Predators at Rangers preview

PREDATORS (14-12-5) at RANGERS (16-12-4)
7 p.m. ET; ESPN+, MSG, FS-TN, NHL.TV

Panarin scored six goals during the Rangers four-game road trip last week, including a hat trick in a 6-3 win at the San Jose Sharks on Thursday. New York went 2-1-1 on the trip.
Nashville, which is starting a four-game road trip, has lost two in a row, including 4-1 to the Dallas Stars on Saturday.

Players to watch

Predators forward Filip Forsberg has four points (one goal, three assists) in the past four games.
Rangers forward Mika Zibanejad will try to become the fifth player in New York history to score at least two goals in three straight games. Jaromir Jagr was the last to do it in 2005-06.

They said it

"We have 51 (games) left to play as a team, but it's got to start right away. The last two games, at least one of those has to be a win and it wasn't. Now we've got a big road trip before Christmas and it's really important to play ourselves into a spot we want to be." -- Predators forward Matt Duchene
"If we can continue that road mentality we had against some of those good teams out west and bring that home tonight, I think we should be all right. We've got a good thing going here. We still think we can be better, but we're trending in the right direction with our play. The sign of a good team is a team that would avoid a letdown here."-- Rangers forward Ryan Strome

Predators projected lineup

Filip Forsberg -- Ryan Johansen -- Calle Jarnkrok
Kyle Turris -- Matt Duchene -- Colton Sissons
Rocco Grimaldi -- Nick Bonino -- Craig Smith
Yakov Trenin -- Colin Blackwell -- Austin Watson
Roman Josi -- Ryan Ellis
Dan Hamhuis -- Dante Fabbro
Matt Irwin -- Yannick Weber
Juuse Saros
Pekka Rinne
Scratched:None
Injured:Viktor Arvidsson (lower body), Mikael Granlund (lower body), Mattias Ekholm (illness)

Rangers projected lineup

Chris Kreider -- Mika Zibanejad -- Pavel Buchnevich
Artemi Panarin -- Ryan Strome -- Kaapo Kakko
Greg McKegg -- Filip Chytil -- Jesper Fast
Brendan Lemieux -- Brett Howden -- Brendan Smith
Brady Skjei -- Jacob Trouba
Marc Staal -- Tony DeAngelo
Ryan Lindgren -- Adam Fox
Alexandar Georgiev
Henrik Lundqvist
Scratched: Micheal Haley
Injured:Libor Hajek (knee)

Status report

Arvidsson was on the ice for Nashville's morning skate, but he will miss his 10th straight game. … Granlund joined the morning skate late and stayed on the ice for extra work with Arvidsson and Rinne. … Staal wasn't on the ice for morning skate but will play.

Stat pack

Since Nov. 7, the Predators are 5-8-3, their power play is 8.7 percent, their penalty kill is 76.4 percent, and they're allowing one more goal per game than they're scoring (3.56-2.56). … The Rangers are 14-3-3 in games they've either outscored or tied the opposition on special teams.