Game Day: Preds at Capitals Preview

After what has turned into an 11-day hiatus, the Nashville Predators are set to play a game once more, and they'll do so tonight in Washington D.C. against the Capitals at Capital One Arena (6 p.m. CT). This evening's contest marks the first of two meetings between the clubs this season and the first time former Predators Head Coach Peter Laviolette - now behind the bench in Washington - has faced the Preds since departing in January of 2020.
Nashville extended their win streak to seven games during their last outing which came all the way back on Dec. 17 in Chicago, a 3-2 overtime win against the Blackhawks. Already dealing with a number of players and coaches on the NHL's COVID-19 list at that time, the Preds were eventually shut down prior to the entire League beginning the holiday break early.

After Monday's scheduled contest in Dallas was postponed - a League-wide decision was made to pause all games on Dec. 27 - the Preds have now had six games postponed on the season, but their schedule is set to resume this evening.
Following Monday's practice, the Predators provided a number of player status updates regarding their roster: Ryan Johansen, Mikael Granlund, Nick Cousins, Philip Tomasino, Mark Borowiecki and Ben Harpur have been added to the active roster; Mathieu Olivier, Michael McCarron and Matt Luff were added to the taxi squad; while Roman Josi, Colton Sissons and Tommy Novak were placed on the NHL's COVID-19 protocol list.
Additionally, Preds Head Coach John Hynes - as well as assistants Todd Richards, Dan Lambert and Dan Hinote, plus Goaltending Coach Ben Vanderklok - were all back at Monday's practice after returning from the COVID list.
As Hynes said Monday, there are still "a lot of moving parts" at the moment, but no matter who is available, the Predators have turned their focus to facing an opponent with one of the best records in the NHL.
"We've played a lot of good hockey here, and our team has shown a lot of mental freshness the last couple days in practice," Hynes said. "To the players' credit, I think one of the things we do talk about is just controlling what we can control. The guys did have a good break - there are certain guys that are at different points - and as I said, there's a lot of moving parts as far as who's ready and who's not ready coming through. But what we talk with our group about it's not who's out, it's about the players that are in and making sure that we're physically ready to play and mentally ready to play, and I think the guys have done a good job of trying to control what we can control. That's been our focus."
The Preds made another move on Tuesday afternoon as they recalled Olivier from the taxi squad and reassigned forward Cody Glass to Milwaukee.

The Good Guys:

Despite the loss of a number of players and coaches due to COVID protocols, the Preds were victorious as they swept their back-to-back set against Colorado and Chicago almost two weeks ago. That most recent outing saw Tanner Jeannot score the OT winner in a 3-2 triumph over the Blackhawks after Novak and Sissons - who are both now on the COVID protocol list - tallied in regulation.
Josi, who is also on the COVID protocol list, is Nashville's leading scorer, but Granlund is next up with 22 assists and 27 points for the Preds. Matt Duchene has 13 goals and 25 points on the season. Ryan Johansen (8g-16a) has 24 points, and Filip Forsberg has 13 goals and 22 points in just 21 games. Juuse Saros is 15-8-1 in net; David Rittich is 3-1-0 on the season.

The Opposition:

Laviolette and the Capitals also have a number of players on the COVID-19 protocol list, and they last played on Dec. 19, a 3-2 loss to Los Angeles. Alex Ovechkin leads the Caps with 22 goals and 47 points, followed by Evgeny Kuznetsov (9g-21a) with 30 points and John Carlson (6g-20a) with 26 points. Ilya Samsonov is 11-2-2 in net for Washington; Vitek Vanecek is 6-4-5 on the season.

All-Time Meetings:

The Predators are 17-9-(1)-4 all-time against the Capitals, including a 7-6-(0)-2 record on the road. Nashville and Washington last met on Jan. 29, 2020, a 5-4 victory for the Predators that featured goals from Mikael Granlund and Ryan Johansen.
Nashville is on an eight-game win streak against Washington that dates back to Feb. 25, 2017. In their past 13 meetings, the Preds are 11-2-0 vs. the Caps and have scored at least five goals in six of those games.
The Predators have won four in a row and five of their last six contests in our nation's capital. Nashville's last loss to Washington on the road came on March 18, 2016. Nashville has scored a combined 15 goals in its last three games on the road in Washington.

Notables Versus Washington:

Filip Forsberg has 15 points (7g-8a) in 11 career games against the team that drafted him 11th overall in the 2012 NHL Draft. Forsberg was acquired from Washington for Martin Erat and Michael Latta on April 3, 2013.
Ryan Johansen has tallied more than a point per game against the Capitals in his career, registering 25 points (9g-16a) in 22 career contests. He's recorded five consecutive multi-point outings vs. Washington dating back to April 5, 2018.
This will be Nashville's first time facing Peter Laviolette in his current role as Washington head coach. Laviolette spent parts of six seasons as head coach of the Predators from 2014-20, going 248-143-60 in 451 games. Capitals Assistant Coach Kevin McCarthy also served in the same position with the Predators on Laviolette's staff. Capitals defenseman Matt Irwin spent parts of four seasons with the Predators from 2016-20, tallying 31 points (6g-25a) in 195 games.

Watch & Listen:

Coverage for tonight's 6 p.m. CT puck drop from Washington begins at 5:30 p.m. CT with the Predators Live! pregame show on Bally Sports South. Willy Daunic, Chris Mason and Lyndsay Rowley have the call on the television side, while Pete Weber and Hal Gill will broadcast on 102.5 The Game and the Predators Radio Network. Pregame coverage on the radio begins at 5 p.m. with Darren McFarland. For broadcast information and channel locations throughout the country,
click here
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