The Nashville Predators are third in the Central Division standings, one point ahead of the St. Louis Blues, who play at home against the Arizona Coyotes on Monday. The Predators have won three in a row and six of their past seven games (6-1-0). They are coming off of a 7-2 win against the San Jose Sharks on Saturday. This is the first game of a road back-to-back for the Predators, who also play at the Boston Bruins on Tuesday. The Bruins and New York Islanders are battling for Stanley Cup Playoff position in the Eastern Conference, so coach Peter Laviolette said matching the urgency of the Islanders will be key, especially considering they are in good position to make the playoffs while the Islanders are in a battle. "Urgency can easily be a determining factor in a hockey game," Laviolette said. "It's a good test for us. We're coming off a big win against San Jose. It would be like winning Game 1 in Round 1 and right away you're at a disadvantage in Game 2. Everybody thinks you have the momentum and that's a disadvantage. It's the urgency. Unless you have a group that recognizes it and can out-compete a team that is competing at the absolute highest and out-execute a team that wants to execute because it means so much, those are the things that will decide the game tonight and you know that theirs is going to be excellent. So now we know how they're going to play. So are we going to play better than them?"
