The Nashville Predators had gone three games in a row without scoring a goal. The Preds were able to break their goalless streak and take the win against the Buffalo Sabres 3-2.
The streak was broken during the first period when Mike Fisher put back a rebound at 13:52.
The Preds would keep the goals coming during the second period as Craig Smith scored his fifth of the year 55 seconds into the period.
The scoring for the Preds would be finalized as former Buffalo Sabres forward, Cody Hodgson, scored at 6:29 of the second period to put the Preds up 3-0.
Nashville would coast the remainder of the game, giving up two goals, and would win 3-2 in Buffalo for the first victory of the current road trip.
This afternoon, the Preds will travel to the city of Brotherly Love to take down the Philadelphia Flyers.
In their last outing, the Flyers fell to the New York Islanders 3-1.
Keys to Watch
Offense back on track?
The Preds were able to break the longest scoreless streak in the history of franchise. Nashville was able to get three goals from the most unlikely of players. Fisher, Smith, and Hodgson have not produced at the clip that they should have been this season. Is this a turn-around of the Preds offense? Don’t get too excited. This was against a Buffalo team that is not known for great defense. The same goes for the Philadelphia defense. The Preds should get lots of quality shots against the 29th ranked team allowing 33.1 shots per game. It’s great to break the offensive slump, but let’s not put the cart before the horse.
Struggling in Philadelphia
The Flyers are only getting points in 43.2% of the games played this season. Philadelphia has seven regulation wins this season with only 19 points on the season. They are considered the worst offense in the NHL with 38 goals, 1.73 goals for per game, and 23rd ranked power-play with a percentage of 15.9%. The struggle in Philadelphia is real and Nashville should take advantage of their misfortune on the ice. The Preds should emphasize on quality shots and continue the game plan from the Buffalo game.
A Disappearing Act
Over the last five games, James Neal has completely disappeared in his performance on the ice, except for his time in the penalty box (averaging three penalty minutes per game). Neal has a -3 rating, 2.2 shots per game, and has seen a decrease of shifts from 24 shifts against Columbus to 19 shifts against Buffalo. The Whitby, ON, Canada native has been a ghost on the ice for the Preds. The Nashville offense needs James Neal to get back on his game. He was brought to Nashville to produce on the ice. Over the last five games, Neal has not proven his worth to this squad.
The Nashville Predators will look to take down a struggling Philadelphia squad at Wells Fargo Center. The game will be covered on Fox Sports-Tennessee or you can listen live on 102.5 The Game.
The puck will drop at a special time of 2:30 pm!
