Nashville @ Calgary preview

Last Meeting ( Oct 31, 2019 ) Calgary 6, Nashville 5

The Calgary Flames face a potentially tough stretch without reigning Norris Trophy winner Mark Giordano beginning Thursday against the visiting Nashville Predators. A cameraman and a San Jose player told reporters that they heard the three-time All-Star defenseman say "I tore my hamstring" as he left the ice during Tuesday's 3-1 loss to the Sharks, leaving an already thin blueline without its captain.

“He’s our best defenseman and probably our hardest worker and one of our best, if not the best player,” Calgary left wing Matthew Tkachuk told reporters about Giordano. “It’s definitely a big hole, but guys in this room are capable of filling that just by committee. You can’t have one person who does what he does, so you have to do it as a group.” One of these days, Nashville knows it has to get going and a recent spurt has it moving in the right direction. The Predators won at Winnipeg 2-1 in overtime Tuesday for their third victory in the last four games but sit three points behind perhaps suddenly vulnerable Calgary for the final wild-card spot in the Western Conference. "... It was a big extra point for us and now we just move on to the next one,'' Nashville forward Mikael Granlund told the media after scoring at 1:11 of overtime. "And we've got to stack up these points."

TIME: 9 p.m. ET. TV: FS Tennessee, Sportsnet One

ABOUT THE PREDATORS (25-20-7): Norris contender Roman Josi paces the club with 51 points but has been kept off the scoresheet for the last two games as he remains at 399 career points. Nick Bonino scored his 16th goal of the season Tuesday - two behind team leader Filip Forsberg - and has scored twice in the last three contests. Juuse Saros stopped 33 shots Tuesday after yielding four goals in each of his previous two starts and has combined with Pekka Rinne for a 3.04 goals-against average and an .898 save percentage this season.

ABOUT THE FLAMES (27-21-6): Johnny Gaudreau on Tuesday scored for the first time in seven games and shares the team lead in points (42) with Tkachuk. Elias Lindholm has two of his team-high 22 goals and four of his 40 points during a four-game point streak. Sean Monahan (16 goals, 38 points) hasn't hit the scoresheet in six of his last seven contests.

OVERTIME

1. Josi leads Nashville in time on ice at 26 minutes, 2 seconds per game - second-most in the league - and in plus-minus at plus-22 while Bonino is next at plus-16.

2. Gaudreau, Tkachuk, Lindholm and Monahan are a combined minus-56.

3. The Flames defeated the Predators 6-5 on Oct. 31 behind a pair of goals by Tkachuk - the second at 4:58 of overtime.

PREDICTION: Flames 3, Predators 2