Image via user scragz on Flickr.
Fresh off an exciting, crowd-pleasing victory over the Chicago Blackhawks Saturday night, the Nashville Predators face the challenge of bringing another energetic effort against the Columbus Blue Jackets, who are pretty much playing out the string and waiting to see which players get traded out of town over the next few weeks.
The Preds, on the other hand, are eyeing the upper echelon of the Western Conference standings, and the two points at stake tonight would put Nashville right on Chicago's tail...
| Columbus (13-28-6) at Nashville (28-16-4) | |||||||
| CBJ Offense vs. NSH Defense | NSH Offense vs. CBJ Defense | ||||||
| 5-on-5 | |||||||
| GF/60 | SF/60 | Shoot % | GA/60 | SA/60 | Save % | ||
| CBJ Offense | 2.1 (23rd) | 29.1 (16th) | 7.2 (27th) | 2.7 (23rd) | 29.3 (10th) | 906 (25th) | CBJ Defense |
| NSH Defense | 2.3 (9th) | 31.0 (28th) | 924 (9th) | 2.2 (19th) | 26.8 (26th) | 8.4 (14th) | NSH Offense |
| GA/60 | SA/60 | Save % | GF/60 | SF/60 | Shoot % | ||
| Special Teams | |||||||
| CBJ PP vs. NSH PK | NSH PP vs. CBJ PK | ||||||
| GF/60 | SF/60 | Shoot % | GA/60 | SA/60 | Save % | ||
| CBJ 5-on-4 | 4.8 (23rd) | 53.4 (6th) | 8.9 (28th) | 9.0 (30th) | 51.6 (17th) | 826 (30th) | CBJ 4-on-5 |
| NSH 4-on-5 | 6.2 (18th) | 52.5 (21st) | 882 (15th) | 7.5 (2nd) | 49.2 (14th) | 15.3 (2nd) | NSH 5-on-4 |
| GA/60 | SA/60 | Save % | GF/60 | SF/60 | Shoot % | ||
As has been written about in several outlets, the skaters aren't doing such a bad job in Columbus, even if you narrow the Shots For & Against number to when games are tied, to avoid the impact of them falling behind so often and piling up cheap shots in a comeback attempt. Goaltending has been the real sore spot for the Blue Jackets.
As if a season down the toilet isn't bad enough, the Blue Jackets have been decimated by injuries lately, just check out their sick bay:
There is some talk that R.J. Umberger might get back in tonight, at least, but those are, by and large, all key players that the Blue Jackets were relying upon.
The big news, however, is that after defenseman Radek Martinek was shut down for the season, Columbus brought in former Predator Brett Lebda to plug the gap. He may well make his Blue Jackets debut tonight:
If you recall, Lebda became a Predator in the July 3rd trade which sent Matthew Lombardi and Cody Franson to Toronto. The next month, Nashville bought Lebda out of his contract and sent him on his way. According to NHL Numbers, the Preds are paying him $517,000 not to play here this season, and $467,000 in 2012-13.
The Preds have their work cut out for them before taking off for the All-Star break, as they are wrapping up a 6-games-in-9-days stretch between tonight and tomorrow's games. They've done well so far, winning three out of the first four, a performance which has given them some separation from the six teams battling for the 7th & 8th positions in the Western Conference standings.
The one guy who probably doesn't want to take a break later this week is Sergei Kostitsyn. With 7 goals in his last 10 games, I'm sure he'd like to keep his hot streak rolling...
There are three main lineup questions heading into this game for Nashville:
0 recs | 34 comments
I HATE THESE TYPE GAMES
that glass always looks 1/2 empty instead of the brimming full many see.
predswilrule - January 23, 2012
This game is a measuring stick too...
Th Chicago game was a measuring stick, but so is tonight. Is this team ready to win when it should even though it’s Monday night, bottom feeder opponent, and the all-star break is around the corner? Do we have the fire in our belly to TCB? We have seen signs of late that the team does indeed have that fire. They need to bring it tonight early and often. Send a message that this team takes its business seriously.
Go Preds!
bandman - January 23, 2012
IMO
Any win tonight makes this 9 game stretch incredibly productive and makes the chicago game tomorrow strictly bonus points. Zero points tonight and the game in the madhouse becomes make or break.
wrandsw - January 23, 2012 via mobile
Rationale being you have to get 2 points in more than 2/3 of your games to be a top tier team.
wrandsw - January 23, 2012 via mobile
That is 109 points in a season (82 × 2 =164 × 2/3 = 109.333). Yeah, I’d say that is top tier for sure!
snaveekram - January 23, 2012
Division title worthy???
snaveekram - January 23, 2012
Also allows for the 5 to 10 game stretch of stinkers that most teams go through.
wrandsw - January 23, 2012
let’s just win out the rest of the season and not have to worry
Creeping Death - January 23, 2012
Yeah, this seems like the easiest way. We just need to stop playing around with this league. We have sand-bagged long enough.
cisar - January 23, 2012
Greetings from Columbus
A couple of injury/Lebda notes:
1) No way Umberger is back tonight. I’d be surprised if they put him in before the ASB. It would be a silly risk at this point.
2) Lebda will most likely be in tonight. Nikita Nikitin got his knee wrecked on Saturday after being boarded by Henrik Zetterberg, and we’ve made no moves to call anyone else up. This means the Preds will score at least three goals, since Lebda will undoubtedly be at least -3.
Dan P. - January 23, 2012
Me and my hubris; the CBJ did just activate Umberger from IR, so shows what I know.
Dan P. - January 23, 2012
Eh, what can you do? I wonder how his conditioning state will be though. I guess they feel he will be ok, otherwise he wouldn’t have been activated. You all need players to get healthy – hopefully the AS Break will help them along.
OddManRush - January 23, 2012
so
B/c Lebda is now signed do the Preds get some cash back??
ajs3677 - January 23, 2012
Nope.
Patten - January 23, 2012
And it is totally worth the money we are paying to have him not play for us.
cisar - January 23, 2012
damn
thats too bad
ajs3677 - January 23, 2012
He’s only getting 500k and we are either 29th or 30th in payroll including that so it doesnt hurt us too bad
Joel Ward is my Homeboy - January 23, 2012
one observation from the CBJ-Nashville games I've watched
Columbus likes to come out of the gate running on all cylinders. They play a very up-tempo game. Yet I wonder if this is why they give up so many leads at the end of the games, do they just run out of gas after two periods? Just my theory. Might just be when they play us though, I’m sure they hate Nashville with a passion…
JBoogie22 - January 23, 2012
Yeah, I heard Trotz say there is absolutely NO love lost between our teams. I’d believe it. We’re the older brother that keeps beating up on the little brother. I’d be pissed at us too.
davisca - January 23, 2012
Suter is in, per NHL.com btw!
http://www.nhl.com/ice/blogpost.htm?id=5881
DonBorvio - January 23, 2012
Wow. Seems like we are getting all kinds of Suter information directly from the league nowadays. This, him missing the game on the road trip … what’s next?
OddManRush - January 23, 2012
Different guys
John Manasso (who wrote the article linked above) covers the Preds and contributes at NHL.com among other places.
Dirk Hoag - January 23, 2012
the same NHL.com that messes up the whole time?
Creeping Death - January 23, 2012
peks gets the start tonight, and will be asked tomorrow if he wants to play again. decision is his.
predmama - January 23, 2012
so he will start both nights. Pekka is a warrior and won’t want to sit
Creeping Death - January 23, 2012
that’s what i was thinking
predmama - January 23, 2012
Appropriate decision
Lesser being like Patrick Roy and Nabokov called their shots.
Pekka deserves to, and unless he looks tired/struggling (like he did back in Dec.), play ’im.
PekKarlsson - January 23, 2012
Awesome goal by Karlsson the other night…
cisar - January 23, 2012
....
you win some, you bat some into your own net, is the ol’ saying
PekKarlsson - January 23, 2012
Hehe. He looked pretty sorrowful after that one.
cisar - January 23, 2012
He'll play both nights
Only two games to go before a long all-star break. He’ll push through and get some well deserved rest.
RemoWilliams84 - January 23, 2012
I’m good with this because the break is ahead, but his workload is a concern and the decision shouldn’t be his. Ask a goalie if he/she wants to play, and the answer is yes.
el pucko - January 23, 2012
What if you are asking them to play pinochle?
cisar - January 23, 2012
Lets go preds!!
I need win from the preds, my niners let me down last night. Go preds!!!
Preds&niners - January 23, 2012 via mobile
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