GAMEDAY THREAD 52/82: Nashville Predators at Vegas Golden Knights

The Golden Knights welcome the Nashville Predators to T-Mobile Arena in the final game before the All-Star break and bye week.

The Predators are coming off a 4-1 win against the Avalanche but will turn to backup netminder Juuse Saros tonight in Sin City. He will square off against Marc-Andre Fleury, who has a 9-5-1 career record against the Predators. This will be Fleury’s first start against the Predators this season after Malcolm Subban manned the crease in Vegas’ 4-1 loss in Nashville back in October.

Vegas is hopeful to bounce back from a disappointing 4-2 loss the other night against Minnesota. The Knights gave up three goals from in tight thanks to poor coverage around the net, so cleaning that up should be a priority against Nashville, who has the exact same record as the Knights (29-18-4 with 62 points).

Nashville will get center Ryan Johansen back in the lineup after he served a two-game suspension; he will join Filip Forsberg and Viktor Arvidsson on the Predators’ top line, which is a formidable force the Knights will have to keep in check if they wish to take home two points.

Here are the projected lineups for both clubs:

Golden Knights
Marchessault — Karlsson — Pirri
Pacioretty — Stastny — Tuch
Lindberg — Eakin — Carpenter
Nosek — Bellemare — Reaves

McNabb — Schmidt
Theodore — Engelland
Merrill — Miller

Fleury
Lagace

Predators
Forsberg (#9) — Johansen (#92) — Arvidsson (#33)
Fiala (#22) — Sissons (#10) — Smith (#15)
Jarnkrok (#19) — Bonino (#13) — Watson (#51)
Hartman (#38) — Gaudreau (#89) — Grimaldi (#23)

Josi (#59) — Subban (#76)
Ekholm (#14) — Ellis (#4)
Hamhuis (#5) — Irwin (#52)

Saros (#74)
Rinne (#35)

ICYMI, check out the preview for tonight’s game.

For the Nashville perspective, here’s the preview from On the Forecheck, the SB Nation site for the Predators.

Let’s discuss!