Atrás
Something has to give at Honda Center tonight. The Nashville Predators (9-4-5) and Anaheim Ducks (10-7-1) both arrive on five-game winning streaks, and the Predators take theirs into Anaheim after a 3-0 win over the Los Angeles Kings on Tuesday that opened a five-game road trip. Puck drop is at 9 p.m. CT, and Nashville is on the second night of a back-to-back, having flown from Los Angeles after last night’s game. The Ducks are the more explosive team, and the Preds have the stingier one.
Nashville is playing its best hockey of the season. The Preds have earned a point in eight of their past nine games (6-1-2), and Tuesday’s shutout was Juuse Saros’ first since Jan. 3, 2025, on 30 saves. Filip Forsberg scored twice against the Kings and now has six goals over his last eight games. His line with Nils Hoglander and Shane Wright is coming together. Wright arrived from Seattle on Nov. 1, and the trio combined for a plus-7 on Tuesday, its best night together. Across the five wins, Nashville has held opponents to just eight goals.
Anaheim’s streak has come from offense. The Ducks have scored five or more goals in eight straight games, making them the eighth team in NHL history to do it. The power play is a big reason. Anaheim has scored with the man advantage in eight consecutive games, going 18-for-33 in that stretch, and its 38.5 percent power play leads the league. The supporting cast is producing too. Captain Mikael Granlund had a goal and three assists in Sunday’s win over Pittsburgh, and defenseman Jackson LaCombe has a 10-game assist streak, the longest by a Ducks defenseman. Laurent Brossoit is 4-0-0 since being recalled from the AHL on Oct. 31.
Then there’s Cutter Gauthier, who is the biggest problem for Nashville tonight. He has 13 goals during a six-game goal streak and 17 points during an eight-game point streak. He’s also the first player in NHL history to score three hat tricks in the first 10 days of a calendar month. Last season, the 22-year-old scored 41 goals and fired 285 shots on net in 76 games, and in September he re-signed with Anaheim on a six-year, $81 million deal. He scores from everywhere. Sunday’s goals came from the right circle, the slot, and an empty net, and he also picked up an assist. Nashville won’t shut him down, but it can limit how many looks he gets by keeping its sticks down and staying out of the penalty box. He can extend his goal streak to seven games tonight.
The Ducks will also look the part. They debuted their Hometown Remix sweaters Sunday, a bright green-and-purple look inspired by the District 5 Ducks of Disney’s Mighty Ducks films, and they’ll wear them again in front of the home crowd tonight. The debut couldn’t have gone better, with a 5-2 win and Gauthier’s third hat trick. The jerseys are a fun subplot, but the Preds need to keep the Honda Center crowd out of the game.
The best matchup is special teams. Anaheim’s league-best power play meets one of the NHL’s better penalty kills, and Nashville finished October at 88.9 percent. Every Nashville penalty becomes a chance for Gauthier and Granlund, so discipline matters even more on the second night of a back-to-back. The goaltending question is whether Andrew Brunette goes back to Saros, who played Tuesday a day after attending Pekka Rinne’s Hockey Hall of Fame induction in Toronto, or gives Justus Annunen the start.
This section will be updated during pregame warmups.
This section will be updated during pregame warmups.
Nashville
Anaheim
Atrás
Top
| Declaración de privacidad Términos del servicio Contacto |
Refresca
|
All the best breaking news stories from Apex Scores Lite. Optimised for feature phones and low end Android devices, Apex Scores Lite helps users with legacy devices and poor network connectivity access the latest football news and live scores. Particularly relevant for breaking football news in Nigeria, Kenya and South Africa.