Nashville Predators (5-9-2) at Edmonton Oilers (8-7-1)
TV: Sportsnet West. Radio: 880 CHED.
TIME: 7 p.m. Thursday
Odds: Predators +146, Oilers -178
PREDATORS TO PREY
This is the third and final meeting between the two clubs this season, with Edmonton winning the first two by scores of 4-2 and 5-1. There was a time Nashville owned the Oilers, having won 13 straight games against them from Oct. 29, 2014, to Oct. 20, 2018, outscoring the Oilers 40-15 in the streak. However, the tables have turned and the Oilers are 13-1-2 in their last 16 games against the Predators.
MILLENNIAL MARK FOR MCDAVID
Sitting at 999 career points, Oilers captain Connor McDavid needs just one more to become the fourth-fastest player in NHL history to reach 1,000 points. Thursday will be his 659th game, having earned 340 goals and 659 assists. Only Wayne Gretzky (424), Mario Lemieux (513) and Mike Bossy (656) needed fewer.
POLAR OPPOSITE PK
You can’t find two further extremes in penalty killing than these two teams. The Predators lead the league with a success rate of 90.9 against the man-advantage, while the Oilers are all the way down at the bottom at 61.0 per cent. The wild thing is, last year in the playoffs the Oilers boasted an NHL-best 94.3 per cent. What a difference one off-season makes.
COACH’S ANNIVERSARY
Kris Knoblauch just celebrated his one-year anniversary as head coach of the Oilers by doing the same thing he did Day 1 on the job, earning a win against the New York Islanders. He is 54-25-6 for a franchise-high .671 win percentage over his first full calendar year behind the bench.
THE POLL
Needing just one point to get to 1,000, how many will Connor McDavid earn Thursday?
- Zero
- 1-2
- 3-4
- 5
THE QUOTE
“He hits milestones all the time, but I think this one is obviously a special one. Not many people get there.” — Oilers forward Zach Hyman on McDavid reaching 1,000 points
THE LINEUPS
NASHVILLE
Forwards
Forsberg/O’Reilly/Stamkos
Marchessault/Sissons/Nyquist
Evangelista/Parssinen/Tomasino
Smith/McCarron/L’Heureux
Defence
Skjei/Josi
Lauzon/Carrier
Del Gaizo/Schenn
Goalies
Saros/Wedgewood
EDMONTON
Forwards
Nugent-Hopkins/McDavid/Hyman
Podkolzin/Draisaitl/Arvidsson
Janmark/Henrique/Brown
Skinner/Ryan/Perry
Defence
Ekholm/Bouchard
Nurse/Dermott
Kulak/Emberson
Goalies
Pickard/Skinner
INJURIES
NASHVILLE: None
EDMONTON: W Viktor Arvidsson (undisclosed) will be a game-time decision after taking a maintenance day Wednesday
E-mail: [email protected]
On Twitter: @GerryModdejonge