Scouting the Predators

This is the second of four meetings this season between the Kings and the Nashville Predators, and follows the Kings’ 4-3 victory on Nov. 8 in Los Angeles. Teams that don’t get an early jump on the Predators are generally in for long nights. For the season, the Predators have a minus-9 goal differential in the first period, but are plus-14 in the second period and plus-12 in the third period. Nashville also has a 25-2-3 record this season when scoring the first goal, compared to 11-17-4 when allowing the first goal, while the Kings are 21-4-6 and 7-18-6, respectively, in those situations. The Predators are deep, as they have 10 players with at least 10 goals this season, led by Mike Fisher with 18, and they also have two huge scoring threats on the blue line, with Shea Weber (40 points) and Ryan Suter (37 points). The Predators are 9-0-2 in their last 11 home games. For the latest on the Predators, check out the coverage from The Tennessean, followed by the likely lineups for both teams…

The Tennessean’s Predators coverage

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KINGS LINEUP
Dustin Brown-Anze Kopitar-Justin Williams
Dwight King-Mike Richards-Jeff Carter
Dustin Penner-Jarret Stoll-Trevor Lewis
Kyle Clifford-Colin Fraser-Jordan Nolan

Rob Scuderi-Drew Doughty
Willie Mitchell-Slava Voynov
Alec Martinez-Matt Greene

Jonathan Quick
Jonathan Bernier

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PREDATORS LINEUP
Sergei Kostitsyn-Mike Fisher-Martin Erat
Gabriel Bourque-David Legwand-Patric Hornqvist
Colin Wilson-Nick Spaling-Jordin Tootoo
Matt Halischuk-Craig Smith-Brandon Yip

Shea Weber-Ryan Suter
Roman Josi-Hal Gill
Francis Bouillon-Kevin Klein

Pekka Rinne
Anders Lindback