The Arizona Coyotes will be saying goodbye to much more than the 2021-22 season when they host the Nashville Predators on Thursday.

It will be the final game for the Coyotes at Gila River Arena in Glendale, Ariz., after the city announced last year it was terminating the lease with the club at the end of the season.

After 19 seasons in Glendale, the Coyotes (24-50-7, 55 points) are set to begin next season at a smaller venue about 20 miles away on the campus of Arizona State University in Tempe.

Construction on the facility is expected to be completed in the fall and will feature a seating capacity of 5,100, compared to 17,125 for hockey games at Gila River Arena.

Friday’s game against the Predators will be bittersweet for many Arizona players.

Christian Fischer, who is completing his sixth season with the Coyotes, said what he’ll miss the most is greeting and conversing with the arena staff on game days.

“It’s going to be tough to leave that,” Fischer said. “As a Coyotes organization and myself personally, we’ve had some really fun times at that arena.”

The Predators (45-29-7, 97 points) are also playing the final game of their regular season, except they have the Stanley Cup playoffs on the horizon after securing one of the two wild-card spots from the Western Conference.

Nashville clinched a playoff spot on Tuesday, but the celebration was tempered when the Predators also lost No. 1 goalie Juuse Saros to a lower-body injury in a 5-4 overtime loss against the Calgary Flames.

Saros didn’t play in a 5-4 shootout win at the Colorado Avalanche on Thursday, and Predators coach John Hynes said he won’t play against the Coyotes.

Hynes spoke to 102.5 The Game in Nashville on Thursday and did not provide an update on Saros, except that he was still getting evaluated.

“We’re hopeful,” Hynes said. “But, I think, at this point in time it’s important for him to get a little bit of rest, let the thing settle down and then see where he goes from here over the next few days.”

Saros is ninth in the NHL with a .918 save percentage and tied for 15th in the NHL with a 2.64 goals-against average.

David Rittich started against the Avalanche and faced 20 shots in the first period, allowing three goals, before settling in and surrendering one goal on the next 26 shots in regulation and overtime, then blanking Colorado in the shootout.

Goalie Connor Ingram was recalled from Milwaukee of the American Hockey League on Wednesday and is expected to make his third NHL start against the Coyotes.

Depending on how well Saros recovers, Ingram and Rittich could be the goalies Nashville depends on during the playoffs.

Nashville may not play some of its other veterans against the Coyotes, but if Roman Josi scores, he’ll set a team record for goals by a defensemen in a season.

Josi scored his 23rd goal of the season against the Avalanche to tie Shea Weber, who scored 23 goals in the 2008-09 and 2013-14 seasons.

–Field Level Media

If there’s one thing the expansion Seattle Kraken haven’t learned yet, it’s how to play with a lead.

The Kraken (26-48-6, 58 points) have blown two-goal leads in three of their past four games, all losses, heading into their final regular-season home game Friday night against the San Jose Sharks (32-36-13, 77).

Seattle led 2-0 Wednesday against visiting Los Angeles, which wasn’t deploying its normal lineup after having already clinched a playoff berth, yet still lost 5-3.

“We couldn’t get sustained pressure (with the two-goal lead),” Kraken alternate captain Jordan Eberle said. “We had one good shift, bad shift, one good shift, bad shift.

“We were sloppy in the defensive zone. You give a team like that five feet, three feet, they’re able to make plays.”

Eberle noted a game last week in Minnesota, in which the Kraken led 2-0 after the first period only to allow five second-period goals. The same thing happened the next night in Dallas, when the Stars scored three second-period goals to take the lead en route to a 3-2 win.

“We’re going at teams, not shying away,” Eberle said. “We’re bringing plays to them and we’re in their face.

“As soon as we get leads, we sit back a bit. All of a sudden you give space to (opponents) to make plays. That’s when they keep coming at you … you are playing on your heels. We have to find a way in our locker room to figure out ways to go after teams when we have a lead.”

The score was tied at 3-3 heading into the third period Wednesday before the Kings scored twice, including an empty-netter, to win.

The Kraken got a four-minute power play, including nearly two full minutes of a five-on-three, in the third period but failed to capitalize.

“We didn’t spend enough time in the offensive zone, especially with (puck) retrievals,” Kraken coach Dave Hakstol said. “We had opportunities that were clear. We just didn’t execute. You don’t need more than one power-play goal most nights (to win).”

The Sharks will be playing the second half of a back-to-back after a 5-4 overtime defeat Thursday night in Edmonton in which they blew a 2-0 lead. Noah Gregor, a native of nearby Beaumont, Alberta, scored twice for San Jose in a 26-second span early in the first period.

“It was nice,” Gregor said. “Lots of family and friends in the crowd, so it’s nice to score a goal at any time in the NHL, but to have it when you’re in your hometown, it’s something special.

“We played strong for most of the game. We had a lot of offensive zone time, which is something we haven’t been able to do a lot throughout the year. So that was a big positive, but just holding on to leads, we couldn’t quite do it … it’s frustrating.”

Logan Couture had two assists and James Reimer made 26 saves for the Sharks, who have lost two in a row.

“It was one of our better games offensively on the cycle, generating chances; there were some positives out of this game,” Sharks coach Bob Boughner said. “But you get into three-on-three, that’s a recipe for disaster against Edmonton. We had a couple of chances, but you have to play an almost perfect overtime to get this thing to a shootout.”

–Field Level Media

Though their playoff hopes have been dashed, the Vancouver Canucks still have something to play for in their season finale at Edmonton on Friday night.

The Canucks (40-30-11, 91 points) still can pass preseason Pacific Division favorite Vegas Golden Knights (42-31-8, 92 points) and finish in fourth place with a win and a Golden Knights loss at St. Louis. The Blues are in a battle with the Minnesota Wild for home ice in their first-round playoff matchup and don’t figure to hold anything back.

Vancouver was dead last in the Pacific with a 8-15-2 record and 18 points when coach Bruce Boudreau took over for Travis Green on Dec. 6. The Canucks promptly won seven in a row and are 32-15-9 since.

The Canucks are 7-2-1 in their past 10 games and rallied from a 2-0 third-period deficit to defeat the Los Angeles Kings, 3-2, in overtime in their home finale on Thursday night — just 24 hours after the Dallas Stars clinched the final Western Conference playoff spot.

“I told them I was so proud of them,” Boudreau said. “It would have been easy for the last two games just to fold the tent. After fighting so hard for so long to get to where you want to be (in the playoff race) and you don’t get there, it’s like letting the air out of a balloon. But these guys keep fighting and fighting. It’s not going to surprise me (Friday) night if they’re going to fight again in Edmonton.”

Brock Boeser scored two goals in the comeback win, including the game-winner with a wrist shot rebound from the slot with 29.7 seconds left in overtime.

“Shows what our team is capable of,” Boeser said. “It’s pretty amazing where we are right now compared to the beginning of the year, and we take a lot of pride in that. We’ve got another big game (Friday) that we want to take pride in and finish the year strong.”

Edmonton (48-27-6, 102 points) already has second place in the Pacific and home ice for its first-round matchup with the Los Angeles Kings locked up and comes in off a 5-4 overtime win over visiting San Jose on Thursday. Zach Hyman scored the winner on a one-timer off a Ryan Nugent-Hopkins pass. Mikko Koskinen made 40 saves as the Oilers improved to 13-0-1 in their past 14 home games.

“We found a way to win,” Edmonton coach Jay Woodcroft said. “What a play by Ryan Nugent-Hopkins to find Hyman like that and a great finish by Zach.”

With the playoffs on deck and nothing to really play for, Woodcroft was asked if he might rest some of his key players in the regular-season finale.

“I think we’re just going to enjoy tonight, enjoy the win for the next 20 minutes or so, and the we’ll see how everybody wakes up in the morning,” Woodcroft said with a smile after the win. “We’ll make our decisions then.”

Woodcroft said he would take playing the second game of a back-to-back into consideration when trying to decide whether to rest any players.

“Yes, just the work load,” he said. “I still haven’t seen anything from the league or anything confirming (playoff) dates. So for us the back-to-back will factor into our decision-making for (Friday) night’s lineup.”

–Field Level Media