The Nashville Predators will open a five-game homestand when they play the Washington Capitals on Saturday night.
The Predators last played on Tuesday when they completed a six-game road trip with a 5-2 loss at the Winnipeg Jets.
Washington, in turn, travels to Nashville after a 3-2 overtime loss to the visiting Montreal Canadiens on Friday.
The Capitals may be without the services of goaltender Charlie Lindgren, who left the game with an upper-body injury after a collision with Montreal captain Nick Suzuki. Head coach Spencer Carbery said Lindgren was still being evaluated after the game.
Logan Thompson made 18 saves in relief of Lindgren.
Defenseman Jakob Chychrun and Lars Eller each scored a goal for the Capitals, who extended their point streak to six games (3-0-3) and their home point streak to 10 (7-0-3).
“Any time you get points in this league it’s positive and it’s really, really difficult to get points, especially when you’re playing the way we are right now,” Carbery said. “It’s a struggle. We’ve got to get some guys going again. We’ve got to get some guys’ seasons turned around.”
One bright spot was forward Ethan Frank, who earned an assist in his NHL debut. He raced to prevent an icing call and then fed Eller for the goal that forged a 2-2 tie at 1:54 of the third period.
“I thought he was arguably our best player on the ice,” Carbery said of Frank. “Has a positive impact. He’s the reason that we get that game tied. Thought he was fantastic.”
Superstar captain Alex Ovechkin remains 23 goals shy of passing Hall of Fame member Wayne Gretzky (894) for the most in NHL history.
Captain Roman Josi collected a goal and an assist and Filip Forsberg also scored for the Predators on Tuesday. Nashville had won two straight but finished 2-4-0 on its six-game trek.
“It’s going to be nice to be home,” Josi said. “It feels like we’ve been on the road a lot here in the last couple of weeks, and it’s going to be nice to play in front of our fans and play at Bridgestone for a couple games.”
Winnipeg scored twice in a span of 16 seconds early in the first period Tuesday.
“I thought we played fast. I thought we had the puck a lot, and then to give up the first [goal] kind of stung us a bit, and to give up one 16 seconds later, which is never a recipe for success, and (we) let it go a little bit,” Predators coach Andrew Brunette said.
Forsberg’s goal ended an 18-game drought. He has 10 goals in 41 games this season after scoring 48 in 82 in 2023-24.
Predators forward Steven Stamkos was absent from practice on Thursday after leaving in the second period against Winnipeg. The team, however, announced his absence was for routine rest.
Stamkos has 12 points (five goals, seven assists) in his past 13 games. In 41 games, he has 12 goals and 13 assists after signing with Nashville in the offseason.
Forward Luke Evangelista, who also left Tuesday’s game with an injury, will be out four weeks with lower-body injury.
–Field Level Media
