Tampa Bay Lightning at Nashville Predators Preview and Game Day Thread

Tampa Bay Lightning at Nashville Predators: GAME #51

Time: 7:30 pm Eastern Time

Location: Nissan Stadium

Broadcast/Streaming: ESPN+, TNT, TVAS2, SN360

Opponent SBNation Site: On The Forecheck

After almost 30 years of waiting and three Stanley Cups, the Tampa Bay Lightning will finally debut in their first ever outdoor game, Tonight the Bolts will face the Nashville Predators in the Stadium Series game at Nissan Stadium.

On the current Lightning’s roster just five players have an experience of playing in an outdoor game: Ryan McDonagh holds the record amongst them with four outdoor games appearances during his stint with the New York Rangers, while Pierre-Edouard Bellemare played in such games three times, and each of Pat Maroon, Brian Elliott and Corey Perry played twice. Coincidentally Corey Perry’s last appearance was also against the Predators, when he played for the Dallas Stars during the Winter Classic game in Dallas. He ended up being suspended for five games after elbowing Ryan Ellis in that game.

The Lightning are going into this game as one of the NHL leaders. They’re currently second in the Atlantic Division, trailing the Florida Panthers by three points with two games in hand. After last game’s victory over the Edmonton Oilers, the Bolts also extended their winning streak to three games, having also won seven of their last ten games.

Meanwhile the Preds are sitting in one of the last playoff spots in the Western Conference. They’re currently just one point behind the Minnesota Wild in the standings and have a pretty big gap from the Dallas Stars and Anaheim Ducks, who could still intervene in the playoff race, but with 30 games to go before the end of the regular season, nothing is guaranteed for the Preds.

Roman Josi leads the Predators in points with 53 (14+39) in 50 games, while Filip Forsberg leads his team in goals with 26. Filip Forsberg is one of the biggest targets at this year’s trade deadline after some reports has appeared on twitter, that the team is actively shopping him. The 27-year-old Swedish forward is having a very strong season and will become an unrestricted free agent this summer.

The Lightning and Predators played eight times during the previous shortened regular season, with the Bolts beating them 6-2-0 in the season series, however the last game between them ended with a big 7-2 loss in Nashville.

Tampa Bay Lightning Projected Lines

Forwards

Ondrej Palat - Brayden Point - Nikita Kucherov

Alex Killorn - Steven Stamkos - Mathieu Joseph

Pat Maroon - Pierre-Edouard Bellemare - Corey Perry

Ross Colton - Anthony Cirelli - Taylor Raddysh

Defense

Victor Hedman - Jan Rutta

Ryan McDonagh - Erik Cernak

Mikhail Sergachev - Cal Foote

Goaltenders

Andrei Vasilevskiy

Brian Elliott

Nashville Predators Projected Lines

Forwards

Filip Forsberg - Mikael Granlund - Matt Duchene

Luke Kunin - Ryan Johansen - Philip Tomasion

Yakov Trenin - Colton Sissons - Tanner Jeannot

Eeli Tolvanen - Michael Mccarron - Matt Luff

Defense

Roman Josi - Dante Fabbro

Mattias Ekholm - Matt Benning

Alexandre Carrier - Philippe Myers

Goaltenders

Juuse Saros

David Rittich