GAMEDAY 49: BOO HE’S BACK, MAN

PITTSBURGH (30-13-5) VS NASHVILLE (24-17-8)

THE PAINT CAN. PITTSBURGH, PA

7:00 PM EST. ROOT Sports

Congratulations hockey fans, we have successfully made it through 2/3s of the NHLs annual cash grab schedule, and since the Stadium Series games are mostly hockey, we’re just about in the home stretch. We are also getting ready to enter the absolute worst month of the season. February sucks for hockey. The players barely care every game (not faulting them, you know your ass doesn’t show up every Thursday ready to “work”), every player becomes a trade rumor, every loss becomes a playoff defeat. Coming into town tonight to close out the month of January is the Nashville Predators and everyone’s favorite defender. P.K. Subban is currently in his 8th season in the NHL and his first with Nashville, which brings an interesting dynamic to our game this evening. For some reason Pittsburghers tend to boo Subban every time he touches the puck. Some say it’s because he is a star player and that’s what fans do, which is a solid argument except it apparently doesn’t apply to any other star player. Some say it’s because of that time he cut Jordan Staal’s foot in the playoffs, which if that’s true you need therapy. What makes tonights game interesting is now that Subban is in the West we only get to see him in Pittsburgh once a year, so will the boo-birds avenging Jordan Staal’s poor foot from 7 years ago be out tonight?? Only time will tell. Our friends over at pens.hockey were able to capture the crowd during Subbans last visit to Pittsburgh.

In addition to Subban the Penguins also get to welcome back James Neal, though most of us forgot him because you know, the Phil guy and what not. Evgeni Malkin may be happy to see Neal now that Sidney Crosby was caught chumming it up with Ovechkin. Word on the street is these will be given to every fan in attendance tonight:

The Predators will be traveling without their new mascot, Bill Cosby, tonight, due to a restraining order in Wexford. The Predators, under the influence of Cosby were stumbling earlier in the season, but have since found a way to turn it around and climb back into the playoff race, and are currently 7-2-1 in their last 10. The Penguins, meanwhile have been dealing with roster changes every game and are currently in their worst stretch of 10 games this season, mostly because Steelers fans are now watching hockey.

PROJECTED STARTING LINEUPS:

Kris Letang was reported yesterday as good to go for tonight, which means the entire defense should be together for the first time since Christmas. The Penguins once again called up Rowney, but it isn’t clear yet if that was a just in case situation or not. In years past NHLers have had to serve a 1 game suspension for missing the ASG, I don’t think that is still the case with Malkin, but I’m honestly not positive. In goal tonight for Pittsburgh will most likely be Matt Murray, the starter of the last 6 in a row. As for Nashville… is that James Neal on the third line? Make no mistake though, Neal is leading the team with 17 goals. I’m starting to think that every team in the league has to have at least one Mr.Wilson playing for them. The Predators live and die by their top 2 lines, who rank 1-6 in points for the team. After the third line comes out the production falls off quickly, which is most likely why they moved James Neal to that line, in an attempt to beef up their depth. Though just like your ex told you, extra movement doesn’t equal more depth.

WHO TO WATCH:

FOR NASHVILLE:          VIKTOR ARVIDSSON

The Swede has been a pleasant surprise for Nashville, and was a threat to the Penguins in their first meeting of the season. Of course that Penguins team was missing Letang, Crosby, and Murray but hey, who’s counting. The Predators have a lot of speed in their lineup, and the Penguins defense hasn’t been the fastest fleet recently. If Arvidsson and the rest of the first line can get the motor going, it’s going to be a long night for the Penguins defense.

FOR PITTSBURGH:          TREVOR DALEY

Daley hasn’t been the same player the Penguins saw last season. He’s also a veteran in this league and is getting up there in hockey years. Some of us think he is one of those players that knows when to turn it on in a season in order to save himself. Though February isn’t the time to do that if it is true, Daley is going to have to step up tonight to deal with Nashville’s speed. He will most likely unfortunately be paired with Maatta again, a pairing that has been by far the worst pairing on the Pens blue line. Nashville is most likely getting hard looking at the potential match up between either of their top two lines against the lack of speed that is the Daley-Maatta pairing.

FINAL THOUGHTS:

When healthy these two teams usually put on a speed clinic. After they shake off the long weekend rust it wouldn’t surprise me to see one of the fastest paced games we’ve seen all year. Though this style of play falls in nicely with the team the Penguins have built, those types of games haven’t been the best for the Penguins defense. With a defense that is finally healthy, it wouldn’t surprise me to see Sullivan attempt to mix up some pairings in the next few games to see if he can find a new combination that works. I don’t expect that to happen tonight, because the last thing you want to do is give a fast team like Nashville an advantage. Two extremely fast teams, two solid defenses, and two great goalies, this is a perfect game to cleanse yourself from the trash that was All Star Weekend.

LET’S GO PENS