Following a sweep of their home-and-home set with San Jose, the Nashville Predators have traveled to Orange County and will take on the Anaheim Ducks tonight from Honda Center for a 9 p.m. CT puck drop. Tonight’s contest is the first of three meetings between the two foes this season; the Preds and Ducks will meet two more times in March.
The Predators are currently riding a five-game win streak, and the latest victory came Thursday night with a 6-5 triumph over the Sharks. Nashville saw leads of 3-0 and 5-2 evaporate in San Jose, but the visitors ultimately prevailed, and they’ll look to make it six straight tonight in Anaheim.
“We're believing,” Preds Head Coach Andrew Brunette said following Thursday’s win. “We seem to get tighter as a group every game. We’ve got some things to clean up. We're still trying to stack some things, stacking on big momentum from the other night by a big comeback. And then tonight, I think we're starting to understand when we do certain things and play a certain way, it’s fun to play, it's good to play. We're getting rewarded for it, so we’ll keep chipping away where we are and fight to keep that feeling.”
The Preds held team meetings and workouts on Friday in Anaheim. Nashville’s lineup remained unchanged on Thursday night with Kieffer Bellows and Spencer Stastney serving as healthy scratches.
Last Time Out:
Filip Forsberg tallied twice to extend his goal streak to seven games and tie his own franchise record set last season. Fedor Svechkov scored what proved to be the game-winner in the third, while Gustav Nyquist, Tommy Novak and Steven Stamkos also found the back of the net. Goaltender Justus Annunen earned his sixth win in nine appearances with Nashville.
Jonathan Marchessault recorded an assist in the win and extended his point streak to 10 games, becoming just the third player in franchise history to record a point streak of that length in his first season with the club.
The Good Guys:
Forsberg continues to lead the Preds with 18 goals and 47 points on the season, followed by Marchessault (15g-23a) with 38 points and Roman Josi (9g-26a) with 35 points. Stamkos has 17 goals and 33 points; Ryan O’Reilly has 13 tallies and 27 points to his name. Juuse Saros is 11-18-6 in net; Annunen is 12-6-0 overall.
The Opposition:
The Ducks snapped a four-game skid with a 5-1 victory over the Penguins on Thursday night. Troy Terry leads Anaheim with 15 goals and 37 points, followed by Ryan Strome (7g-20a) with 27 points and Frank Vatrano (13g-13a) with 26 points. Lukas Dostal is 11-13-4 in net for Anaheim this season; John Gibson is 8-8-2.
All-Time Meetings:
The Predators are 39-33-(2)-11 all-time against the Ducks, including a 14-20-(0)-8 record on the road.
The Predators are 3-2-0 in their last five games against the Ducks; they are 7-3-0 in their last 10; and 4-1-0 in their last five on the road.
The Predators posted a six-game winning streak against the Ducks from Nov. 22, 2021-March 12, 2023. It was tied for Nashville’s longest winning streak vs. Anaheim in franchise history (also: Jan. 5, 2011-March 18, 2012).
Nashville has earned at least one point in 16 of its last 20 games against Anaheim (13-4-3).
Notables Versus Anaheim:
Steven Stamkos has averaged a point per-game pace against the Ducks in his career, with 19 points (9g-10a) in 19 games.
Filip Forsberg has 26 points (10g-16a) in 24 career games against Anaheim, including seven multi-point outings. He became the first player in Predators history to record multiple five-point games when he notched two goals and three assists on March 21, 2022 at Anaheim.
Roman Josi scored his first career NHL goal on Dec. 10, 2011 vs. Anaheim. He has 27 points (9g-18a) in 33 career regular-season games against the Ducks and is currently on an eight-game point streak (5g-5a).
Juuse Saros is 6-3-1 with a 2.78 goals-against average and .911 save percentage in 10 career games vs. Anaheim.
Milestone Watch:
Vinnie Hinostroza is two assists from 100 in his NHL career.
Ryan O’Reilly is two points from 800 and five goals from 300 in his NHL career.
Steven Stamkos (572) is two goals from passing Mike Bossy (573) for the 23rd-most goals in NHL history and two assists from 600 in his career.
Watch & Listen:
Coverage for tonight’s game begins at 8:30 p.m. CT with the Predators LIVE! pregame show on FanDuel Sports Network South, hosted by Lyndsay Rowley. Play-by-play announcer Willy Daunic and analyst Chris Mason will have the call on the television side.
Max Herz and Hal Gill will call the game on 102.5 The Game and the Predators Radio Network. The game will also be broadcast in Spanish on El Jefe which airs on 96.7 FM, 105.3 FM and 810 AM. (El partido también se transmite en español por El Jefe en 96.7 FM, 105.3 FM y 810 AM.)
