The Nashville Predators hope a return home for the final three games of the regular season will be enough to sneak them back into the Stanley Cup Playoffs after missing out last season.
The Predators are one point out of the final wild-card spot in the Western Conference heading into their next matchup on Saturday afternoon against the visiting Minnesota Wild.
Nashville (37-32-10, 84 points) lost its grip on the second wild-card spot when it lost 4-1 at the Utah Mammoth on Thursday to finish 3-2-1 on the six-game road trip, which began against the Tampa Bay Lightning before heading out West.
“We had a heck of a road trip, playing good hockey,” Predators coach Andrew Brunette said. “Even (against Utah), we did enough to at least get something out of this game and, unfortunately, we didn’t. Mindset has to be to get something on Saturday.”
The Predators received some concerning news before the game against the Mammoth when Roman Josi was scratched after warmups because of an upper-body injury.
Josi is not only the team captain and top defenseman, but he’s fourth on the team in scoring with 54 points (13 goals, 41 assists).
He’s listed as day to day, but the Predators might not have many days left.
Jordan Oesterle, 33, took Josi’s place against the Mammoth in his first game this season for Nashville.
“He’s impossible to replace,” Brunette said of Josi. “I thought the kids played well. (Oesterle) came in and gave us some good minutes and (Ryan) Ufko’s getting better every game, and it’s nice to see (Adam Wilsby). There is more ice time for them. I thought they handled it pretty well.”
Minnesota clinched a playoff spot on April 2. The only thing left to be settled is whether the Wild or the Dallas Stars will have home-ice advantage in their first-round series.
Minnesota (45-22-12, 102 points) missed a chance to pull even in points with the Stars in the Central Division on Thursday when it lost 5-4 in Dallas, dropping four points behind the second-place Stars with three games left for each and Dallas holds the tiebreaker.
The Wild and Stars split their four regular-season meetings.
“I think there’s lots we can take from this one, for sure,” Wild coach John Hynes said after the loss. “Every time … these two teams play each other, it’s always a hard-fought battle. (On Thursday), you saw some emotion in the game and I think that’s to be expected.”
After playing the Predators, the Wild will visit the St. Louis Blues on Monday and close out the regular season against the visiting Anaheim Ducks on Tuesday.
Wild forward Kirill Kaprizov has 45 goals on the season, two off his career high set in 2021-22. A new career high would be a nice achievement for the 28-year-old Russian, but he also hopes to win the final three games and build some momentum heading into the series against Dallas.
“We just keep going,” Kaprizov said. “We still have a couple of games left and just keep playing. … It’s always an exciting time. It’s the best time of the year. We still have a couple of games left and want to focus on those games. If we play Dallas (in the first round), we just have to be ready.”
