The Nashville Predators host their Central Division rivals–no, the other rivals–no, the other other rivals–no, the–
The Preds host a fellow Central Division team on this Leap Day. The Minnesota Wild have had a great recent stretch of play, propelling themselves back into the playoff conversation with a 7-2-1 record since the All-Star break.
Kirill Kaprizov is having a fantastic season, putting up 26 goals and 37 assists for a team-leading 63 points, but he doesn’t actually lead in either subcategory: that would be Joel Eriksson Ek (28G, 54P) and Mats Zuccarello (39A, 50P). Matt Boldy has been another regular contributor, and then there’s another bit of a drop from the top four to the rest of the team.
Kaprizov, Boldy, and Eriksson Ek have also been offensive standouts on a team that’s really struggled with 5v5 offense. While their power play is a heavy-hitting threat, the Wild have had a hard time getting to the front of the net at even strength, and they haven’t been outscoring their chances much at any strength.
Defensively, they’ve been better, at least at 5v5–their penalty kill has had a rough time–, but their goaltending hasn’t made the most of its chances. Filip Gustavsson and Marc-André Fleury are both hovering a little below a .900 sv% on the season, with Gustavsson managing a .896 and Fleury a .899.
The game will air at 7PM Central on Bally Sports South and 102.5 The Game.
Statistics from naturalstattrick.com. Additional background from hockeyviz.com.