Game Day: Preds vs. Capitals Preview

It's time for another Saturday Night in Smashville!
The Preds earned their first Bridgestone Arena win of 2022-23 Thursday with a 6-2 rout of the St. Louis Blues, and they will look to keep the momentum going Saturday as they host the Washington Capitals. The puck drops at 7 p.m. CT, and the game will be televised on Bally Sports South.

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Line 'Em Up

Below are Nashville's lines from Thursday's game vs. St. Louis:
Forsberg - Johansen - Duchene
Granlund - Glass - Niederreiter
Trenin - Sissons - Jeannot
Smith - McCarron - Sanford
Josi - Fabbro
Ekholm - Carrier
McDonagh - Lauzon
Saros

The Good Guys

Roman Josi (1g-2a), Filip Forsberg (3a) and Matt Duchene (3a) all recorded three points in Thursday's win vs. St. Louis. Josi, who scored his first goal and notched his first multi-point outing of the season, recorded his 25th career three-point game. He trails only Erik Karlsson (36) and Victor Hedman (33) for the most such games among NHL defensemen since his debut season in 2011-12. In 2021-22, Josi led all NHL blueliners in three-point games (12).
It was Forsberg's 31st career three-point game, the most in Predators history. Thursday also marked his first multi-point outing of the season. All three of Duchene's points came in the third period, matching the franchise record for most assists in a single period. It was the 17th time in Predators history a player has recorded at least three assists in a single period.
Mikael Granlund has opened 2022-23 with six assists and seven points in his first eight games. Prior to Thursday's game vs. St. Louis, it was the 11th instance of a player in franchise history recording at least six assists in the team's first seven games of a season. The last to do so was Roman Josi in 2021-22 (6a).
Tanner Jeannot (3g-1a), Colton Sissons (3a) and Yakov Trenin (1g-2a) have combined for 10 points in Nashville's last four games. Jeannot scored for the third time in his last four games on Thursday vs. St. Louis and added an assist on Oct. 20 at Columbus. He's now tied for second on the Predators in goals with three after leading all NHL rookies in the category last season (24). Jeannot is also tied for fifth among all NHL skaters in hits (30).

The Other Guys

The Capitals enter Saturday's game with a 4-4-0 record, coming off a 2-0 shutout loss in Dallas Thursday.
Alex Ovechkin, Dylan Strome and John Carlson lead the Caps with six points apiece through their first eight games. Conor Sheary has scored a team-high four goals.

All-Time Meetings

The Predators are 27-18-(1)-4 all-time against the Capitals, including a 10-4-(1)-2 record at Bridgestone Arena. This is the first of two matchups between Nashville and Washington in 2022-23; it is the first and only at home.
Nashville went 0-2-0 vs. Washington last season, dropping both games by a combined score of 9-4.

Notables vs. Washington

• Filip Forsberg has 16 points (8g-8a) in 13 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 24 career contests. He recorded five consecutive multi-point outings vs. Washington from April 5, 2018-Jan. 29, 2020.
• Roman Josi recorded a seven-game point streak (4g-5a) against Washington from Feb. 9, 2016-Dec. 31, 2018. He has 14 points (5g-9a) in 16 career games vs. the Caps.
• Nino Niederreiter scored his first career NHL goal on Oct. 13, 2010 at Washington.
• Zach Sanford was drafted by Washington in the second round (61st overall) of the 2013 NHL Draft. He played his first 26 career NHL games with the Capitals in 2016-17.
• Predators President of Hockey Operations/General Manager David Poile spent his first 15 years as an NHL GM at the helm of the Capitals from 1982-97.
• This will be Nashville's second time facing Peter Laviolette in his current role as Washington head coach at Bridgestone Arena. 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.

Last Time Out

The Predators improved to 2-2-1 at home this season with Thursday's win over St. Louis - Nashville's 900th win as an NHL franchise. The Preds set season highs in goals (6) and shots on goal (42).
Ten different Nashville skaters recorded a point, led by three-point outings by Matt Duchene (3a), Filip Forsberg (3a) and Roman Josi (1g-2a). Michael McCarron and Zach Sanford scored their first goals of the season 37 seconds apart; Sanford's goal, his first with the Predators, stood as the game-winner. Additionally, Cole Smith tallied two assists for his first career multi-point game.
Forsberg (3a) pushed his career totals against St. Louis to 35 points (15g-20a), the highest point total vs. the Blues among active Predators skaters. Josi's goal was his first of the season and gave the Predators a power-play goal in consecutive games. Josi also added seven shots on goal, 11 shot attempts and two hits in 22:14 of ice time.

Watch & Listen

Coverage for Saturday's game begins at 6:30 p.m. CT with the Predators LIVE! Pregame show on Bally Sports South, hosted by Lyndsay Rowley alongside analyst Hal Gill. Play-by-play announcer Willy Daunic and analyst Chris Mason will have the call on the television side.
Pete Weber and Jay More will call the game on 102.5 The Game and the Predators Radio Network with pregame, postgame and intermission coverage by Max Herz. The game will also be broadcast in Spanish on El Jefe which airs on 96.7 FM, 105.3 FM and 810 AM.