The winless Preds try again to pick up even a single standings point in tonight’s matchup against the Boston Bruins, who are 3-2-1 so far this season.
The Boston Bruins
Losing Linus Ullmark has done a number on Boston’s crease, with Jeremy Swayman turning in atypically mortal performances in his four starts so far and Joonas Korpisalo struggling a little as backup. Still, the Bruins have more than enough firepower to win games with merely slightly-above-average goaltending from their starter.
Cole Koepke has surprised by leading the team in points with six, and the Bruins are still getting regular contributions from up and down the roster. David Pastrňák is their goalscoring leader with four.
Boston’s power play has been unlucky, while its penalty kill remains excellent–good news for them, since Nikita Zadorov leads the league in PIM so far this season, having racked up 19 in just six games.
The Nashville Predators
The Preds so far are doing a lot of things right and getting absolutely no breaks. The expected goals model at HockeyViz has Nashville above even in threat share — that is, they’re generating more on offense (though still below league average) than they are giving up on defense — but they’ve had bad shooting luck and bad goaltending or goaltending luck.
Filip Forsberg leads the team in points with five and is tied with Tommy Novak for the goalscoring lead at two. Even-strength scoring has really been a struggle for the Preds. They have ten goals on the season, which is only a little more than half of league average. Three of those goals have come on the power play, which is only barely below par.
How to Watch
The game airs at 7:45 PM (?!) Central on the network formerly known as Bally Sports South and now known as FanDuel Sports Network South, and on 102.5 The Game.