The Nashville Predators finished their latest home stand on Thursday night against the Florida Panthers.
The Panthers would get on the board first as Quinton Howden scored his third goal of the season. His shot was deflected by Mattias Ekholm, redirected, and would get past Pekka Rinne.
The second period allowed for Florida to take a 2-0 lead. Shea Weber was clearing the puck and it went over the glass for a Delay of Game penalty. Jonathan Huberdeau (2) would score a power-play goal at 11:24.
The Preds would finally get on the board at 17:46 of the second period when Roman Josi tipped in a Craig Smith shot to get the Preds within one.
During the third period, Nashville had many chances to score including a reviewed play with less than one minute to play. The replay showed that the puck did not cross the red line, instead it had hit the crossbar.
One critical moment in the third period was a penalty called on Quiton Howden for tripping James Neal. Along with the tripping call, the referees called an embellishment penalty on James Neal.
A questionable call, indeed, but the Preds would fall to the Panthers 2-1 in regulation.
Tonight, the Preds will begin a three-game road trip as they travel to the Motor City to take on the Detroit Red Wings.
In their last outing, the Detroit Red Wings defeated the Arizona Coyotes 5-1.
Keys to Watch
A Rivalry Renewed
At one time, this was considered one of the most intense rivalries in the NHL. Since the Red Wings was reassigned to the Eastern Conference, this rivalry has went stale. We all remember game one of the 2012 Western Conference playoffs when Shea Weber took Henrik Zetterberg’s head and slammed it into the glass. The viral #Webering took the internet by storm. Hopefully, we can see the intensity of this one time great rivalry renewed tonight.
Struggling Offense
This feels like a broken record. The Nashville Predators offense has been sputtering over the past few weeks. Change is needed. The offense has become stale. When you have offensive ability, and you can’t score, then fan base becomes irritated. Granted, Nashville currently has three players on injured reserve (Gabriel Bourque, Mike Fisher, Miikka Salomaki) but will get Paul Gaustad back from off the shelf. Hopefully, we will see some switching around of the lines.
The Setup Man
Henrik Zetterberg is the setup man for the Detroit offense. On the season, the Njurunda, Sweden native leads the team in assists with 16. He is currently tied 16th in the NHL for assists. Zetterberg plays an important role in the offense and serves as Captain of the Red Wings. The Nashville defense needs to break up any offensive possibilities that Zetterberg tries to build with his teammates.
Nashville will look to take advantage of the opening game of this current road trip. The game will be covered by Fox Sports-Tennessee and you can listen live on 102.5 The Game.
Puck drops at 6:00 pm!
