Game Day: Preds at Oilers Preview

Less than 24 hours after starting their six-game road trip with an overtime victory in Calgary, the Predators will drop the puck again - this time in Edmonton - as they face the Oilers tonight at Rogers Place with a 7:30 p.m. CT start.
The Flames, who had won six-straight games entering Tuesday's contest, provided an admirable challenge to the Preds to start their trip, and now Nashville will face an Edmonton team that has lost just once in eight tries this season.
Although the Predators found a way to prevail in Calgary, they say their effort was not nearly what they expected from their group, and they know they'll need to be better tonight to give themselves a chance against the Oilers.

"You want to start off on the right note, especially with the back-to-back tomorrow," Preds forward Matt Duchene said following Tuesday's win over the Flames. "So, we've got obviously a high-flying Oilers team - two of the best, if not the two best offensive players in the League, and we've got to regroup here and be ready and learn from tonight and not let it happen again for a while."
"The only difference in this one was I think there were lots of times earlier this year where we've said whether we got the result or didn't get the result, we liked a lot of our process," Preds Head Coach John Hynes said Tuesday night. "Tonight, our process wasn't very good. But we found a way to win the game. So, now we've got to rectify that to make sure we can continue to give ourselves opportunities to win."
Predators forward Filip Forsberg left Tuesday's game in the third period and did not return, and Hynes did not have an update on Forsberg's status following the contest.

The Good Guys:

Duchene scored the OT winner on Tuesday in Calgary, and goaltender Juuse Saros made 38 saves for Nashville to earn his fourth win of the campaign. In regulation, Luke Kunin tallied his first of the season, and Forsberg also scored for the Preds.
Preds Captain Roman Josi leads the team in scoring with nine points (3g-6a), followed by Mikael Granlund (2g-6a) with eight points, and then Forsberg (4g-3a), Duchene (3g-4a) and Ryan Johansen (3g-4a) with seven points apiece. Tanner Jeannot is tied with Forsberg for the team lead with four goals.
Saros is 4-4-0 on the season with a .922 save percentage, while Connor Ingram won his only appearance of the season, also his first NHL game.

The Opposition:

Edmonton defeated the Seattle Kraken by a 5-2 final on Monday night to give them wins in two-straight outings. Connor McDavid and Leon Draisaitl have identical stat lines (7g-10a) to co-lead the team with 17 points each. Ryan Nugent-Hopkins has 11 assists on the season, and Zach Hyman has scored six goals in eight games for Edmonton. Mikko Koskinen is 5-1-0 in six starts this season; Mike Smith is 2-0-0 in three appearances.

All-Time Meetings:

The Predators are 36-25-(4)-12 all-time against the Oilers, including a 16-13-(3)-5 record on the road. Nashville and Edmonton last met on March 2, 2020 at Bridgestone Arena, an 8-3 defeat against the home team.
Nashville has won 14 of its last 18 games against Edmonton, with 13 of those wins coming consecutively from Oct. 29, 2014-Oct. 20, 2018. During the streak, the Preds outscored the Oilers 40-15 and limited them to two-or-fewer goals 12 times, including five shutouts. The Predators are 7-2-0 in their last nine games in Edmonton.

Notables Versus Edmonton:

Juuse Saros set the Preds franchise record for most saves in a shutout when he posted 46 vs. Edmonton on Dec. 14, 2017. In five career games vs. the Oilers, Saros is 2-2-0 with a 1.71 goals-against average and .954 save percentage.
Ryan Johansen has 10 points (1g-9a) in his last 13 games against the Oilers dating back to March 14, 2016. Matt Duchene owns 32 points (8g-24a) in 36 career games against the Oilers.
Filip Forsberg has averaged nearly a point per game in his career vs. the Oilers, tallying 15 points (9g-6a) in 17 games. He became the second player in NHL history to score a "lacrosse-style" goal in Nashville's game against Edmonton on Jan. 14, 2020.
Oilers forward Kyle Turris played parts of three seasons in Nashville from 2017-20 and posted 96 points (29g-67a) in 182 games.

Watch & Listen:

Coverage for this evening's 7:30 p.m. CT puck drop from Edmonton begins at 7 p.m. CT with the Predators Live! pregame show on Bally Sports South. Willy Daunic, Chris Mason and Lyndsay Rowley have the call on the television side, while Pete Weber and Hal Gill will broadcast on 102.5 The Game and the Predators Radio Network. Pregame coverage on the radio begins at 6:30 p.m. with Darren McFarland. For broadcast information and channel locations throughout the country,
click here
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