Hockey is a lot to keep up with and if you’re a busy Middle Tennessean but are still a fan of the hometown Predators, we have your weekly Nashville Predators update with everything you need to know right here.
Last Week
January 24th, 2-1 win vs Winnipeg Jets
January 26th, 6-4 vs New Jersey Devils
This was a character win for Nashville. “Sure, they beat The Kings but there’s no way they can keep the momentum going. They’ve got the Jets coming in.” Maybe you thought that and nobody would fault you for doing so, especially when Winnipeg scored in the first minute of the game, but Nashville rallied. The penalty kill remained strong keeping The Jets from lighting the lamp with three attempts, Glass continued to play well with an impressive redirection goal, Jeannot broke his scoring drought that had been keeping him out of the net since October with the game winner, and Saros had multiple highlight saves that kept The Preds in this one.
Well, it was out of the frying pan and into the fire for Nashville with The Devils coming to town as the best road team in The NHL. The Preds had momentum and if they wanted to take it into the All-Star break they were going to have to get past New Jersey. In the Jets game Nashville won a low scoring grind-it-out type game. For this one The Preds were able to win a fast-paced higher scoring game. They killed all penalties for the second straight game, Glass and Jeannot both scored in back to back contests, and the big names stepped up with Granlund, Duchene, and Forsberg all scoring goals as Nashville won 6-4, making it three wins in a row going into the break.
This is what Coach Hynes had to say about the week and what it meant to the team:
“This was a week we had to make a statement about who we are and who we want to be. I thought we did a really good job. I’m proud of the effort and it’s nice to get the results.”
– Coach Hynes said following the 6-4 win with @KaraHammer.@PredsNHL l #Smashville pic.twitter.com/ln2sMxFPuJ
— Bally Sports: Preds (@PredsOnBally) January 27, 2023
Nashville now sits at 24-18-6 with 54 points. They are sitting at 20th in the NHL, 10th in the Western Conference, 5th in the Central Division, and three points out of a Wild Card spot.
This Week
NHL All-Star Game and Skills Challenges
All-Star Weekend will be taking place in Sunrise Florida on February 3rd and 4th, hosted by The Florida Panthers. Friday will be the skills competitions on ESPN and ESPN+, while the game will take place on Saturday on ABC and ESPN+.
Juuse Saros will be representing Nashville with a save percentage of .921
You can find the full roster and descriptions of the skill challenges here.
Nashville’s next game will be at home against The Vegas Golden Knights on February 7th at 7:00
