The Nashville Predators will try to cool off Alex Tuch and his linemates when the Washington Capitals visit on Thursday night.
Tuch enjoyed his second straight two-goal game in Washington’s 5-2 win against the Philadelphia Flyers on Wednesday night as the Capitals completed a 4-1 homestand.
The Thursday game will mark Alex Ovechkin’s final regular-season appearance at Bridgestone Arena.
The Predators, playing the middle outing of a five-game homestand, are coming off a 4-3 shootout loss to the New York Islanders. Nashville rallied from a 3-0 second-period deficit to force overtime and has earned points in three straight games (1-0-2).
On Wednesday night, Tuch’s linemates filled the scoresheet against the Flyers as well. Jordan Kyrou scored twice and center Dylan Strome had three assists. Aliaksei Protas scored his first goal of the season and Logan Thompson, who returned after missing one game with a lower-body injury, made 23 saves.
“Probably our most complete 60 minutes and didn’t let them get a whole lot of sustained zone time besides the two penalties in the third (period), but other than that, a really solid game,” Strome said. “And when we did have a little bit of a blunder, (Thompson) was there for us.”
Strome has six points (two goals, four assists) in his past two games, and Kyrou has eight points (three goals, five assists) in his past five. Tuch has nine goals on the season.
The Capitals have only played three road games this season, losing two.
“Nashville’s a tough team, I’ve played against them a bunch in my past,” Kyrou, formerly of the St. Louis Blues, said. “It’s not going to be an easy game. We just want to play aggressive and support each other out there.”
Ovechkin has a goal and three assists in 11 games this season. Against the Predators he has 20 goals and 12 assists in 31 career games.
On the Nashville side, Filip Forsberg had a goal and an assist against the Islanders, and Alex Kerfoot and Ryan O’Reilly also scored. The Predators are 0-0-5 in games decided in overtime or a shootout. Juuse Saros made 25 saves.
“We’ve had some hard nights here of late, either letting some leads slip away or not winning overtime or shootout,” Predators coach Andrew Brunette said.
Forsberg has five points (two goals, three assists) in his past two games.
New York scored twice in the first period and added another goal just over a minute into the second.
“The start of the game wasn’t where we wanted to be,” Brunette said. “I don’t know, I’m trying to put my finger on it. It seems like it’s been a year (or) year and a half of talking about this, but we’re having trouble grabbing it.
Saros is 5-5-0 with a 2.74 goals-against average (GAA) and .907 save percentage in his career versus Washington. Likely Capitals starter Charlie Lindgren is 0-3 with a 3.10 GAA and .862 save percentage against the Predators.
The teams split two games last season. Roman Josi had a goal and two assists in a 3-2 Predators win on Jan. 11 in Nashville. On Feb. 5 in Washington, Jakob Chychrun had two goals and an assist in a 4-2 Capitals win.
