The Nashville Predators will look to extend their win streak to five games tonight when they begin a three-game homestand by hosting the San Jose Sharks for a 7 p.m. CT puck drop at Bridgestone Arena. This evening’s contest is the first of three meetings between the two clubs this season, with all three outings coming over the final 12 games as both the Preds and Sharks compete for a playoff spot in the Western Conference.
The Predators have indeed clawed their way back into the postseason conversation, and they currently occupy the second Wild Card spot in the West with 75 points - five points ahead of San Jose entering tonight’s action.
A weekend sweep over Vegas and Chicago helped the Preds solidify their spot, and now, the goal is to not only retain that positioning, but to find a way to continue moving up the standings over the final four weeks of the regular season.
“Massive match, obviously, on Tuesday against one of the teams that are hunting us,” Preds winger Filip Forsberg said Sunday following his overtime winner in Chicago. “We’ve just got to keep making these kinds of efforts. It’s not going to be smooth water the whole time through, but doing a lot of good things right now and getting rewarded for it, so we’ve got to keep that.”
“We want to move up [in the standings],” Preds Head Coach Andrew Brunette said Sunday. “We want to keep moving forward. We don't want to look back. We've been a resilient group that has a lot of belief in ourselves, and we're just going to keep moving forward. We haven't dwelled on where we were once all year, even when we're kind of at the bottom looking up. And we're going to keep that same attitude here going forward.”
Goaltender Juuse Saros returned to the Nashville lineup on Sunday after missing two games with an upper-body injury. As a result, the Predators reassigned netminder Matt Murray to Milwaukee.
Defenseman Adam Wilsby returned for the Preds on Sunday after missing time with a lower-body injury. Forward Joakim Kemell also appeared for Nashville against the Blackhawks with Ozzy Wiesblatt and Justin Barron serving as healthy scratches.
The Predators did not practice on Monday following the back-to-back weekend, but they did sign forward Fedor Svechkov to a two-year, $2.5 million contract.
Additionally, Forsberg was named the NHL’s Second Star of the Week after recording nine points (4g-5a) across Nashville’s four-game win streak.
The Good Guys:
Two of those goals from Forsberg came Sunday afternoon during Nashville’s 3-2 overtime victory in Chicago, including the OT winner. Forsberg also set up Steven Stamkos’s third-period marker that forced overtime, and Saros got the win in his return to the lineup.
Ryan O’Reilly has 24 goals and continues to lead the Preds with 64 points, but Forsberg is now only two points behind with 62 to go along with 32 goals. Stamkos has 34 goals and 56 points on the season, while Luke Evangelista has 39 assists and 48 points. Saros is now 25-19-7 in net; Justus Annunen is 8-9-2.
The Opposition:
The Sharks have dropped four straight, including a 4-1 loss to Philadelphia on Saturday night. They sit fifth in the Wild Card race out West with 32 wins and 70 points. San Jose is led by 19-year-old Macklin Celebrini who has 35 goals and 96 points on the season. He’s followed by Will Smith (19g-26a) with 45 points, and then Tyler Toffoli and Alexander Wennberg with 44 points apiece. Former Preds goaltender Yaroslav Askarov is 19-17-3 in net this season; Alex Nedeljkovic is 13-12-3.
All-Time Meetings:
The Preds are 49-29-(2)-8 all-time against the Sharks, including a 29-12-(1)-2 mark at home. Nashville has not lost in regulation to San Jose since the 2018-19 season and has won each of the last 10 meetings between the two clubs.
Nashville owns a 16-game point streak (15-0-1) against San Jose that dates back to March 16, 2019, in which the team has allowed more than two goals against only twice. It is the longest active point streak by an NHL team against a single franchise. The Predators’ win streak of 13 games against the Sharks is the longest active against a single team in the NHL and tied for their second-longest run against a single team in franchise history (14 GP from Oct. 15, 2005-Jan. 27, 2007 vs. St. Louis).
The Predators defeated the Sharks, 8-0, on March 5, 2022, marking the largest margin of victory in a road game in franchise history.
Nashville Notables:
After sitting 32nd in the NHL standings on Dec. 8, the Predators enter Tuesday’s game occupying the Western Conference’s second Wild Card position with 75 points (33-28-9). Since Dec. 9, Nashville has gone 23-14-5 (51 points), the fifth-highest point percentage (.607) in the Western Conference.
Steven Stamkos evened Sunday’s game at two with his 373rd career even-strength goal to tie Mats Sundin for 29th place on the NHL’s all-time list. Forsberg scored the overtime winner becoming the sixth Swedish-born player in NHL history with 350 career goals.
Watch & Listen:
Coverage for this evening’s contest begins at 6:30 p.m. CT with the Predators LIVE! pregame show on FanDuel Sports Network South, hosted by Lyndsay Rowley and Hal Gill. Play-by-play announcer Willy Daunic, analyst Chris Mason and rinkside reporter Kara Hammer will have the call on the television side.
Voice of the Predators 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 beginning one hour before puck drop. 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.)
