Game Day: Predators at Rangers Preview

With three straight wins away from home - and four consecutive victories overall - the Nashville Predators will try to complete a perfect road trip tonight when they face the New York Rangers at Madison Square Garden. This evening's contest is the second and final meeting between the two this season; the Preds fell to the Rangers by a 3-1 final back in October.
The current four-game excursion began with a 5-2 victory in Detroit on Tuesday night, and the Predators followed that up with a back-to-back sweep over the Islanders and Devils on Thursday and Friday with 4-3 and 3-2 wins, respectively.

Now, the Preds will look to stick with what has worked throughout the trip and muster up one more triumph tonight in Manhattan.
"The competitive nature of the group, it's at a high level and something that we've talked about," Preds Head Coach John Hynes said following Friday's win. "We have a lot of guys that are natural competitors, which is something we had talked about, and we find ways to win different games. But if you take tonight in particular; we play in Long Island last night, a heavy, hard, physical game, emotional game, win it, and we come in today, we've got two of our forwards that log big ice time, play a lot of key situations, a lot of key minutes… I just think when you look at the group that we're a highly-competitive group. The guys dig in and find ways to be able to compete the right way, and there's an identity that we play with.
"When we talk about the identity and the structure that you want to be able to play with, when you get in situations like this, it allows you to be able to come through. Over the course of this season, we've had excellent goaltending, and our special teams have done well and that's a good recipe to win. But I think number one, first and foremost, is the competitive nature and the toughness of the group has been a determining factor."
The Predators were without forwards Matt Duchene and Colton Sissons on Friday night, both of whom are day-to-day with respective upper-body injuries. Forward Matt Luff was recalled from Milwaukee prior to Friday's game and dressed for his first game with the Preds.
Nashville dressed 11 forwards and seven defensemen on Friday due to the injury situation with Ben Harpur also participating on the backend. Philippe Myers was the lone healthy scratch for the Predators.
The Predators did not practice Saturday in New York but are expected to hold a morning skate ahead of tonight's game.

The Good Guys:

Roman Josi, Eeli Tolvanen and Yakov Trenin all tallied on Friday night in New Jersey, and Juuse Saros returned from non-COVID illness to earn the victory in net.
Josi (9g-18a) and Mikael Granlund (5g-22a) co-lead the team in scoring with 27 points, followed by Duchene (13g-12a) with 25 points and Ryan Johansen (8g-16a) with 24 points. Filip Forsberg has 11 goals and 17 points in 18 games, and Saros is 12-8-1 in net for Nashville.

The Opposition:

The Rangers are one of the East's top team and have lost just once in six tries in the month of December, including a 2-1 win over Buffalo on Friday night. Artemi Panarin (9g-23a) leads the team with 32 points, followed by defenseman Adam Fox (5g-24) with 29 points, and then Chris Kreider (17g-4a) and Mika Zibanejad (5g-16a) with 21 points apiece. Igor Shesterkin is 13-3-2 in net for the Rangers; Alexandar Georgiev is 5-1-1.

All-Time Meetings:

The Predators are 13-15-(1)-2 all-time against the Rangers, including an 8-7-(1)-0 record on the road. The Predators and Rangers last met at Madison Square Garden on Dec. 16, 2019, a 5-2 victory for the Predators that saw Juuse Saros stop 39 of 41 shots faced.
Nashville is 2-3-0 in its last five games against the Rangers; on the road, the Preds are also 2-3-0. In the early 2000s, Nashville enjoyed considerable success against New York, earning points in six of seven games from Dec. 23, 2000 to March 25, 2004.

Notables Versus New York:

Roman Josi has 12 points (4g-8a) in 16 career games vs. the Rangers, including three multi-point efforts. He notched three points (2g-1a) in Nashville's last game at Madison Square Garden on Dec. 16, 2019. Mattias Ekholm has posted five points (2g-3a) in his last seven games against the Rangers.
Mikael Granlund has produced at a point-per-game pace vs. the Rangers in his career, recording 13 points (4g-9a) in 13 games, including five (3g-2a) in his last four games. Granlund matched his career high for points in a game with four (2g-2a) against New York on Feb. 23, 2018.
Colton Sissons has four points (2g-2a) in his last five games vs. the Rangers. Philip Tomasino scored his first career NHL goal on Oct. 21, 2021 vs. the Rangers.

Watch & Listen:

Coverage for tonight's 6 p.m. CT puck drop from Manhattan 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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