For Cousins, the game will be his 500th in the NHL.
"It's exciting," said Cousins, who spent two seasons with the Predators before inking a two-year contract with the Panthers this past summer. "It's funny how it's back in Nashville. Obviously I spent some time here and really enjoyed playing here. I'm real excited."
Sitting just one point out of a playoff spot with a record of 28-24-6, the Panthers have won five of their last seven games, including a critical 6-3 win over the Washington Capitals on Thursday.
Moving into a tie with the Capitals in the tight race for the second wild-card spot in the Eastern Conference, the Panthers received goals from Gustav Forsling, Marc Staal, Colin White, Anton Lundell, Aleksander Barkov and Sam Reinhart in the win, while Sergei Bobrovsky made 29 saves.
"We got stronger as that game went on," Panthers head coach Paul Maurice said. "From the first 10 [minutes] to the end of second period, we were a pretty good hockey team. You felt [the energy] on the bench every play. The guys are chirping, talking. They're wired for the game."
While the Panthers have yet to officially name a starter against Nashville, Maurice hinted that he'd continue to roll with the hot hand in Bobrovsky. Owning a 4-1-0 record with a .943 save percentage over his last five starts, he's stopped 64 of 67 high-danger shots in that stretch.
Overall, Bobrovsky has gone 9-3-1 with a .918 save percentage since Dec. 29.
"Sergei didn't play back-to-back with the idea that he could play a pretty long run," said Maurice, noting the fact Bobrovsky did not play both halves of Florida's back-to-back that kicked off the road trip earlier this week. "This is such an unusual schedule we have. We'll be playing the hot goaltender. The only thing we have to make sure is that we don't lose that heat by wearing him out."
Speaking of heat, look no further than Matthew Tkachuk.
Hitting the ground running during his first season in South Florida, the All-Star forward has logged multiple points in six of his last nine games to climb all the way up into fourth place on the NHL's star-studded scoring leaderboard with 75 points (27 goals, 48 assists).
In 14 career games against Nashville, Tkachuk has notched 16 points.
Starting to fade in the playoff race, the Predators have fallen to seven points out of the second wild-card spot in the Western Conference after dropping three of their last four games, including being shut out 5-0 by the Boston Bruins in their last outing on Thursday.
Roman Josi, who took home the Norris Trophy in 2020, leads Nasvhille in scoring with 44 points (13 goals, 31 assists). Tied for second, Filip Forsberg and Matt Duchene have each amassed 42 points. Forsberg also leads the team in goals with 19, while Duchene has scored 16 of his own.
A workhorse in net for the Predators, All-Star goaltender Juuse Saros, who has started nine of the last 11 games, has posted a 20-15-5 record with a .917 save percentage and one shutout this season.
Dating back to Nov. 12, Saros ranks tied for fourth in the NHL with 17 wins.
Finding success in their recent trips to the Music City, the Panthers own an 8-2-0 record in their previous 10 games at Bridgestone Arena while outscoring the Predators 41-28 in that span.
"The last month or so, we've kind of dug ourselves out of the hole that we put ourselves in," Cousins said. "We're getting key contributions from everyone. Special teams have really picked it up here as of late. Bob's really playing well. He's kind of grabbed the net and is playing some of his best hockey of the season.
"We're a lot more confident group. We're playing a little more stingier defensively. We're not giving that much up off the rush. We're not turning pucks over at the blue line anymore. That's resulted in a lot more consistency, more wins and should set us up for the last 24 games to have a lot of fun."
