Red Wings-Predators morning skate Tweets and articles: Context galore; Mrazek vs. Saros?

Update: Mike Green is out tonight with an upper-body injury.

The Detroit Red Wings will open a home-and-sort-of-home series against the Nashville Predators this evening (8 PM EST on FSD/FS Tennessee/97.1 FM). These teams will play again at Little Caesars Arena on Tuesday, but the Wings will battle Toronto tomorrow night, so this isn’t a classic home-and-home series.

Nashville comes into tonight’s game with a 7-1-and-2 February record, and the Central Division-leading Predators are back-stopped by Pekka Rinne, who’s 10-1-and-1 over his past 12 starts.

Prior to the Predators’ morning skate, Brooks Bratten penned a game-day preview for NashvillePredators.com:

The Nashville Predators will attempt to start a new point streak tonight when they host the Detroit Red Wings at Bridgestone Arena. It’s the first of two meetings between the two clubs in four days – the Preds and Wings will also face one another on Tuesday night at the brand-new Little Caesars Arena in Detroit.

A seven-game point streak came to an end on Thursday night in Nashville as the Predators dropped a 4-3 decision to the Calgary Flames, a game Preds players and Head Coach Peter Laviolette say lacked the effort necessary to be successful, something they’ll look to rectify tonight.

“It’s definitely a wake-up call that we can’t just watch and be satisfied and think we [will] still win every game,” Nashville defenseman Yannick Weber said following the game. “Maybe we needed that one. It shows us that we do have to go back to the way we need to have success. We’ll do that Saturday.”

Last Time Out: Ryan Johansen, Nick Bonino and Weber tallied for the Predators on Thursday, while goaltender Pekka Rinne suffered his first regulation loss in his last 12 tries. Even with the loss, Nashville still has points in 16 of their last 19 games overall.

Defenseman P.K. Subban sits atop the team scoring list with 44 points, followed by Filip Forsberg with 39 and Viktor Arvidsson with 37. Both Johansen and Kevin Fiala have 36 points apiece. Arvidsson and Fiala are tied with 18 goals each; Forsberg has 17 on the season.

The Opposition: Detroit strung together points in three consecutive contests until falling to the Tampa Bay Lightning by a 4-1 final on Thursday night in the Sunshine State. Currently out of a playoff spot in the Eastern Conference, the Red Wings are led in scoring by Dylan Larkin with 43 points, followed by Henrik Zetterberg with 39 and Anthony Mantha with 34. Mantha has 19 goals on the season; both Gustav Nyquist and Tomas Tatar have 15 markers each. Jimmy Howard is 16-18-6 between the pipes; Petr Mrazek is 7-6-3.

All-Time Meetings: The Predators are 34-46-(4)-9 all-time against the Red Wings, including a 21-20-(2)-3 mark all-time against Detroit at Bridgestone Arena. Since Detroit was moved to the Eastern Conference at the start of the 2013-14 season, the Preds are 2-5-1 against their former Central Division rivals. Nashville is looking to snap a three-game home losing streak to Detroit. Its last home victory over the Red Wings game on Dec. 30, 2013.

Bratten continues…

The Predators hit the ice just after 11:20 AM EST for their morning skate, per Bratten…

Kyle Turris, who missed Thursday’s game due to illness, is on the ice for the morning skate.

…

#Preds a.m. skate lines: Fiala-Johansen-Arvidsson Fiala-Jarnkrok/Turris-Smith Hartnell-Bonino-Aberg Salomaki-Sissons/Fisher-Watson #DETvsNSH

Thomas Willis…

Kyle Turris, who missed the last game due to illness, is on the ice for morning skate.

…

Juuse Saros is in the starter’s crease at #Preds morning skate. #DETvsNSH

 And the Tennessean’s Adam Vingan:
 Kyle Turris, who missed Thursday’s loss because of illness, is on the ice for today’s morning skate.
…
Fiala-Johansen-Arvidsson
Forsberg-Jarnkrok/Turris-Smith
Hartnell-Bonino-Aberg
Salomaki-Sissons-Watson
…
Juuse Saros appears to be starting against the Red Wings. He’s 5-1-5 with a 1.97 GAA and .942 save percentage in his past 12 appearances.
…
Appears there will be a third-pairing swap tonight: Irwin and Bitetto for Emelin and Weber. This is the roster information you crave.
 The Predators website’s Willis took note of the Preds’ morning skate lines in article form as well:

Forwards

Kevin Fiala – Ryan Johansen – Viktor Arvidsson

Filip Forsberg – Kyle Turris / Calle Jarnkrok – Craig Smith

Scott Hartnell – Nick Bonino – Pontus Aberg

Miikka Salomaki – Colton Sissons / Mike Fisher – Austin Watson

Defense

Roman Josi – Ryan Ellis

Mattias Ekholm – P.K. Subban

Matt Irwin – Anthony Bitetto

Alexei Emelin – Yannick Weber

Goaltenders

Juuse Saros

Pekka Rinne

Note: The Predators have not announced a starting goaltender for tonight’s game

The Red Wings took to the ice around 12:30 PM EST, per DetroitRedWings.com…

The Free Press’s Helene St. James…

And after the morning skate, per St. James…

Petr Mrazek starting tonight

 

FYI:

Update: Per St. James…

Blashill says Mike Green (upper body) out tonight

And the Red Wings:

Mike Green out tonight, per Blashill. Upper-body.

Witkowski in.

AA will be back in the lineup tonight, per Blashill.

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George Malik

My name is George Malik, and I'm the Malik Report's editor/blogger/poster. I have been blogging about the Red Wings since 2006, and have worked with MLive and Kukla's Korner. Thank you for reading!

5 thoughts on “Red Wings-Predators morning skate Tweets and articles: Context galore; Mrazek vs. Saros?”

  1. Day to day + upper body= 1 propspect + 0 picks = Mr. Holland wont trade now because its bad precedent for any other deal.
    Maybe should have left him in Tampa Bay after allstar weekend.

    1. I’m assuming that Green will get better instead of trying to play through his injury. There are few worries on my part.

  2. Well Petr aren’t you lucky, no Green but you get the goon. I also view the Preds as a maybe higher Cup Fav a bit ahead of Tampa.

    13 Loses. It will take a Miracle.

    Isn’t Saros the goalie with an odd 1st name that was a brick wall against the Wings before

  3. Looks like the Preds have thoroughly resolved
    any issues they once had a center.

    And they didn’t even need to trade a first round
    pick for Paul Gausted.

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