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Nashville opts for experience as teams set rosters for Thursday night

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Swinging to Nashville for the second straight game between the Predators and Lightning, both teams have finalized their roster going into Thursday night’s exhibition contest.

The Predators have decided to go with a veteran-heavy lineup:

FORWARDS

Forsberg, Jokinen, Clune, Neal, Jarnkrok, Nystrom, Gaustad, Beck, Watson, Fiala, Bourque, Ribeiro

DEFENSEMEN

Weber, Ekholm, Volchenkov, Alm, Piskula, Josi

GOALTENDERS

Rinne, Mazanec

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Tampa Bay is icing a roster quite similar to Tuesday night’s:

FORWARDS

Johnson, Angelidis, Palat, Brown, Kunyk, Marchessault, Samson, Ikonen, Smith, Panik, Kucherov, Namestnikov

DEFENSEMEN

Gudas, Barberio, Koekkoek, Witkowski, Sustr, Nesterov

GOALTENDERS

Gudlevskis, Vasilevskiy

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Both rosters can be viewed here. (Special thanks to the Nashville Predators PR department for putting the roster together)

While Tuesday’s roster for the Predators was a majority of players not deemed to be veteran per the league CBA, Thursday’s roster is a bit different. Dropping the in-game roster from 25 players to 20, Nashville is bringing out only seven players that haven’t achieved veteran status:

Forsberg
Jarnkrok
Beck
Watson
Alm
Piskula
Mazanec

While most eyes could decidedly be on Forsberg, Jarnkrok, and Fiala, they should instead be trained on both Beck and Watson. Beck, essentially, is fighting for a job with the organization at this point, still remaining an unsigned restricted free agent. Watson, on the other hand, is fighting to remind the Predators why they drafted him 18th overall in the 2010 NHL Entry Draft. Both need to have very strong games Thursday evening along with Saturday’s double-header against the Panthers.

Another question is if Marek Mazanec will see more playing time than Pekka Rinne? Mazanec has been a shade of the goaltender Predators fans saw last November win the NHL’s Rookie of the Month. Showing a significant decline upon his return to Milwaukee and having his fair share of trouble in the rookie tournament finale a little over one week ago, Mazanec entered Tuesday night’s game with a one-goal lead over Tampa Bay. The Lightning proceded to score three goals on 15 shots towards Mazanec, finishing with a final score of 4-2.

Game time is 7:00pm and the game will be held in Nashville at Bridgestone Arena.

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Photo Credit: Thomas Willis

The post Nashville opts for experience as teams set rosters for Thursday night appeared first on The Predatorial.


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