After closing out their six-game preseason schedule Friday in Carolina, the Nashville Predators open the 2023-24 NHL season on the road Tuesday against the Tampa Bay Lightning.
Puck drop for the nationally televised game on ESPN is at 4:30 p.m. CT; it will also be broadcast on 102.5 The Game and El Jefe Radio. Here's everything you need to know:
ROSTER REPORT
Nashville’s 23-player roster ahead of its 2023-24 regular-season opener Tuesday at Tampa Bay consists of 14 forwards, seven defensemen and two goaltenders. The complete roster can be found here.
Forwards: Luke Evangelista, Samuel Fagemo, Filip Forsberg, Cody Glass, Michael McCarron, Tommy Novak, Gustav Nyquist, Ryan O’Reilly, Juuso Parssinen, Kiefer Sherwood, Colton Sissons, Cole Smith, Philip Tomasino, Yakov Trenin
Defensemen: Tyson Barrie, Alexandre Carrier, Dante Fabbro, Roman Josi, Jeremy Lauzon, Ryan McDonagh, Luke Schenn
Goaltenders: Kevin Lankinen, Juuse Saros
ALL-TIME MEETINGS
The Predators are 18-17-(2)-5 all-time against the Lightning, including an 8-9-(2)-1 record on the road. This is the first of two matchups between Nashville and Tampa Bay in 2023-24 and the first and only at Amalie Arena.
The Predators are 1-3-1 in their last five games against the Lightning. Nashville went 0-1-1 in two games against Tampa Bay last season, picking up a point in an overtime loss on home ice on Nov. 19, 2022.
NOTABLES VS. TAMPA BAY
- Ryan McDonagh was acquired from Tampa Bay on July 3, 2022. McDonagh won two Stanley Cups with the Lightning and skated in 267 games with the organization from 2018-22, tallying 99 points (20g-79a).
- Luke Schenn won two Stanley Cups with Tampa Bay (2020-21) and played in 63 games for the Lightning across parts of three seasons from 2019-23.
- Colton Sissons notched his first career regular-season hat trick on Jan. 5, 2017 vs. Tampa Bay.
- Roman Josi has 18 points (5g-13a) in 24 career games against the Lightning, including nine points (3g-6a) in his last 12 contests.
- Gustav Nyquist has 10 goals and 19 points in 30 career meetings with Tampa Bay.
- Alexandre Carrier scored his first career NHL goal on March 13, 2021 at Tampa Bay.
- Predators Assistant Coach Todd Richards won the 2020 Stanley Cup as a member of the Lightning, serving in the same role.
- Lightning forward Tanner Jeannot played the first 152 games of his NHL career with the Predators from 2021-23, recording 62 points (34g-28a).
THE GOOD GUYS
The Captain: Despite missing Nashville’s final 15 games of the 2022-23 season with an upper-body injury, Josi led the Predators in scoring for the fourth straight season with 59 points (18g-41a). He scored 18 goals, tied for the third-most among NHL defensemen, and passed David Legwand for the most points in Predators history during the 2022-23 campaign.
The Netminder: Juuse Saros further cemented himself as one of the NHL’s elite goaltenders in 2022-23, finishing with a 33-23-7 record, .919 save percentage, 2.69 goals-against average and two shutouts. Per MoneyPuck.com, Saros led the NHL in goals saved above expected at 46.7; it was the highest among all NHL goaltenders since the site began tracking the category in 2008-09.
The New Faces: Four players on Nashville’s opening-night roster were not on last season’s team: Samuel Fagemo, Ryan O’Reilly, Nyquist and Schenn.
- Fagemo was claimed on waivers from Los Angeles on Oct. 2. He played in nine games for the Kings last season, tallying three points (2g-1a), including his first career NHL goal. His 13 power-play goals in the AHL last season tied for the fifth-most in the league.
- Nyquist signed a two-year, $6.37 million contract with the Predators as a free agent on July 1 after totaling 27 points (11g-16a) in 51 games with Columbus and Minnesota last season.
- O’Reilly signed a four-year, $18 million contract with the Predators as a free agent on July 1. The 32-year-old won the Stanley Cup and Conn Smythe Trophy with St. Louis in 2019 and has collected numerous other accolades during his 14-year NHL career, including the Selke Trophy (2019), Lady Byng (2014) and three nods to the NHL All-Star Game.
- Schenn signed a three-year, $8.25 million contract with the Predators as a free agent on July 1. A two-time Stanley Cup champion with Tampa Bay (2020-21), his 3,158 hits are the most by a defenseman in NHL history; he led the League in the category last season with 318.
The Rising Stars: Several young players made an impact for the Preds down the stretch in 2022-23:
- Tommy Novak, 26, had 43 points (17g-26a) in 51 games with Nashville last season.
- Luke Evangelista, 21, recorded 15 points (7g-8a) in his first 24 career NHL games.
- Juuso Pärssinen, 22, posted 25 points (6g-19a) in 45 games in 2022-23, his rookie season; despite missing 23 games with an upper-body injury from Feb. 26-April 8, he finished 12th among NHL rookies in assists (19) and tied for 16th in points.
- Cody Glass, 24, established career highs in goals (14), assists (21) and points (35) in 2022-23; he recorded 32 points (13g-19a) in his final 56 games.
- Philip Tomasino, 22, had 18 points (5g-13a) in 31 games and was one of seven Nashville players to score at least four power-play goals.
THE OTHER GUYS
The Lightning are returning several of their top scorers from 2022-23. Top point getter Nikita Kucherov posted 113 points last season, the second most all-time in franchise history. Leading goal scorer Brayden Point will also look to build off his 51-goal season in 2022-23, when he became just the third Tampa Bay player ever to eclipse the 50-goal mark in a season.
Tampa Bay will begin the season without Vezina-winning starting goaltender Andrei Vasilevskiy, who underwent surgery on Sept. 28 and is expected to miss approximately the first two months of the regular season.
WATCH & LISTEN
Tuesday’s game will be broadcast exclusively on ESPN/ESPN+ to kick off the network’s NHL Opening Night tripleheader. Play-by-play announcer John Buccigross and analysts Kevin Weekes and Ryan Callahan will have the call on the television side.
Pete Weber and Hal Gill will call the game on 102.5 The Game and the Predators Radio Network, with pregame, postgame and intermission coverage by Max 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.
