Game Day: Preds at Wild Preview

The first road trip of the season for the Predators concludes this evening in Minnesota as Nashville faces the Wild at the Xcel Energy Center. Both clubs will play their second game in as many nights; the Preds fell to Winnipeg by a 6-4 final on Saturday, while Minnesota topped Anaheim in overtime by a 4-3 count.
Less than 24 hours ago, the Preds found the offense they had been looking for through the first five games of the season, and two of Nashville's four goals came on the power play. However, the Predators needed a better effort on the defensive side of the puck against the Jets, and they'll look to correct that tonight before heading back home.

"Defensively, we're just doing it to ourselves," Preds forward Nick Cousins said following Saturday's loss. "Through the neutral zone, we've got the puck on our stick, and we're trying to go east-west more so than north-south… It's a simple recipe for success. I feel like when we do the right thing, we put it in, when we make their D turn, that's when we have our success, and that's when we create offense and play in their zone and play to our identity. I don't think it's anything like a work-ethic thing or anything tactical, or system-wise, I feel like it's on ourselves. The more we play simple, that's the recipe for success for our team. It's not overly complicated."
"It's going to be a quick turnaround, so we've got to take some components out of this that need to be a little bit tightened up, and then some things we did offensively that allowed us to get going," Preds Head Coach Hynes said in Winnipeg. "It was good to see the power play get going a little bit here, but we've got to move on."
The Predators will not hold a morning skate ahead of today's 5 p.m. CT start in Minnesota. Defensemen Mark Borowiecki and Matt Benning, as well as forward Rocco Grimaldi, were scratched on Saturday in Winnipeg.

The Good Guys:

Colton Sissons, Cousins, Roman Josi and Philip Tomasino all found the back of the net for the Preds in Saturday's loss. Cousins and Tomasino tallied with the man advantage, and Tommy Novak recorded his first three NHL assists in just his third career game. Goaltender Juuse Saros allowed all six goals on the night for Nashville.
Mikael Granlund leads the Predators in points with four (1g-3a), and Filip Forsberg (1g-2a), Novak (3a), Cousins (1g-2a), Ryan Johansen (1g-2a), Tomasino (2g-1a) and Josi (2g-1a) are all tied for second with three points. Saros has started all five games for Nashville and is 1-4-0 in net.

The Opposition:

Minnesota has won all four of their games to start the season and have triumphed in overtime in each of their last two outings, including a 4-3 win over Anaheim on Saturday. Former Preds forward Ryan Hartman scored the OT winner against the Ducks.
Mats Zuccarello leads the Wild in points with six (2g-4a), followed by Kirill Kaprizov with five points (5a) and Marcus Foligno with four (2g-2a). Joel Erikson Ek has three goals in four games, and Hartman has tallied twice. Goaltender Cam Talbot has won all four of his starts for the Wild and has a .904 save percentage.

All-Time Meetings:

The Predators are 39-26-(5)-8 all-time against the Wild, including a 15-17-(3)-4 record at Xcel Energy Center. Nashville and Minnesota last met on March 3, 2020 at Xcel Energy Center, a 3-1 victory for the home side that saw Juuse Saros stop 30 of 33 shots faced. It was Nashville's fourth-to-last game of the 2019-20 regular season.
The Predators have won seven of their last eight games vs. the Wild, a stretch that included a seven-game win streak from March 27, 2018-Oct. 24, 2019. Nashville allowed two-or-fewer goals in six of those seven wins. Nashville is 2-3-0 in its last five games and 4-6-0 in its last 10 games at Xcel Energy Center.

Notables Versus Minnesota:

Filip Forsberg scored his first career NHL goal on Oct. 8, 2013 vs. Minnesota. Forsberg's 12 goals against the Wild are the third-most he's scored against a single opponent in his NHL career. Ryan Johansen has 20 points (5g-15a) in 28 career games vs. the Wild, including 10 points (3g-7a) in his last 11 meetings.
Tommy Novak played four seasons at the University of Minnesota from 2015-19 and recorded 88 points (18g-70a) in 129 games. Mikael Granlund was acquired from Minnesota in February 2019; he played parts of seven seasons for the Wild from 2012-19 and posted 93 goals and 317 points. Luke Kunin was drafted 15th overall by the Wild in the 2016 NHL Draft. Kunin appeared in 131 games for Minnesota from 2017-20, tallying 52 points (23g-29a).
Wild Head Coach Dean Evason served as head coach of the Milwaukee Admirals - Nashville's AHL affiliate - from 2012-18. Minnesota forwards Kevin Fiala (2015-19); Frederick Gaudreau (2016-19); Ryan Hartman (2018-19); and Rem Pitlick (2019-21) all were previous members of the Predators.

Watch & Listen:

Coverage for this evening's 5 p.m. CT puck drop from St. Paul begins at 4:30 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 4 p.m. with Darren McFarland. For broadcast information and channel locations throughout the country, click here.