The Nashville Predators are on the road to finish a back-to-back set tonight by facing the Minnesota Wild at Xcel Energy Center for a 7 p.m. puck drop. Tonight’s contest is the first of three meetings between the two division rivals and the first of two in St. Paul.
Nashville will be looking to bounce back from a pair of 3-2 overtime losses, the most recent coming yesterday afternoon to the Tampa Bay Lightning. The Preds were pleased with their effort on Wednesday against the Flyers in that OT defeat, but Friday’s showing left them wanting more.
“It's hard to win in this League when you score two goals a game, and we're working on it,” Preds Captain Roman Josi said following Friday’s loss. “We're trying to find it. I think we've got a ton of talent in here that can put the puck in the net. And for some reason, it hasn't clicked yet. I thought Wednesday, we had a lot of looks, a lot of chances. I think tonight, not as much. So the only thing we can do is press down and keep working on it and keep trying. Keep going to the net, keep shooting the puck. And you know, we're all trying to work on it.”
Nashville’s lineup remained unchanged from Wednesday night to Friday afternoon. Defenseman Adam Wilsby played his second NHL game, while forward Juuso Parssinen, as well as blueliners Jeremy Lauzon (lower body, week-to-week) and Marc Del Gaizo were scratched.
Update:
The Preds have acquired goaltender Justus Annunen and a sixth-round pick in the 2025 NHL Draft from the Colorado Avalanche in exchange for goaltender Scott Wedgewood.
Last Time Out:
Josi scored both goals for Nashville in their 3-2 overtime loss to Tampa Bay on Friday, while Juuse Saros took the loss in net. Josi now has 11 points in his last 10 games, and on Friday, he passed Nicklas Lidstrom (DET) for the seventh-most multi-goal games with a single franchise among defensemen. The only others with more are Ray Bourque (43 w/ BOS), Denis Potvin (43 w/ NYI), Paul Coffey (39 w/ EDM), Bobby Orr (36 w/ BOS), Brian Leetch (24 w/ NYR) and Doug Wilson (24 w/ CHI).
The Good Guys:
Josi continues to lead the Preds (7g-13a) with 20 points, followed by Filip Forsberg (9g-8a) with 17 points and Ryan O’Reilly (4g-9a) with 13 points. Steven Stamkos has seven goals on the season; Gustav Nyquist has six. Saros is 6-10-4 in net.
The Opposition:
The Wild will also finish off a back-to-back set tonight; they defeated Chicago by a 3-2 final yesterday and have won four of their last six outings. Kirill Kaprizov leads the team with 14 goals and 36 points, followed by Matt Boldy with 11 goals and 24 points, and then Marco Rossi with seven goals and 18 points. Filip Gustavsson is 10-4-3 in net with a .929 save percentage.
All-Time Meetings:
The Predators are 46-28-(5)-10 all-time against the Wild, including an 18-18-(3)-5 record on the road.
The Predators are 3-1-1 in their last five games against the Wild; they are 6-2-2 in their last 10; and 3-1-1 in their last five on the road.
The Predators have won 14 of their last 19 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.
Notables Versus Minnesota:
Steven Stamkos has picked up points in seven of his last 11 games vs. Minnesota (2g-5a).
Jonathan Marchessault has recorded 14 points (8g-6a) in 29 career games against the Wild. He has a goal in each of his past three games against Minnesota.
Brady Skjei has tallied five points (3g-2a) in 14 career games against Minnesota. The Lakeville, Minn., native, played at the University of Minnesota (2012-15), posting 27 points (8g-19a) in 109 games.
Ryan O’Reilly has accumulated 37 points (18g-19a) in 56 career games against the Wild. His 18 goals are the most he has scored against a single franchise.
Roman Josi has 39 points (16g-23a) in 44 career games against Minnesota. He has points in 12 of his last 13 games vs. the Wild (11g-8a), including a nine-game point streak from Oct. 3, 2019-Feb. 19, 2023 (8g-5a).
Filip Forsberg scored his first career NHL goal on Oct. 8, 2013 vs. Minnesota. Forsberg’s 18 goals against the Wild are the third-most he’s scored against a single opponent in his NHL career.
Tommy Novak (St. Paul, Minn.) played four years for the University of Minnesota from 2015-19, winning back-to-back regular-season Big Ten titles in 2016 and 2017.
Cole Smith is a native of Brainerd, Minn., and played three seasons for Brainerd High School from 2011-14.
Gustav Nyquist played three regular-season games and five playoff contests for Minnesota in 2022-23.
Head Coach Andrew Brunette played six seasons for the Wild from 2001-04 and 2008-11, posting 321 points (119g-202a) in 489 games. He also previously served as an assistant coach (2014-16); special assistant to the GM (2016-17); assistant general manager (2017-18); and director of player personnel (2018-19) for Minnesota.
Assistant Coach Todd Richards served as head coach of the Wild for two seasons from 2009-11.
Wild Head Coach John Hynes served in the same role for the Predators for parts of four seasons from 2020-23.
Minnesota forwards Frederick Gaudreau (2016-19), Ryan Hartman (2018-19) and Yakov Trenin (2019-24) were previous members of the Predators.
Milestone Watch:
Jonathan Marchessault is one point from 500 in his NHL career.
Luke Schenn is one point from 200 in his NHL career.
Tommy Novak is one point from 100 in his NHL career.
Ryan O’Reilly is two assists from 500 and three games from 1,100 in his NHL career.
Filip Forsberg (722) is two games from passing Martin Erat (723) for the fourth-most in franchise history; is three power-play goals (78) from passing Shea Weber (80) for the most in Predators history; and is four goals from 300 in his NHL career.
Watch & Listen:
Coverage for tonight’s game begins at 6:30 p.m. CT with the Predators LIVE! pregame show on FanDuel Sports Network South, hosted by Lyndsay Rowley. Play-by-play announcer Willy Daunic and analyst Chris Mason will have the call on the television side.
Max Herz and Hal Gill will call the game on 102.5 The Game and the Predators Radio Network. 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.)
