The Nashville Predators boast the NHL’s longest active win streak with six victories in a row, and five of those were recorded at home.
The Predators will look to extend both runs on Thursday night when they host the Minnesota Wild.
Michael McCarron scored two first-period goals and Filip Forsberg tallied 14 seconds into overtime in Nashville’s 3-2 win over the Pittsburgh Penguins on Tuesday.
Forsberg, who also had an assist earlier in the contest, has recorded at least a point in eight of his past nine games (10 goals, five assists). He leads the Predators in goals (12) assists (15) and points (27).
“I think I’m playing a pretty fast game,” Forsberg said of his recent hot streak. “I think our line is playing really well down low. I think we’re getting a lot of pucks back on the forecheck and creating like that.
“Obviously, (Gustav Nyquist and Ryan O’Reilly) are making a lot of plays for me, and I just tried to kind of be the response.”
Nyquist notched an assist on Tuesday to extend his points streak to nine games (two goals, nine assists). The streak is one shy of his career high, set during the 2013-14 season.
“I’m just happy with the way the team’s playing right now. Obviously, it’s fun to get on a little bit of a roll here; it’s hard to do in this league,” Nyquist said. “We’ve just got to keep doing the same things.”
Mired in a seven-game winless skid (0-5-2), the Wild opted to shake things up Monday by parting ways with head coach Dean Evason. The move appeared to light a spark under Minnesota, which skated to a 3-1 victory over the St. Louis Blues on Tuesday for new coach John Hynes.
“The way that the group played tonight,” Hynes said, “that’s why I’m so excited to have the opportunity to coach them.”
Hines, 48, served as the head coach of the New Jersey Devils (2015-20) and Predators (2020-23).
Struggling Wild forward Matt Boldy scored his second goal of the season and first since Oct. 14. He had 31 goals last season.
“You have all this change and everything like that, but I think it starts in the room, too,” Boldy said.
“We haven’t been happy about the way we’ve been playing and the losses piling on top of each other. So, yeah, we had a motivated group tonight.”
Joel Eriksson Ek scored in his third consecutive contest to boost his team-leading goal total to 11. The tally came off an assist from Mats Zuccarello, who is riding a seven-game overall points streak (two goals, seven assists) and franchise-best, season-opening 10-game home points streak (five goals, eight assists).
Minnesota’s Ryan Hartman will sit out Thursday’s contest to complete his two-game suspension for slew-footing Detroit Red Wings forward Alex DeBrincat.
The Central Division rivals are facing off for the first time this season. The Predators won two of the three meetings in 2022-23, with both of their victories in the series coming in Nashville.
–Field Level Media
