Wild Warmup: Minnesota vs. Nashville

The essentials

The opponent

Despite dropping three of their past four games, the Nashville Predators enter Friday night's game atop the Central Division. In the closely contested Central, the Predators have just one more point than the Winnipeg Jets and St. Louis Blues, the latter of which fell to the Predators Wednesday night in Nashville.
Friday's game will open a home-and-home series between the Wild and Predators, as the teams will travel south immediately after the tilt in St. Paul.
Filip Forsberg has led the way up front for the Predators, leading the team in goals (15), assists (19) and total points (34). Newcomer Kyle Turris has quickly fit in with his new team following a blockbuster trade on Nov. 5, scoring four goals and 13 assists since donning a gold sweater. P.K. Subban is ranked 10th in the NHL among defensemen with 25 points.
Meanwhile, goaltender Pekka Rinne sits eighth in the league for goals allowed, posting a 2.44 GAA over 28 games in net. Rinne, like Wild goaltender Devan Dubnyk, has pitched three shutouts on the season en route to a 19-6-3 record.
The Wild and Predators will haved clashed five times during the 2017-18 season. The Wild
won the first game
, 6-4, on Nov. 16 with a dynamic comeback effort.

Connections

• Matt Cullen registered 64 points in 139 games with the Predators from 2013-15.
• Dubnyk made two starts for the Predators in the 2013-14 season.
• Ryan Suter ranks fifth on Nashville's all-time list for assists and is tied for ninth all-time in points.

Spreading the wealth

In Minnesota's 6-4 victory over the Predators earlier this season, ten different Wild players got onto the scoresheet, including four defensemen. The Wild has had ten or more players pick up a point in six games this season.
Jason Zucker, who scored the game-winning goal on Nov. 16, has posted eight goals and three assists for 11 total points in 17 career games against the Predators.

Perfect PK

No, not P.K. Subban.
The Wild has been perfect on the penalty kill in six of its past eight games, going 33-for-36 (91.7 percent) on the PK since Dec. 12 -- ranking fifth in the NHL in that span. Minnesota ranks second with a 93.0 percent (53-of-57) penalty kill success rate on home ice and ranks fourth overall this season at 84.2 percent (123-of-146).
The Wild has been shorthanded 146 times this season -- second-most in the NHL -- while having 112 power-play opportunities, eighth-fewest in the League.

Happy holidays

The Wild earned a win Wednesday in its first game after the NHL holiday break. Last season, the Wild tied for fourth among NHL teams with 28 wins and tied for sixth with 60 points (28-17-4) in 49 games after the holiday break.
Coach Bruce Boudreau has posted a record of 147-68-20 (.668) with his teams in post-holiday break play over the last five seasons. He led the Anaheim Ducks to an NHL-best 34-10-5 record for 73 points after the holidays in 2015-16, tied for 10th with a 28-16-2 record for 58 points in 2014-15, was tied for sixth with 57 points at 27-13-3 in 2013-14 and was third in the NHL with 66 points (30-12-6) in 2012-13.
Related:
- Dubnyk preps for return to lineup - Parise returns to game action in Iowa