The superstars shine in Nashville Predators preseason win over Hurricanes

Sure, it's only preseason, but it's always nice to see your star players light the lamp to the tune of six goals on the road, and that's what the Nashville Predators did at the Carolina Hurricanes on Wednesday night.

Jonathan Marchessault struck for two goals, while top line winger Gustav Nyquist also got a goal on a highlight reel assist from Filip Forsberg as he was falling down. Just vintage Forsberg making something out of nothing.

The unbreakable chemistry of Forsberg, Nyquist and Ryan O'Reilly seems to be picking up right where it left off from last season. They were the most consistent scoring top line in Predators history.

The veteran star players came to play in tune-up game for the regular season

Marchessault will have a massive role on Nashville's second line this season, and he also has quickly looked right at home in a Predators sweater this preseason. His first goal of the night came on a Steven Stamkos assist in the 2nd period to put Nashville up 5-2.

In the 3rd period, Marchessault added another goal, his third of the preseason, on an assist from captain Roman Josi to make it 6-2 for the good guys.

This was an outstanding showing for the offense from the Predators as the regular season opener against the Dallas Stars on October 10 is just a week away. Head Coach Andrew Brunette got a solid look at what his top two forward lines look like in this one.

There was also a friendly reminder that this Predators team is going to be feisty yet again because they still have brawler like Michael McCarron in the lineup. You don't normally see things get this heated in preseason action, but then again guys like McCarron don't mess around whether it's preseason, regular season, or rec league.

McCarron dropped the gloves with Carolina's Charles-Alexis Legault midway through the 2nd period. I have to assume it had something to do with the illegal check to Dante Fabbro's head by Legault just a couple minutes prior.

Should we be concerned about Wedgewood's preseason performances?

A couple downsides to the night was Scott Wedgewood having another mediocre performance in net. He's definitely having a rough time shaking off the rust from the offseason.

Wedgewood only faced 15 shots in this one, a credit to the defensive performance to the Predators, but surrenders four goals. He also had a bad night in his preseason debut against the Panthers when he gave up six goals on 23 shots faced.

Without falling victim of reading too much into the preseason, we need to see Wedgewood get one more start of the last two preseason games and hopefully he can put out a solid performance.

The other downside to the 6-4 win over the Hurricanes is the power play went 0-for-4. Again, it's preseason and it takes time to build the chemistry. But you'd still prefer to see them connect at least once on those four attempts.

The Predators were up against undrafted goalie Yaniv Perets, who actually put up a commedable performance while facing 32 shots from a lot of the Predators projected starting lineup.

The Hurricanes starting goalie competition is a mystery, but it will come down to either Frederik Andersen or Pyotr Kochetkov most likely. So the Predators saw the goalie in Perets who is at the bottom of the Canes depth chart.

The Predators' defense also had a really strong night, with goals from Jeremy Lauzon and Dante Fabbro while holding the Canes to just 15 shots on net and two power play attempts.

Tanner Molendyk is one of the top prospects in the Predators' system, and he was able to register over 14 minutes of ice time and get a couple shots on net. He saw action with fellow defensive prospect Adam Wilsby.

Next up on the preseason slate the Predators will welcome Carolina to Bridgestone Arena on Saturday, and the preseason will wrap up next Monday with a road clash against the Lightning, a make-up game due to Hurricane Helene.