Florida @ Nashville preview

Last Meeting ( Sep 16, 2019 ) Florida 0, Nashville 1

The Nashville Predators hope to put forth a better effort than their last one and smooth over some defensive issues when they begin a three-game homestand Saturday against the Florida Panthers. The Predators were fourth-worst in the league in goals allowed per game (four) and tied for fourth-worst in penalty-killing (66.7 percent) after a 5-2 drubbing at Arizona on Thursday.

“We were outworked, outcompeted and outskated. That’s really it,” Nashville coach Peter Laviolette told reporters after that setback. “We didn’t put anything into it, we didn’t get anything out of it.” Laviolette said if not for backup goaltender Juuse Saros on Thursday, his team would have given up 14 goals, but hopes for a more structured defensive performance with Pekka Rinne (4-0-0) in the crease against the Panthers, who have recorded just two wins in their first seven contests of the season. Florida coughed up three leads on Friday before losing 5-4 to Colorado on Nathan MacKinnon’s overtime goal, coming up empty after regulation for the third time in three attempts this campaign. Jonathan Huberdeau scored twice in the setback for the Panthers to tie Mike Hoffman for the team lead with eight points.

TV: 8 p.m. ET, FS Florida, FS Tennessee (Nashville)

ABOUT THE PANTHERS (2-2-3): Sergei Bobrovsky, the team's big-ticket free-agent signing, earned his sixth point in six games on Friday but gave up another five goals and owns an .872 save percentage. Brett Connolly scored his third goal in two games against Colorado after going without one for the first five and captain Aleksander Barkov notched his sixth assist in seven contests. Veteran defenseman Anton Stralman notched two assists in the overtime setback to move within two of 200 for this career as the team's blue-liners finished with five points.

ABOUT THE PREDATORS (4-3-0): Leading goal scorer Filip Forsberg (five), who has registered a team-high 27 shots, sat out Thursday’s contest with a lower-body injury and is considered day-to-day. Ryan Ellis has posted two assists in three consecutive games to tie Matt Duchene for the team lead with nine points and fellow defenseman Mattias Ekholm entered Friday tied for the top spot in the league with a plus-8 rating. Rookie blue-liner Dante Fabbro scored his second goal of the season on Thursday and is averaging 19 minutes, 16 seconds of ice time per game - fourth-most on the team.

OVERTIME

1. Panthers C Frank Vatrano registered seven shots and scored his first goal of the season on Friday.

2. Nashville Cs Ryan Johansen and Craig Smith both are slated to play in their 600th NHL game on Saturday.

3. Florida dressed seven defenseman on Friday and Mark Pysyk recorded three shots in his second appearance of the season.

PREDICTION: Predators 4, Panthers 2