The Nashville Predators travel to Detroit this evening to take on the Red Wings in a matchup of two teams with no momentum coming out of the holiday break. Join us for this game preview as well as the game thread below!
Detroit Redwings (16-15-4, 36 points)
The Red Wings aren’t having the renaissance season many thought they would have, currently sitting 5th in the Atlantic Division, and 6th in the wild card race (but only 3 points behind the Capitals who have the final Wild Card spot in the East). However, things haven’t looked great so far – since former Chicago star Patrick Kane’s 11 games since joining the team, Detroit is just 2-8-1 (22.7% points percentage) – much worse than the 14-7-3 (65.9% points percentage) record before Kane became a Red Wing. Their only win in that time was one week ago in a shootout win over Philadelphia. Despite that, Kane leads all skaters on both teams with 5 goals and 9 points in the last 5 games.
Alex DeBrincat continues to have a good year for Detroit, despite the team struggles, posting 16 goals and 34 points (including 7 power play goals). In the net, goaltender Alex Lyon (4-3-0) returns from missing five games with an injury and is expected to get the start.
Detroit Players to Watch
Rookies F Lucas Raymond and D Moritz Sieder are incredibly exciting young players that will likely be a cornerstone of the Detroit franchise far into the future. Raymond has 10 goals and 26 points on the season, which are both good for 3rd on the team. Defenseman Moritz Sieder has just five goals, but sits tied for 4th with 22 points. Look for them to be pivotal players – especially to supplement Kane and Debrincat.
Nashville Predators (19-16-0, 38 points)
Nashville enters the contest at 5th in the Central Division and in the final Western Conference Wild Card spot. While the Predators have gone 7-4-0 in the last 11 games, they have lost three of the last four. Two were blowouts of 5-2 at the hands of Vancouver last Tuesday and Carolina on Wednesday, but neither might sting as much as the all-out collapse last Saturday where they surrendered a 2-1 lead with just 18 seconds left and lost 3-2 to the Dallas Stars.
Nashville has shown no momentum entering or exiting the holiday break, and they’ll need to find their rhythm against Detroit before traveling to the Washington Capitals exactly 24 hours later. Filip Forsberg (16-22-38 – all rank first among Predators) will need to perform, as well as his linemate Ryan O’Reilly (14-15-29) who boasts an incredible 9 power play goals on the season so far, which is tied for the NHL lead.
Yakov Trenin (healthy scratch) and Tyson Barrie (injury) look to be out of the lineup, so the bottom six will need some standouts – including Philip Tomasino who has three goals in the last five games, which leads all Predators.
Nashville Player to Watch
With backup goaltender Kevin Lankinen missing last game against Carolina with an illness, Predators rookie G Yaroslav Askarov was called up from Milwaukee, and ended up coming in relief of Juuse Saros, who was pulled after allowing five goals in the first two periods. Askarov held his own against a relaxed Carolina offense, playing 16:40, facing six shots and allowing no goals, but it’s likely that the goaltender of the future Askarov will be in the starters crease tonight – and with Detroit among the large group of teams who are looking for goaltending help, all eyes will be on the young star – not just those here in Music City.
How to Watch
Puck drop at Little Caeser’s Arena is at 6 pm Central time, and can be found on Bally Sports on TV, and 102.5 The Game on the radio.