Jacob Chychrun has been freed—from the bench and from the team—but the Arizona Coyotes are still collecting futures. The Nashville Predators head south to face them tonight.
Shayne Gostisbehere has also been traded, but otherwise not much has changed in Arizona since the last time these two teams met, with Clayton Keller, Nick Schmaltz, and Lawson Crouse contributing the bulk of the team’s scoring.
Luke Evangelista continues to impress for Nashville. In Monday night’s road game against the Vancouver Canucks he not only scored two goals and got the Preds’ only real chance on the power play, but he did so while putting up an 83% expected goal share at 5v5 (according to Natural Stat Trick). To some extent that’s probably to do with his usage, but he’s been doing great with what he’s getting, and he’s been a lot of fun to watch.
Tommy Novak and Rasmus Asplund also did a great job with expected goal share last game, while Kiefer Sherwood contributed an assist. The Preds’ more established core struggled to score, and Evangelista and Michael McCarron led the team in individual expected goals at 5v5, but even the newcomers were able to keep the Preds in the game. Mark Jankowski and Yakov Trenin were also good on the penalty kill.
How to Watch
The game airs at 8PM Central/9PM Eastern on Bally Sports South and 102.5 The Game.