — Colton Sissons— Filip Forsberg

Viktor Arvidsson —Mike Fisher — James Neal

Austin Watson — Calle Jarnkrok — Craig Smith

Harry Zolnierczyk — Frederick Gaudreau — P.A. Parenteau

Defense

Roman Josi — Ryan Ellis

Mattias Ekholm — P.K. Subban

Matt Irwin — Yannick Weber

Goalie

Pekka Rinne*

*You can count on this happening.

For the Penguins, Nick Bonino has been hobbling around on crutches all morning, so I’d say he is out. Jason Mackey of the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette mentioned that Oskar Sundqvist and Josh Archibald participated in morning skate this morning, so I’d say one of them is likely to take Bonino’s place.

The Penguins lines at practice yesterday sans Bonino looked quite different. Here’s an idea of what we might see (this is assuming that Carl Hagelin is still healthy scratched, which remains a mystery).

Forwards

Jake Guentzel — Sidney Crosby — Bryan Rust

Chris Kunitz — Evgeni Malkin — Phil Kessel

Scott Wilson — Carter Rowney — Conor Sheary

Josh Archibald — Matt Cullen — Patric Hornqvist

Defense

Trevor Daley — Olli Maatta

Brian Dumoulin — Ron Hainsey

Ian Cole — Justin Schultz

Goalie

Matt Murray