After snapping their eight game winning streak with an overtime loss against Montreal, the Nashville Predators face off tonight against the Buffalo Sabres with both teams bringing in lineups affected by tomorrow’s trade deadline.
Nashville Predators
The Predators come into tonight’s matchup without recently-departed Yakov Trenin, who was sent to Colorado earlier today. Although new acquisitions Anthony Beauvillier and Jaret Anderson-Dolan are technically on the roster, it’s likely neither will play tonight – so we’ll probably see Kiefer Sherwood back in the lineup tonight.
The Predators are still riding a nine-game point streak, mostly due to the reigning NHL First Star of the Week Roman Josi. Josi leads all players in the matchup with four goals and eight points in the last five games for Nashville, while Filip Forsberg (three goals, seven points) and Gustav Nyquist (three goals, eight points) hope to keep the top-line scoring.
The defense corps (for the moment) remains unchanged, so unless trade talks involving Tyson Barrie or Alex Carrier are near completion, we’ll likely see the same six blue-liners as last game.
Juuse Saros will likely be in net tonight, and he’s won four of the last five starts. Aside from the OT loss against Montreal, Saros has been incredible, averaging 28 shots against and allowing only 1.8 goals against in the last five games (without the loss to the Canadiens, Saros had only allowed four goals in the prior four games).
Buffalo Sabres
Buffalo enters the matchup just barely over 0.500, as the team has not lived up to preseason hype. Yesterday, the Sabres traded veteran Casey Mittelstadt to Colorado – he had been with the Sabres since the 2017 season – but in return, got a dynamic defender in Bowen Byram.
Entering tonight, Buffalo has a two-game losing streak, where they also lost their previous game (vs Toronto) in overtime. The Sabres have won six of their last ten games, getting 11 points out of a possible 20.
Likely to start in net is goaltender Ukko-Pekka Luukkonen, who has seen a bit of a resurgence of late. Luukkonen has won six of his last ten starts, and is just below his career high in save percentage with a 0.914. The Sabres also boast two 20-goal players in Jeff Skinner and JJ Peterka, and their points leader Rasmus Dahlin (46 points in 62 games) heads up what should be an improved blue-line.
How to Watch
Puck drop is at 7 pm Central, with the game being carried on Bally Sports and 102.5 The Game.