On Monday night, the Nashville Predators made their way to Madison Square Garden to take on the New York Rangers.
For Nashville, it was a similar result from the previous two games. The Preds were unable to breakthrough on the scoresheet. Nashville would fall to the Rangers by a score of 3-0. Henrik Lundqvist was stellar as he would stop 31 shots en route to the victory.
Tonight, the Nashville Predators will make their way to Buffalo, New York to take on the Sabres.
On Monday night, the Sabres lost to the St. Louis Blues 2-1.
Keys to Watch
213:47
The Nashville Predators have not scored a goal in the last 213:47. It’s not for a lack of effort. Over the past three games, the Predators are averaging 31 shots on goal. There are a lot of confounding issues at play. First, the Predators are going up against goalies that have gotten extremely hot as of recent. Some of the saves by Lundqvist were remarkable. Second, Nashville is just not getting the bounces that are typical. They are honestly just catching some bad luck. Finally, some of the shots on net are not quality shots. In many cases, Nashville is just throwing the puck towards the net and hoping for a rebound. If the Preds cannot score on the Buffalo Sabres, then hysreria will set in upon the Nashville faithful, if it hasn’t already.
Rebuilding Sabres
With their extremely bad year last season, the Buffalo Sabres looked to make some dramatic changes in the off-season. Bringing in Coach Dan Bylsma, Evander Kane, Ryan O’Reilly, and second overall pick, Jack Eichel allowed for them to make progress from last year’s blunder. This team now has weapons that can be utilized at various aspects within the game. Priority number one will be neutralizing the offense that Buffalo can produce.
Give Pekka a Break!
As confirmed, the Nashville Predators will give Pekka Rinne the night off for only the third time this season. Carter Hutton will get the nod in net tonight. Rinne has started 18 of the first 20 games this season and it has become necessary for the longevity of this team to have a break for Rinne. This is a great spot for Hutton to get some work. Hutton is 1-1-0 this season with a 3.44 goals against average and .899 save percentage. Hutton will need help in front of him to clear out some of the spots where he can see the puck. If there’s lots of traffic, trouble could be ahead for the Predators.
The Nashville Predators will look to get off of this three-game skid with a win tonight against the Buffalo Sabres. An early score will be crucial to the success tonight. You can catch all of the action on Fox Sports-Tennessee or you can listen live on 102.5 The Game.
Puck drops at 6:00 pm!
