After a pair of exciting wins in the New York metropolitan area, the Nashville Predators look to complete the trifecta tonight against the New York Rangers.
The Nashville Predators
The Preds were without Matt Duchene and Colton Sissons for Friday’s win, a game which found Mikael Granlund a goal short of a Gordie Howe hat trick (as he fought with the New Jersey Devils’ Nico Hischier) and saw Roman Josi add a goal and assist to tie Granlund for the team lead in points again. Eeli Tolvanen’s goal, his fourth this week, was another encouraging sign for the young forward.
Duchene and Sissons are day-to-day and their status for tonight is still unknown. We should likely expect to see Juuse Saros in net again.
The New York Rangers
The Rangers are having a good year. They beat the Preds in their earlier meeting, but have had the kind of season (with an 18-5-3 record to date) where that’s nothing to be ashamed of.
Artemi Panarin, unsurprisingly, leads the team in points with 32, but still falls one short of defender Adam Fox for the assists lead, with 23 to Fox’s 24. Chris Kreider has the goals lead by a mile, having notched 17 already (Panarin, the next-closest again, has 9).
Igor Shesterkin, who has a stellar .937 sv% on the season, has been on injured reserve for just over a week and may be expected to return tonight. If he isn’t able to, the Preds will face Alexandar Georgiev (.896 sv%).
How to Watch
The game starts at 6PM Central and will air on Bally Sports South and 102.5 The Game.