Preds at Coyotes, Stanley Cup Qualifiers, Game 4: What You Need to Know

The first elimination game of the postseason has arrived for the Predators.

Game 4 between the Preds and the Arizona Coyotes comes this afternoon at 1:30 p.m. (CT) from Edmonton (Watch: FOX Sports Tennessee, NHL Network; Listen: 102.5 The Game). Facing a 2-1 deficit in the best-of-five series, Nashville must win to extend their stay in the bubble.

The Predators are well aware of that fact, of course, and they're embracing the challenge laid out before them. Despite trailing in the series, the group believes they've done plenty of good things, including in a 4-1 loss in Game 3. Now, it's about trusting the process while making small tweaks and improvements to find a victory and force a fifth and deciding contest.

"[When you don't win, the challenge is to] stick with what we're doing and not veer off course, so I think we've done a pretty good job of that this series," Preds forward Austin Watson said. "It's a big topic for us just to stick with doing what we're doing. If you look at the numbers throughout the series, we're playing really good hockey right now. If we continue to do that, we'll give ourselves a chance to win the game."

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[Read More: Preds Projected Lineup at Coyotes]

Predators Head Coach John Hynes said as of Thursday afternoon, the team had not made a decision as to who would start in net in Game 4. Goaltender Juuse Saros has gotten the nod in Nashville's previous three games in the series.

Hynes also said he and his staff would discuss potential tweaks and changes to the lineup for Game 4; the Preds have iced the same collection of personnel in the series to this point.

"It's a little bit harder to make changes [when you've played well]," Hynes said. "It doesn't mean that we're not going to make changes - you might insert a guy or two into the lineup, that's a possibility - but it's a hard decision when your team has played well. I think the other part is… you might not make lineup changes, but you may adjust the pieces that are in the lineup, which could be a couple line combinations… so that's the process you go through. We talked about it after [Game 3], we've talked about it [Thursday]…and we're going to have to make some decisions. But I don't think any of them will be necessarily easy."

Last Time Out:

Viktor Arvidsson scored the lone goal for Nashville during Wednesday's 4-1 loss in Game 3. Juuse Saros made 24 saves in the loss. Defenseman Ryan Ellis skated 28:46, a game high and career high for time on ice in a regulation postseason game.

Ryan Johansen leads the Preds with four points in the qualifying round, Filip Forsberg and Roman Josi have three points apiece and Arvidsson has two. Both Forsberg and Arvidsson have two goals each; Johansen, Nick Bonino, Ellis and Calle Jarnkrok have also tallied.

The Opposition:

Taylor Hall leads the Coyotes with four points through three games against the Preds; Christian Dvorak, Clayton Keller, Phil Kessel and Derek Stepan have three points apiece. Dvorak and Keller have each tallied twice for Arizona. Darcy Kuemper has started all three games in the series and owns a .928 save percentage on 111 shots for the Preds.

JoFA Line Pacing the Preds:

Nashville's top line of Filip Forsberg, Ryan Johansen and Viktor Arvidsson has produced a combined nine points (5g-4a) through the first three games of the Qualifying Round versus Arizona.

Johansen became the second player in Preds playoff history to record at least 40 points (14g-17a). He sits second on Nashville's all-time playoff points list to Forsberg, who has 47 (25g-22a). Johansen enters Game 4 on a three-game point streak, tied for the third longest of his postseason career (best: six games, April 29 to May 10, 2018).

Arvidsson scored in both Game 2 and Game 3, giving him goals in consecutive postseason games for the first time in his career.

Forsberg recorded his fifth career multi-goal playoff performance in Sunday's Game 1. Forsberg also became the first player in Predators history to score at least two power-play goals in a postseason game. His five multi-goal postseason games are the most in Nashville history; J-P Dumont sits second with three.

In 34:58 of ice time together at 5-on-5, the trio owns a shot attempts percentage of 72.2, has outscored their opponents 3-1 and has generated 12 high-danger scoring chances compared to five against. Among all NHL postseason skaters with at least 30 minutes of ice time, Forsberg (70.6), Arvidsson (70.3) and Johansen (69.5) are first, second and third, respectively, in shot attempts percentage.

Watch & Listen:

Coverage for this afternoon's contest from Edmonton begins on FOX Sports Tennessee with Predators Live at 1 p.m. CT. Willy Daunic, Chris Mason, Lyndsay Rowley and Kara Hammer 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 12:30 p.m. with Darren McFarland. The game may also be seen on NHL Network in the United States and Sportsnet in Canada. For broadcast information and channel locations throughout the country, Video: Predators Recap: Costly penalty derails Preds in loss.

Streaming Info:

Video: Predators Recap: Costly penalty derails Preds in loss (only active during the game broadcast window).

Video: Predators Recap: Costly penalty derails Preds in loss on the Fox Sports Go App or Video: Predators Recap: Costly penalty derails Preds in loss