Nashville Predators visit San Jose Sharks

By Hank Bonecutter | February 1, 2013 |

Nashville Tn -  Coming off of a thrilling shoot-out win over the reigning Stanley Cup Champion Los Angeles Kings, the Nashville Predators have some momentum as they continue their road trip.

With four shootouts in its first seven games, Nashville has gone to the post-overtime tiebreaker more than any other team in the League this season, posting a 1-3 record in those contests.  The Predatorss took home their first shootout win of the season on first-career shootout goals from Craig Smith (1-for-7 for his career), Gabriel Bourque (1-for-1) and Sergei Kostitsyn (1-for-5). 

A season ago, Nashville only needed the shootout 10 times (5-5) – tied for eighth fewest times in the League – and didn’t reach its fourth shootout of the campaign until Dec. 30th, 2011 against St. Louis, game No. 38.

The Nashville Predators and San Jose Sharks clash for the first of three times during the 2012-13 season tonight at HP Pavilion.  The Predators return to the Bay Area again on March 2nd, and the Sharks visit Bridgestone Arena on Feb. 12th.  While these teams have split the four-game season series the past two seasons, Nashville has picked up points in all but one of the eight games, posting a 4-1-3 record. Since Feb. 15th, 2011, four of the six games between the Predators and Sharks have needed extra time, with San Jose winning two by overtime and one by shootout, and Nashville winning an overtime game of its own, 4-3, on Nov. th5, 2011.

Nashville’s two victories in the series last season came in two entirely different ways. First in the Nov. 5th win, the Predators rallied from a two-goal deficit early in the third period to force overtime before David Legwand finished the comeback on his second goal of the night. Then on Feb. 25th, 2012, Nashville chased goalie Thomas Greiss with two goals in the first 3:23 en route to a 6-2 win, one of two wins by four-plus goals in 2011-12 (6-1 on March 25 at Chicago).  The power play was particularly effective last season against San Jose, scoring in each of the four games to finish 4-for-13 (30.8 percent).

Shea Weber has the highest point-per-game output of his career against San Jose (.78), with 18 points (5g-13a) in 23 games.  He led the team in points against the Sharks in 2011-12 with five (2g-3a) in four games… Martin Erat also produced above a point per game average against San Jose last season with four points (1g-3a) in three games… Scott Hannan was selected 23rd overall (first round) by the San Jose Sharks in the 1997 NHL Entry Draft. He played 508 regular season games and 58 playoff games for the club from 1998-2007, amassing 127 points (25g-102a) and 329 penalty minutes in the regular season and 13 points (1g-12a) and 79 penalty minutes in the postseason.

Saturday night marks the sixth stop of a franchise record tying seven-game road swing; the Predators also played seven straight on the road from Oct. 30th-Nov. 12th, 2002.  The trip will last 15 days, and see the team go to Minnesota, St. Louis, Anaheim, Phoenix, Los Angeles, San Jose, then back to St. Louis to wrap things up on Feb. 5.  Nashville’s next game in the Music City will be Feb. 7th against the reigning Stanley Cup champion Los Angeles Kings.

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