Ottawa @ Nashville preview

Last Meeting ( Dec 19, 2019 ) Nashville 4, Ottawa 5

The Nashville Predators have lost more games than they have won but find themselves well within striking distance of a playoff spot as they host the depleted Ottawa Senators on Tuesday. Nashville snapped a two-game slide and improved to 4-1-1 in its last six games with a 4-3 shootout victory over Columbus on Saturday and is two points behind wild-card holders Arizona and Calgary with four games in hand on the Coyotes and two on the Flames.

"It's been a grind," Predators forward Colton Sissons told the media. "Obviously it's been a challenging year for everyone, on personal notes and in general as a team. But we're right there in the hunt at this time of year, and honestly it doesn't get much better than that." The same cannot be said for Ottawa, which lost at Columbus 4-3 in overtime Monday for its third straight setback and has never been in postseason contention. The Senators, though, landed several draft picks prior to Monday's trade deadline including at least two from the New York Islanders in exchange for Jean-Gabriel Pageau. Ottawa could have nine picks in the first three rounds of June's draft, including potentially three first-round selections as it continues to build for the future.

TIME: 8 p.m. ET. TV: FS Tennessee, TSN5, RDS2

ABOUT THE SENATORS (21-30-12): It will be tougher for Ottawa offensively in the present without leading scorer Pageau and contributing forwards Vladislav Namestnikov and Tyler Ennis, who were traded to Colorado and Edmonton, respectively. Connor Brown scored twice Monday and has a career-high 38 points - surpassing the 36 he accumulated with Toronto in 2016-17. Thomas Chabot, who left Saturday's 3-0 loss to Montreal with a lower-body injury, returned Monday and played 32 minutes, 47 seconds - the ninth time this season he's played at least 30 minutes.

ABOUT THE PREDATORS (30-23-8): Mikael Granlund appeared headed for the trading block earlier this season but has turned his game around with seven of his 15 goals this season in the last 14 games. Ryan Ellis recorded an assist versus Columbus in his second contest since missing 20 with a concussion suffered in the New Year's Day game. Roman Josi leads the team with 57 points but has been kept off the scoresheet for four games while Nick Bonino (17 goals) has missed the last two contests because of illness.

OVERTIME

1. Nashville on Monday signed F Rocco Grimaldi to a two-year extension worth $4 million.

2. The Predators are 0-for-12 with the man advantage in their last four games and have allowed a power-play goal in each of the last three contests, lowering the league's worst penalty-killing percentage to 73.8.

3. Ottawa defeated Nashville 5-4 on Dec. 19 with Anthony Duclair scoring at 2:40 of overtime.

PREDICTION: Predators 3, Senators 2