The last NHL game that counted was Sunday, June 26 when the Colorado Avalanche won 2-1 at the Tampa Bay Lightning to win the Stanley Cup for the first time since 2001 and end the Bolts' threepeat chances. The 2022-23 season opens today (2 p.m. ET) in Prague when the San Jose Sharks take on the Nashville Predators as part of the Global Series. The teams will play again Saturday. Colorado is the clear-cut +400 favorite at Caesars Sportsbook to repeat as Stanley Cup champi on but not in action for a few days like the rest of the league.
As far as today's game, the Predators are -200 favorites and they were 3-0 vs. the Sharks last season, outscoring them 12-1. Even though the Sharks are the “road” team they probably will be the fan favorites as one of the team's best players, Tomas Hertl, was born and raised in Prague and played for Slavia Praha HC from 2010-13. The Sharks also have defenseman Radim Simek, who was born in Mlada Boleslav, Czech Republic. Nashville has no Czech players.
The Predators finished with 97 points last season and made the playoffs, losing in the first round to Colorado. They are set for 96.5 points this year. San Jose finished with 77 points and way out of the playoff mix and is set at 75.5 points.
To no surprise, Juuse Saros is net for Nashville after going 38-25-3 with a 2.64 GAA and a .918 save percentage in 2021-22. He was in net for all three Sharks games, allowing one goal on 75 shot s. James Reimer gets the call for San Jose, and he was 19-17-10 with a 2.90 GAA and a .911 save percentage last year. San Jose is without one top-six forward in Alexander Barabanov (10 goals, 29 assists) due to injury. The Preds are healthy.