The Nashville Predators head west to face the Vancouver Canucks tonight in a game that sure will involve hockey players skating around on the ice. The Canucks and the Preds are both in the process of rebuilding, and the Canucks have not had a great season thus far.
Elias Pettersson is having a phenomenal season, with a team-leading 78 points and 29 goals. Quinn Hughes, the assists leader, has 54. J.T. Miller and Andrei Kuzmenko are both significant scoring threats. But the team around them has mostly struggled, with key players leaving in trade and both Thatcher Demko and Collin Delia having a tough time in goal.
Philip Tomasino left Saturday night’s game with an injury, and we can only hope he’ll be fully recovered soon. As for the rest of the youth movement, Evangelista continues to impress, leading the Preds in individual expected goals at 5v5 on Saturday and posting a 61% xG share while on the ice. Rasmus Asplund also made it into the top three in ixG, and Tommy Novak and John Leonard both impressed in xG share as well. I’m really enjoying getting to see Evangelista, and Novak’s performance has been a great story the last few weeks.
How to Watch
The game airs at 9:30 Central/10:30 Eastern on Bally Sports South and 102.5 The Game.
Statistics quoted are from naturalstattrick.com.