The Stats
| Nashville Predators | Calgary Flames | |||
| Record | 29-31-10 | 24th | 28-34-7 | 26th |
| GF/Game | 2.34 | 28th | 2.36 | 26th |
| GA/Game | 2.87 | 22nd | 2.90 | 24th |
| 5-on-5 Close SF/60 | 29.9 | 13th | 26.1 | 28th |
| 5-on-5 Close SA/60 | 27.1 | 4th | 28.1 | 11th |
| Fenwick Close | 50.90 | 13th | 47.40 | 26th |
| 5-on-5 Close Save % | .909 | 26th | .912 | 24th |
| 5-on-4 GF/60 | 6.3 | 13th | 5.6 | 19th |
| # of PP’s/Gm | 3.04 | 28th | 3.12 | 24th |
| 4-on-5 GA/60 | 6.9 | 25th | 5.8 | 13th |
| # of PK’s/Gm | 2.99 | 3rd | 3.03 | 4th |
Calgary Flames
Who cares? They stink and they’re not even interesting like the Oilers.
Nashville Predators
Yes, they’ve stunk too lately, but tonight we get a chance to watch Calle Jarnkrok make his NHL debut, and that’s worth paying attention to.
Nashville Predators call up player with coolest name in hockey – Calle Jarnkrok – translates to “Iron Hook”. Good luck topping that.
— Jeff Marek (@JeffMarek) March 20, 2014
From a competitive standpoint, the Flames stand right behind Nashville in the overall league standings, five points back but with a game in hand. Calgary is on track for the 5th overall draft pick this summer, and realistically they’re the only team with even a glimmer of a chance of passing the Predators and moving them up the board.
It’s not all bad news for the Predators this season, though. Yesterday Puck Daddy gave some credit to Craig Smith for his remarkable rebound, Shea Weber has had an outstanding season and we’ve seen plenty to get excited about in terms of Seth Jones‘ future.
For this evening, however, it’s all about Jarnkrok, who joined Filip Forsberg as the organization’s top offensive prospects when he came over from Detroit via trade two weeks ago. We all know the Preds need an injection of talent up front, and David Poile has a poor track record of bringing in proven talent via free agency – so right now, kids like Jarnkrok and Forsberg represent our best chance of seeing bona fide scoring stars playing for the Predators any time soon.
So until tonight’s 8:00 p.m. Central start, head over to visit our friends at Matchsticks & Gasoline and enjoy some Iron Hook highlights…