Nashville Predators: Breaking down tonight’s Red Wings matchup
By CJ Wodushek
Get ready, Nashville Predators fans, it’s a home game against the Detroit Red Wings tonight. Can the Preds continue starting off the season right?
Game one for the Nashville Predators lived up to the hype that the fan base was expecting. It took the entire game, however riding a three-assist night by Duchene the Predators got it done beating the Wild five to two. The Predators look forward to their game against the Detroit Red Wings tonight.
Tonight starts the Red Wing’s season debut to the 2019-20 season. Overall, the Red Wings had a quiet offseason. Nikolas Kronwall retiring was the biggest news that came out of Detroit. Detroit did acquire forward Adam Erne from the Tampa Bay Lightning for a 2020 fourth-round draft pick as well.
Per WingingItInMoTown, the practice lines as of this morning were as follows:
Bertuzzi – Larkin – Mantha
Glendening – Athanasiou – Hirose
Erne – Nielsen – Filppula
Ehn – de la Rose – Abdelkader
Nemeth – Green
DeKeyser – Hronek
Cholowski – Daley
Howard
Bernier
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For today’s game, a big decision rests on if Athanasiou plays due to an undisclosed reason. Athanasiou was a main factor in Detroit’s two match ups from last season scoring in both games.
Losing him would be detrimental to the second line as the depth for the Red Wings is lacking his level of talent. If he is unable to play, expect Helm to rotate into the lineup.
Another player to watch out for is the speedy Dylan Larkin. Easily underappreciated, Larkin tallied 73 points in 76 games played last season. In the matchups against the Predators Larkin also tallied 2 goals, one game each, to lead his team to victory. Having him run with Tyler Bertuzzi and Anthony Mantha poses the biggest threat to the Predators tonight.
As far as the Predators go, Thursday night’s game was a great showing for the team. The team exploded in the third period scoring four goals and heavily outplayed Minnesota the entire period. While the Predators did not score on their three power-play chances, the team was buzzing around the net creating positive chances for a goal. Granlund was able to get one past the net-minder, however, it was blown dead for using a high stick. This should give the fan base hope and the team confidence going into tonight’s game.
The starting lineup for your Nashville Predators should be the same lineup as it was on Thursday. Per Tom Willis on the official site of the Predators, practice lines for today were as follows:
Smith – Johansen – Arvidsson
Forsberg – Duchene – Granlund
Grimaldi – Turris – Jarnkrok
Sissons – Bonino – Watson
Josi – Ellis
Ekholm – Fabbro
Hamhuis – Weber
One major line up change that the Predators will see tonight is the season debut for Juuse Saros. This will pose as a great match up to get Saros ready for the year ahead. Saros has only matched up against the Red Wings twice in his career winning one and losing one. He has tallied 65 saves over 69 total shots for a .942 save percentage.
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Prepare for another electric atmosphere tonight at Bridgestone as the Predators look to remain undefeated in this new year. With Saros getting the nod in net, the crowd will be loud and echo “Juuse” through the rafters during every save. Puck drop is at 7 p.m. CDT.