Preview: Nashville Predators vs. Dallas Stars 3/21/21: Pucks Go in Nets
Saros was stellar yesterday, but pucks need to go in the other team’s net to win a game.
Nashville Predators
Our incredible editor, Kate, has yesterday’s debacle/recap here. She had this to say about yesterday’s disaster:
“This game was brutal start to finish. Saros was great, but the rest of the team was unspeakably bad. I know the Panthers are good, but this was atrocious. The Preds got annihilated in transition every time, and the whole rink was tilted as a result. Not one Preds skater had a good game. Johansen, Carrier, and Cousins had a few plays that were fine, I guess.”
Juuse Saros was stellar yesterday against the Panthers. He stymied Sasha Barkov, Jonathan Huberdeau, and Patric Hörnqvist more than a few times. He has been very impressive in his return from a likely concussion.
The rest of the team put out a pretty horrible product. Penalty after penalty put Nashville players in the box, forcing the penalty kill unit to work their butts off.
I will add, however, that the pairing of Mattias Ekholm-Alexandre Carrier is quite, quite good.
Dallas Stars
It’s wild to me that Dallas’s top scorer is veteran Joe Pavelski; he has 14 goals and 13 assists on the season, good for 27 points. Defender John Klingberg has 5 goals and 13 assists (18 points), and youngster Roope Hintz has 8 goals and 8 assists.
While Ben Bishop remains on IR after offseason knee surgery, Jake Oettinger and Anton Khudobin have held down the net for the Stars. Oettinger hasn’t been bad for a rookie, boasting a very nice .913 Sv% over 12 games. Khudobin has a .907 Sv% over 14 games.
The Stars have been playing a ridiculous number of games over the last few weeks in order to make up for a week-ish of no practices due to Covid-19 protocol and another few games postponed after February’s ice storms.
Reasons to Watch
- Bored with NCAA action? Get some Texas-Tennessee hockey fun tonight! (Or...something)
- I really enjoy watching Alex Carrier and Mattias Ekholm skate together.
- Will Dallas wear their ridiculously bad white sweater/white pants/white socks/white gloves uniforms? Or will they wear their equally bad black and neon green uniforms?/
Tonight’s Theme Song
How to Watch
Tonight’s puck drop is at 7:30 Central. 102.5 The Game has the radio call and FS-TN will have the broadcast.