With a CHI win last night, and the rest of the Central Division in action today, a Blues win tonight would be HUGE. We've seen a great stretch of hockey, but the rest of the division (and the Western Conference) will not allow the Blues to rely on that one good mid-season run. Those division match-ups are key in keeping pace with the rest of the pack.
Also, I'm here to watch them.
Keep an eye out for some of your fellow GameTimers in the stands tonight, as I am joined by DanGNR, Donut King, BluesMay, I AM SPARTACUS, Sarah Connors, Hartigan, HildyMac, and others from the TwitterVerse on our road trip adventure. The twitter hashtag is #EpicDec if you want to follow along or live vicariously through us.
A win would be huge for the Blues... and it would be huge for the road-trippers. It would be downright
The Enemy: We already know these guys pretty well. The most surprising thing would be the fact that Nashville has the 4th-best power play in the league. If the game comes down to the special teams, it doesn't bode well. Unless, of course, Hitchcock has finally had that One Practice that fixes everything. Then, we're all good. Their top scorer is empty-net specialist Craig Smith (8G / 16A). The next two on the list are the Preds core D pairing: Shea Weber (8G / 15A) and Ryan Suter (5G / 16A). Nashville is not known for scoring, and that's reflected in 2 of their top-scorers being D-men. Then, of course, there's Pekka Rinne. In 28 starts, he is 14-9-4 with a 2.54 GAA and .920 SV%. He has been a tough nut to crack for the Blues.
Further Reading:
Blues vs Predators coverage
Final Verse: The game is at 7 PM St Louis time. The GDT thread should be along shortly beforehand. The broadcasts are on the usual outlets: FSMidWest for TV and KMOX 1120 AM for the radio. Until then, this is your Official #EpicDec pregame warmup. Gather here, talk about those obnoxious visiting team fans that we all want to be, and take in the considerable shot of one Shea Weber:
Weber Goal Zone shot (via NashvillePredatorsTV)
LGB!
-CrossCheckRaise