^[1]Nashville TN – The Nashville Predators return home to “Smashville” Thursday night to host the defending Stanley Cup Champion Los Angeles Kings.  The puck drops at 7:00pm at the Bridgestone Arena, and is expected to be another sell-out.

The Predators will be looking to make it two in a row against the Kings in the team’s first home game since Jan. 21st.  Last Thursday at the Staples Center – in game No. 5 of Nashville’s franchise-record tying seven-game road trip that spanned from Jan. 22nd-Feb. 5th.

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Nashville Predators Goalie Pekka Rinne stops another shot

The Predators tied a club mark by scoring four times in an eight-round shootout to claim a 2-1 win.  Gabriel Bourque, Craig Smith and Sergei Kostitsyn (shootout-deciding marker) all notched their first career shootout tallies, while both Legwand and Bourque assisted on Brandon Yip’s marker just 58 seconds into the contest.  Pekka Rinne also recorded his first win of the season, stopping 23 shots and five of eight L.A. shooters.

The win puts Nashville on track against the Kings after dropping three of four games in both 2010-11 and 2011-12.  In the four seasons prior from 2005-09, Nashville posted an 11-4-1 mark against L.A., including seven consecutive wins from Oct. 25, 2008-March 14, 2010.

The Predators exploded for six goals on Tuesday night against St. Louis; that total was one-half of their regulation goals total prior to Tuesday’s tilt – 12 goals in eight games.  The victory over St. Louis was the most lopsided victory in series history and just the 10th time Nashville has won by five or more goals in a road game.

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Nashville Predators Forward Martin Erat

Martin Erat returned from a lower-body injury to register his franchise-record 106th career multi-point game (1g-2a). The Trebic, Czech Republic native continues to pace the team this season with seven points (3g-4a) in eight games.  Colin Wilson also recorded a three-point effort for the Preds with a career-high three assists on the night.  It was Wilson’s first multi-point game of the season and his first three-point game since Dec. 1, 2011 against Vancouver (1g-2a).  Wilson now finds himself second in scoring for Nashville with five points (1g-4a) on the year.

Three players tallied two-point efforts for Nashville on Tuesday, as Jonathon Blum recorded the first multi-point/multi-assist game of his career (2a), Ryan Ellis opened the scoring for Nashville with a power-play goal and added an assist on Erat’s third period goal to recorded his fourth-career multi-point game and Paul Gaustad posted his first points of the season with two helpers on the night.

Six more Predators posted a single point on the night, including Nick Spaling’s second goal of the year.  All time, Nashville is 15-1-1 when Spaling finds the back of the net.  Gabriel Bourque and Kevin Klein both recorded their first goals of the season, while Roman Josi record his first point of the year with an assist on Spaling’s goal. Brandon Yip added an assist on Spaling’s marker, giving him three points (2g-1a) in his last five outings.  Not to be outdone, Rich Clune posted his first-career NHL goal and his first point in a Preds sweater with his marker at 15:53 of the first period.  In 22 career games with Nashville and Los Angeles, Clune has tallied three points (1g-2a).