Who: Nashville Predators (5-9-4, 14 points, 8th place Central Division) vs Pittsburgh Penguins (9-5-3, 21 points, 3rd place Metropolitan Division)
Where: Avicii Arena, Stockholm Sweden (NHL Global Series)
When: 2:00 p.m. eastern (8:00pm local time start)
How to Watch: Broadcast locally Sportsnet Pittsburgh and Fanduel Sports Network South, nationally on NHL Network
Pens’ Path Ahead: The Pens and Preds will reset for another game in the same place on Sunday (9:00am Pittsburgh time start) and then the Pens get a few days off to come home. Eventually they’ll start a three-game homestand that opens with the Minnesota Wild coming to the ‘Burgh a week from today in their first game back.
Opponent Track: Nashville can’t be sweating a change of scenery with the way things have been going; they’re just 2-6-2 in the last 10 (one win over lowly Calgary, the other in a shootout). Overall the Preds are 0-3-2 in their last five games and 1-6-2 in the last nine if you really wanted to frame it poorly.
Season Series: These two games will be the only NSH/PIT ones of the season. The Pens went 2-0-0 last season against the Preds (0-1-1 from the Nashville perspective).
Hidden Stat: Nashville is just 2-1-2 when leading after two periods for a .400 points% that ranks last in the NHL
Getting to know the Predators
Filip Forsberg – Ryan O’Reilly – Luke Evangelista
Steven Stamkos – Erik Haula – Jonathan Marchessault
Michael Bunting – Fedor Svechkov – Matthew Wood
Tyson Jost – Michael McCarron – Ozzy Wiesblatt
Brady Skjei / Nick Perbix
Nicolas Hague / Nick Blankenburg
Spencer Stastney / Adam Wilsby
Goalies: Juuse Saros and Justus Annunen
Potential scratches: Joakim Kemell, Justin Barron
Injured Reserve: Roman Josi, Cole Smith, Zachary L’Heureux
- Not sure if these lines remain good aftervthe last game’s loss against the Rangers, the internet didn’t have much updated as of yesterday. Skjei’s wife, for instance, had a baby the other day and social media had him there so he may or may not even be with the team overseas.
- Rookie Matthew Wood, 20, has been one of the few bright spots for Nashville. The former Pensburgh mock draftee, Wood is red hot coming off a hat trick in the previous game against NYR. Wood has 6G+3A in the last seven games.
- On the other end of the spectrum, the star known as Steven Stamkos is fading away. He does have two goals in the last four games — the first broke a nine game point drought to show he’s not completely gone — but his days as a dominant player look to be in the past. The tell is in his shots: Stamkos had 241, 240 and 262 shots from 2021-24 in his final three seasons in Tampa. He had just 174 last year, his first in Nashville. This year he has only 37 shots in 18 games (a pace of 168 over the season). Between limited playmakers to get him the puck and/or age effects of being unable to quickly get release before NHL defenders can get in the way, the decline is very real for Stamkos. It’s even worse drilling down, Stamkos has only 16 5v5 shots in the 18 games this season and no goals in the most common situation (he has two power play goals and one at 5v6 while his team had an empty net).
- Old friend Michael Bunting looks like he’s off to a standard Michael Bunting season with a few points but nothing inspiring. Not sure I’d call the Bunting/Novak part of last year’s trade a “lose lose” but it’s probably at least a “same, same” deal for both clubs without a big win on either side, kinda some pieces changed places and everyone going about their business just the same.
Dreadful stuff outside of the penalty kill. The Predators are a stale team and a bad one. They don’t hit expectations on goals for or against, their goaltending isn’t great, their finishing stinks as does the power play. There’s certainly more problems up a level from the coaching but this chart alone points to a prime team for a mid-season coaching change to clear the air and try a new voice, especially since the charts on rate for expected and actual goals are virtually in-line with last season’s poor performance.
If that happens and the Preds can even get back to a mid-tier level offense (which based on the expected goals looks possible) and some added defensive emphasis ends up helping the goaltending start anew, that could be a situation where people rave that a coaching change spurred some positive movement up the standings. However, even at this point the playoffs look unlikely.
Bryan Rust – Sidney Crosby – Ben Kindel
Tommy Novak – Evgeni Malkin – Anthony Mantha
Ville Koivunen – Kevin Hayes – Philip Tomasino
Connor Dewar – Blake Lizotte – Joona Koppanen
Parker Wotherspoon / Erik Karlsson
Goalies: Sergei Murashov and Arturs Silovs
Potential Scratches: Danton Heinen, Connor Clifton, Harrison Brunicke, Filip Larsson
IR: Filip Hallander, Tristan Jarry, Justin Brazeau, Jack St. Ivany (lower body), Rutger McGroarty (upper body), Joel Blomqvist (lower body), Rickard Rakell (hand), Caleb Jones (lower body), Noel Acciari
- Larsson is with the NHL team, the league allows the traveling party to carry a third goalie for the overseas trip. He can’t play in games barring injury.
Missing the K of HBK, reuniting two out of the three ain’t bad. Hagelin works these days for the Wild as a scout.
Just two youngsters living the dream, what a league the NHL is.
