The Nashville Predators and Winnipeg Jets have announced their rosters for tonight’s pre-season game at Bridgestone Arena in Nashville, Tennessee.
Tonight’s contest is the first game in Nashville this season. They are currently 3-1-0 in the pre-season.
As expected, Predators Head Coach Barry Trotz is fielding a more NHL-ready roster tonight. Not only are Shea Weber, Ryan Suter and in the lineup but Chris Mueller (who did actually spend time with the big club last year), Zack Stortini and Ryan Thang are the only forwards who aren’t “locks” for the opening night NHL roster.
Unfortunately for the home town fans, blue chip prospect Craig Smith is not in the lineup.
On the defensive side of the ice, Roman Josi is out with an injury so that leaves the competition (among the young blueliners) to Ryan Ellis, Teemu Laakso and Mattias Ekholm, all of which will play tonight. And they’ll all get prime minutes too as Weber and Suter are the only veteran Preds in the lineup.
Another interesting note is that former Anaheim Ducks forward Troy Bodie will be on the ice for Winnipeg tonight. You may remember Bodie as the guy who took a run at Rinne in the third period of the first game of the season last year. Rinne’s knee injury saw him miss the next four games and, as a result, threw back-up goaltender Anders Lindback into the fire for the first time.
If you can’t make it to the game tonight, you can watch the game on NashvillePredators.com or you can listen live on 102.5 The Game.
Puck drops at 7:00pm Central.
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Predators vs. Jets – 7:00pm Central
NASHVILLE PREDATORS
FORWARDS
Martin Erat
Patric Hornqvist
Sergei Kostitsyn
David Legwand
Chris Mueller
Cal O’Reilly
Jerred Smithson
Nick Spaling
Zack Stortini
Ryan Thang
Jordin Tootoo
Colin Wilson
DEFENSE
Mattias Ekholm
Ryan Ellis
Teemu Laakso
Jack Hillen
Ryan Suter
Shea Weber
GOALTENDERS
Pekka Rinne
Chet Pickard
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WINNIPEG JETS
FORWARDS
Troy Bodie
Patrice Cormier
Jason Gregorie
Evander Kane
Carl Klingberg
Bryan Little
Spencer Machacek
Ben Maxwell
Kendal McArdle
Mark Scheifele
Tim Stapleton
Chris Thorburn
DEFENSE
Ben Chiarot
Tobias Enstrom
Derek Meech
Julian Melchiori
Johnny Oduya
Paul Postma
Cody Sol
GOALTENDERS
Chris Mason
Edward Pasquale
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PHOTO CREDIT: Jeremy K. Gover // section303.com