Before the holiday break, the Nashville Predators traveled to Boston to try and ruin the Bruins’ Christmas break. The Preds were unsuccessful as they ended up falling to the Bruins 5-3. Pekka Rinne got a rare night off and Carter Hutton still has not gotten a win in 2014-15. Brad Marchand and Loui Eriksson both put two goals in net for Boston as Nashville struggled on the defensive end of the ice. The Preds will be looking to rebound after a disappointing loss to Boston.
After a good Christmas break, the Nashville Predators will be back in action tonight as they face the Philadelphia Flyers at Bridgestone Arena at 7:00 pm.
The Philadelphia Flyers last played against the Minnesota Wild on Tuesday night. The Flyers were successful as they came out on top with a 5-2 win. Scoring for Philadelphia against Minnesota was by Sean Couturier (9), Claude Giroux (11), Wayne Simmonds (15), Vincent Lecavalier (5), and an empty nnet goal by Michael Raffl (10). Philadelphia was never down on the scoreboard, and the win was quite dominating.
On the season, Jakub Voracek is having quite a year with 46 points. His 32 assists lead the team and he is only one goal behind Wayne Simmonds who leads the team in goals with 15. Claude Giroux is having another outstanding year with 11 goals and 30 assists for a total of 41 points.
Keys to Watch
Laviolette Against the Flyers
Coach Peter Laviolette is a little familiar with the Philadelphia Flyers. As the head coach of the Flyers for 5 years before coming to Nashville, Laviolette won 145 games, Eastern Conference Champions, and had a winning percentage of .586. With knowing many of the players, strengths, and weaknesses, let’s see if this plays any advantage to sway in favor of the Preds.
Preds Aren’t Preds without Pekka
Earlier in the year, I wrote about how Carter Hutton was a serviceable backup. He is that, though, A BACKUP. With Hutton, you get a solid goaltender, not a great goaltender. The Preds seem to struggle when he is in net. Does the defensive core collapse knowing that the world-class Rinne is not in net? Does he give up saveable goals? Can the problem be fixed? What’s the problem? The Preds struggle without Rinne in net. He is the engine that drives the car. If Rinne has success, the Preds have success.
“Shea Weber” Bobblehead
Call it trolling, funny, or whatever you want but the Nashville Predators are putting on a hilarious stunt for tonight’s “Shea Weber” Bobblehead night at Bridgestone Arena. The bobblehead “mysteriously” looks nothing like Shea Weber, yet it looks like the GM, David Poile. Undoubtedly, a snipe at the Flyers when they signed Weber to an offer sheet in 2012, but the Preds matched keeping the Captain in Smashville!
With 1/3 of the season gone, the Preds look to continue their forward push towards the playoffs. The Preds will need consistent play to take down the Flyers. You can catch the Preds vs Flyers tonight at Bridgestone Arena, FS-Tennessee, or listen live on 102.5 The Game.
