Game Day: Preds at Stars Preview

A franchise-record, eight-game road trip for the Predators concludes tonight in Dallas, and Nashville will try to finish the journey just how they started it - with a win against the Stars. This evening's contest from American Airlines Center is the fourth of eight meetings between the division rivals this season; the Preds are 1-2-0 against Dallas thus far.
After a pair of wins last week - one in Tampa Bay, the other against Florida - Nashville is looking to rebound from a 2-0 loss against the Panthers yesterday. Goaltender Juuse Saros tied a career-high with 47 saves, but the Preds were unable to find the scoresheet on the day.
\[View: Virtual, Interactive Preds Press\]
[Read More: Preds Projected Lineup at Stars]
[Dr Pepper Preds Arcade: The virtual, interactive arcade is open for today's matchup. Enter your predictions for the game and win prizes with other mobile games]

"You're going to look at the shutout and you're going to say: '[We couldn't get] things offensively,' but to be honest with you, we couldn't get out of our own zone," Preds Head Coach John Hynes said following Saturday's loss. "We couldn't execute the passes coming out of our own zone, we didn't get through the neutral zone with any type of speed or strong puck decisions and there were a lot of turnovers in those areas that didn't even allow us to be able to get on the attack as much as we had been in past games on this trip.
"We never had any follow-up shifts - like we'd have a couple of good segments, and one line would have a really good shift, then the next group would go out and we were defending again. That's something we've got to look at and rectify going into [tonight's] game versus Dallas is getting out of our zone and then getting through the neutral zone, getting ourselves into situations where we can be on the attack."
The Predators didn't make any lineup changes during their two games against Florida. Nashville will not hold a morning skate in Dallas on the second half of a back-to-back set.
Update: The Preds have recalled forward Rem Pitlick from the taxi squad.

The Good Guys:
Saros starred in Saturday's loss, and the netminder made two consecutive starts after missing the previous seven games with an upper-body injury. Goaltender Pekka Rinne had started in each of those seven contests in Saros's absence.
Filip Forsberg continues to lead the Preds with 10 goals and 27 points, followed by Calle Jarnkrok (9g-6a) with 15 points and Viktor Arvidsson (4g-10a) with 14 points. Eeli Tolvanen has six goals on the season - four of them on the power play - while Mattias Ekholm and Mikael Granlund both have five goals each. Saros is 6-6-0 in net for Nashville; Rinne is 7-11-1.

The Opposition:
Dallas has at least one point in seven of their last nine outings, including a 3-0 win last night in Detroit against the Red Wings. Joe Pavelski leads the Stars with 14 goals and 27 points, followed by John Klingberg (5g-13a) with 18 points. Roope Hintz has eight goals on the season; Klingberg, Denis Gurianov, Jamie Benn and Jason Dickinson have five tallies each. Anton Khudobin got the shutout last night - he's 6-8-1 on the season - and Jake Oettinger is 4-2-6.
All-Time Meetings:
The Predators are 41-44-(1)-5 all-time against the Stars, including a 15-28-(0)-3 record on the road. Nashville defeated Dallas in a shootout, 4-3, on March 7 at American Airlines Center after dropping its first two meetings with Dallas this season on Jan. 22 (7-0) and Jan. 24 (3-2).
The Preds have earned at least a point in 12 of their last 18 games versus Dallas (11-6-1), and Nashville has scored at least four goals in nine of its last 13 victories over Dallas.

Notables Versus Dallas:
Pekka Rinne has recorded a shutout four times in 34 games against Dallas, tied for his third-most against a single opponent in his NHL career.
Mikael Granlund has 26 points (9g-17a) in 32 career contests versus Dallas; he recorded an individual 12-game point streak (3g-14a) against the Stars from Oct. 29, 2016 to Feb. 1, 2019. Viktor Arvidsson has four points (4a) in his last five games vs. the Stars; he has 18 points (6g-12a) in 25 career games against Dallas.
Watch & Listen:
Coverage for tonight's 7:30 p.m. CT puck drop from Dallas begins on FOX Sports Tennessee at 7 p.m. CT with the Predators LIVE! pregame show hosted by Lyndsay Rowley and Terry Crisp. Willy Daunic, Chris Mason 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 6:30 p.m. with Darren McFarland. For broadcast information and channel locations throughout the country,
click here
Streaming Info:
Listen to a Live Radio Feed
(only active during the game broadcast window).
Watch a Live Stream of the game
on the Fox Sports Go App or
Watch on NHL.TV