The Nashville Predators continue their five-game road trip on Thursday when they face the Los Angeles Kings at Crypto.com Arena.
With back-to-back identity wins in St. Louis and Vegas, the Predators feel they’ve escaped the post-All-Star break rut that cost them consecutive games at home and returned to their winning style of play.
“They're feeling pretty good, and they should be the way they played the last two games,” Predators Head Coach Andrew Brunette said after practice on Wednesday. “We've got to keep the momentum going here. It took us a little bit of a week to get it back and now we’ve got it, and now it's so important to keep it.”
Splitting their season series with Los Angeles thus far with a 2-1 road win on Jan. 18 and a 4-2 loss at home on Jan. 31, the Predators know what it’ll take on Thursday to conclude their campaign slate against the Kings with a winning record.
“It feels like every time we play them, it's been a really tight game,” forward Luke Evangelista said. “It's back-and-forth and comes right down to the wire… It's been a full team effort these last two wins, so if we can continue on with that and gain some momentum, we should be good [Thursday].”
“It's going to be a tight-checking game,” Brunette said. “They do a lot of the right things away from the puck and with the puck and they’ve got some speed, so it's a hard matchup… And it's going to be that kind of game [Thursday]. We know it's going to be hard. It's going to take checking and it's probably going to be a one-goal game, so let's embrace it and be ready for it.”
Puck drop is at 9:30 p.m. CT with the game set to broadcast exclusively on ESPN+/Hulu, 102.5 The Game and El Jefe Radio.
LAST TIME OUT
Five different Predators skaters scored and Kevin Lankinen turned away 23 shots as Nashville defeated the Vegas Golden Knights, 5-3, at T-Mobile Arena on Tuesday.
Evangelista scored his second goal in as many games and his 11th of the season. Evangelista (18g-22a-40pts in 78gp) became the third player in Predators history to record 40 points as a rookie (spanning two seasons), joining Filip Forsberg (27g-42a-69pts in 100gp) and Tanner Jeannot (29g-19a-48pts in 96gp).
Cody Glass scored his first goal since Dec. 19 and his second of the season, Tommy Novak scored his 12th goal of the season and the fourth in his last five games, Cole Smith scored his seventh goal of the season and the second in his last three games and Gustav Nyquist scored on the empty net for his 13th goal of the season and his first since Jan. 13.
Roman Josi and Ryan McDonagh each recorded two assists. The effort was Josi’s 13th multi-point game of the season and McDonagh’s fourth. Josi reached 40 assists on the season for the seventh time in his career.
Lankinen improved to 7-4-0 following his 11th start of the season.
The result moved Nashville to 29-25-2 on the campaign and 2-0-0 on their five-game road trip.
THE GOOD GUYS
Forsberg leads the Predators in points (55) and goals (26); he is tied for 12th among NHL skaters in goals. Josi leads his club and is fifth among League defensemen in assists (41).
Juuse Saros is 21-21-2 after 44 appearances, with a 3.02 goals-against average and a .902 save percentage.
The Predators lead the NHL in hits (1,567) and hits per 60 minutes (27.81); defenseman Jeremy Lauzon leads the League in hits with 264.
Nashville is fifth in the Central Division with 60 points and a 15-10-2 record on the road.
THE OTHER GUYS
The Kings enter Thursday’s contest looking to collect their fifth-straight win and bolster their Wild Card position in the Western Conference standings.
Adrian Kempe leads the Kings in points (48), Trevor Moore leads in goals (21) and former Preds forward Kevin Fiala leads in assists (30).
Former Preds netminder David Rittich is 8-2-3 after 15 appearances and 1-1-0 against the Predators this season, with a 2.25 goals-against average and a .919 save percentage.
Cam Talbot is 16-13-5 after 35 appearances, with a 2.53 goals-against average and a .913 save percentage.
Los Angeles is fourth in the Pacific Division with 66 points and a 10-9-6 record at Crypto.com Arena.
ALL-TIME MEETINGS
The Predators are 42-29-(3)-9 all-time against the Kings, including a 24-13-(0)-6 record on the road; they are 3-1-1 in their last five games, 6-3-1 in their last 10 and 4-1-0 in their last five on the road against the Kings.
Overall, the Predators have lost only four times in regulation to the Kings in their last 28 meetings (17-4-7), with Nashville having won 12 of 16.
Predators TV Analyst Chris Mason made 33 saves in his first NHL shutout as Nashville and Los Angeles played to the first scoreless tie at Bridgestone Arena on Jan. 13, 2004.
NOTABLES VS. LOS ANGELES
- Josi has tallied 27 points (5g-22a) in 32 career games vs. the Kings, including 16 points (1g-15a) in his last 13 meetings against Los Angeles. He posted three assists in the Jan. 21, 2023 meeting between the two teams.
- Forsberg has nine points (4g-5a) in his last 14 contests against Los Angeles, and 13 points (5g-8a) in 25 career games vs. the Kings. He matched his career high for shots in a game with nine on Oct. 12, 2019 at Los Angeles.
- Novak made his NHL debut on Oct. 19, 2021 vs. Los Angeles.
- Luke Schenn played in 43 games for Los Angeles during the 2015-16 season, recording 11 points (2g-9a).
- Predators Defense Development Coach Rob Scuderi won the 2012 Stanley Cup as a member of the Kings.
- Kings forward Viktor Arvidsson played in 387 games for Nashville from 2014-21, tallying 241 points (128g-113a).
- Fiala recorded 97 points (45g-52a) in 204 games with the Predators from 2015-19.
- Rittich played in 17 games for Nashville in 2021-22, going 6-3-4.
MILESTONE WATCH
- Forsberg (566) is one point from passing David Legwand (566) for the second-most in franchise history.
- McDonagh is one assist from 300 in his NHL career.
- Schenn is three points from 200 in his NHL career.
- Dante Fabbro is four games from 300 in his NHL career.
- Alexandre Carrier is five games from 200 in his NHL career.
WATCH & LISTEN
Thursday’s game will be broadcast exclusively on ESPN+/Hulu, with play-by-play announcer Mike Monaco and analyst Cassie Campbell-Pascall on the call.
Max Herz and Hal Gill will call the game on 102.5 The Game and the Predators Radio Network, with pregame, postgame and intermission coverage by Herz beginning one hour before puck drop. The game will also be broadcast in Spanish on El Jefe which airs on 96.7 FM, 105.3 FM and 810 AM. (El partido también se transmite en español por El Jefe en 96.7 FM, 105.3 FM y 810 AM.)
