Time: 7:00pm ET
Place: Little Caesars Arena – Detroit, MI
TV: BSDET, BSSO
Radio: 97.1 FM The Ticket
Predators Blog: On the Forecheck
After a week of long nights, the Red Wings return home to start off a five game homestand by welcoming in an old rival to Little Caesars Arena this Thanksgiving eve. Former division foe and playoff problem Nashville Predators come into Detroit earning points in their last five games and looking make it six. Fun fact, this is Nashville’s first road game since November 10th and after tonight they go back to Nashville and will not see the road again until the calendar turns to December.
Up front Nashville is getting solid play from their top forwards as Filip Forsberg (7G/12A), Matt Duchene (5G/10A), Mikael Granlund (2G/13A), Ryan Johansen (5G/6A), and Nino Niederreiter (9G/2A) are all over ten points on the season. While the likes of Michael McCarron, Tanner Jeannot, Cody Glass, and Colton Sissons make it difficult on opposing teams physically. The blue line is not quite the dominant back end Nashville once had but they still have plenty of talent back there. Roman Josi leads them offensively with four goals and sixteen points in nineteen games while his partner Ryan McDonagh remains one of the better defensive defensemen in the league. Mattias Ekholm and Dante Fabbro have not lived up to expectations so far this season as neither one has more than six points but both are still good int heir own end and capable of making plays if they are given the time to do so. In net, Jusse Saros continues to be a bit inconsistent with a .905 save percentage in 15 appearances while Kevin Lankinen has shown a little more promise in posting a .921 save percentage in five games.
Nashville certainly feels like one of those also ran kind of teams that seem to have too much talent to be bad but not enough to really compete long term but they cannot justify selling it off. This is a team Detroit can beat but they will have to play with the same level of grit, determination, and opportunity seizing that they played the last two game with because Nashville is a team that does not go away easy.