The Nashville Predators (20-30-7, 47 points) will wrap up their four-game home stand with a Central Division showdown against the first-place Winnipeg Jets (42-14-3, 87 points) Thursday at Bridgestone Arena.
The Predators, who have lost two straight, will be without their captain, Roman Josi, who exited Tuesday’s loss to the Florida Panthers with an upper-body injury and is currently listed as day-to-day.
Juuse Saros will get the start in goal for Nashville, while Eric Comrie will mind the net for Winnipeg.
How the Predators will line up vs. Winnipeg
Forsberg-O’Reilly-Nyquist
Sissons-Stamkos-Marchessault
Novak-Svechkov-Evangelista
Bellows-McCarron-Sissons
Skjei-Blankenburg
Del Gaizo-Schenn
Englund-Barron
Saros
Annunen
Extra: Josi (day-to-day, upper-body), Jankowski (day-to-day, upper-body), L’Heureux (week-to-week, upper-body)
IR: Lauzon, Wilsby
The Predators on Thursday recalled defenseman Marc Del Gaizo from the AHL’s Milwaukee Admirals to take Josi’s place in the lineup against the Jets.
Predators vs. Jets Live Updates
First Period (WPG 1, NSH 2)
Nashville’s newly reunited top line of Filip Forsberg, Ryan O’Reilly and Gustav Nyquist quickly rekindled their chemistry from last season and combined for the first goal of the game at 4:26 of the first period. After O’Reilly won the face-off in the Jets’ zone, Nyquist flipped the puck to Forsberg, who got a quick shot off to give Nashville the early 1-0 lead.
Nashville weathered the storm and killed off a Forsberg tripping penalty against the Jets’ NHL-leading power play (31.7%), but Winnipeg still managed to get one back at even strength when Neal Pionk ripped a one-timer from the point that beat Saros through traffic to tie the game at the 11:05 mark.
The Predators had an answer on the power play later in the period, when a cross-ice pass from Justin Barron found Tommy Novak in front of the net for the score to give Nashville a 2-1 lead at 15:29.
Second Period (WPG 1, NSH 2)
Nashville got into some penalty trouble late in the second period when Colton Sissons was whistled for interference against Mark Scheifele. Just six seconds into the penalty kill, Nick Blankenburg was called for a delay of game penalty (puck over glass), giving Winnipeg 1:54 of a 5-on-3 advantage.
The Jets managed seven shot attempts, including three misses, one blocked by O’Reilly and three stopped by Saros. Nashville successfully killed the penalties and kept the Jets off the board for the remainder of the period to maintain the 2-1 lead.
