The Nashville Predators face the St. Louis Blues with both teams looking to improve from rocky starts to the season. The Predators have a 21-17-6 record but with back-to-back wins have crawled to the middle of the Central Division while the Blues have a 22-20-3 record but with two losses in their last three games have fallen to the bottom of the division. Both teams look to improve in the division and the Western Conference and the upcoming game looks to be a good one as a result.
The Predators are having a rough season with their offense letting them down, scoring only 2.73 goals per game including only four goals in the last two games. Matt Duchene, Filip Forsberg, and Mikael Granlund have scored 33 goals and 65 assists while Roman Josi has added 12 goals and 24 assists from the point but the rest of the offense has struggled. Only five skaters have seven goals or more while only seven skaters have 11 assists or more and opposing defenses can eliminate the hapless as a result.
The offense has struggled but the defense has stepped up, allowing only 2.89 goals per game with only two goals in the last two games. Ryan McDonagh and Roman Josi have combined for 4.8 defensive point shares and 177 blocked shots while Mattias Ekholm and Dante Fabbro have combined for 3.1 defensive point shares to add depth to the unit. In addition, goaltender Juuse Saros has stepped up with a . 921 save percentage and a 2.68 goals-against average on 1104 shots.