Minnesota Wild vs. Nashville Predators Prediction, Preview, Picks & Odds - 4/5/2022

Time: 8 p.m. ET

Venue: Bridgestone Arena, Nashville, TN

Where to watch: HULU, ESPN+

DraftKings: Check back later

BetMGM: Check back later

Caesars: Check back later

Wild: 43-20-5

Predators: 39-25-4

So, what do we make of the Nashville Predators at this moment? Do we believe in them? Has this run they’ve been on to a playoff spot consisted of foolish ideologies? Are we just going to accept that they are a bunch of people that believe a hot dog is a sandwich and we should give them free passes to the playoffs for thinking so?

Who in the world knows? All I know is that the Predators are currently fighting for their playoff lives after losing four of five and coming off a 4-3 loss to the Buffalo Sabres on Friday. A well-rested Nashville team now has to host the Minnesota Wild in a battle for third place in the Central Division. 

That of course would require a giant collapse of epic proportions and the Wild would fall off the face of the map. But clearly the idle Vegas Golden Knights are cheering on their former goalie Marc-Andre Fleury and the Wild to pull off the win on the road so that Vegas can further catch up to Nashville and eventually surpass them in the standings.

But the Sabres loss on April Fool’s Day was no joke and we called it here last week. The Sabres played inspired hockey in a full building while putting Rick Jeanneret’s name in the rafters that night. Of course a young, not-so-good Sabres team was going to play inspired and eventually get the win. But the Predators have clearly taken a step back and lost a game they couldn’t afford to.

Right now, they’re not playing well in front of Juuse Saros and are wasting an offensively brilliant year from Filip Forsberg, who scored his 38th goal of the season. Saros’ play may have wiped him out of the Vezina conversation and can we really be surprised when he’s hung out to dry like that?

“They’re not necessarily in the playoff race right now, but they’re playing really hard,” Forsberg said. “It’s a tough question. I think we should win every game we suit up for, but we need we need to get points. And tonight we didn’t get any.”

So how do the Predators get points at this rate? Pray, probably, but also start playing better defense. Roman Josi is on the cusp of an all-time great season by a defenseman and we can’t talk about that right now because the rest of the blue line is playing like hot garbage in front of their star goalie. Trying to play some collective defense would be a great start for this group, but when has a John Hynes-coached team ever concerned themselves with actually playing defense? Not lately, if you ask me.

Which is the biggest difference right now between the Wild and the Predators, and why Minnesota is a serious contender for the Stanley Cup, or at least to come out of the West for a spot in the Final. Minnesota’s defense has been tremendous as of late, as has Fleury and Cam Talbot’s play, but they went on the road on a back-to-back and held the Washington Capitals and Carolina Hurricanes to one goal each.

How does that even happen? But alas, Talbot made 25 saves and Joel Eriksson Ek had three points to lead the Wild to victory, 5-1 in Washington because some things are very weird like that.

“Smart puck management, a lot of good decision-making has been put into these wins,” Wild forward Marcus Foligno said after scoring his 20th goal of the season. He has a career-high 36 points in this campaign. “And each line has contributed, which is nice.”

For your daily “don’t overthink it” moment, there’s one team that’s clearly better than the other and the latter of that group has not looked good in a hot minute. I’m led to believe that things are not as they seem and that the Predators are just running around looking like fool’s gold in this whole situation. I will never believe this group for a long period of time and as long as the Wild have so much better goaltending in their arsenal, you best believe I’m taking a group that’s sound defensively over the one that has the Norris favorite and nothing more. Wild win 4-1

The Wild are 20-10 following a non-conference game this season.

The Wild are 82-66 when playing their third road game in five days since entering the league.

The Predators are 13-7 against division opponents this season.

Wild:

Kirill Kaprizov -- Ryan Hartman -- Mats Zuccarello

Jordan Greenway -- Joel Eriksson Ek -- Marcus Foligno

Tyson Jost -- Frederick Gaudreau -- Kevin Fiala

Brandon Duhaime -- Nick Bjugstad -- Nicolas Deslauriers

Jacob Middleton -- Jared Spurgeon

Jonas Brodin -- Matt Dumba

Alex Goligoski -- Dmitry Kulikov

Marc-Andre Fleury

Predators:

Filip Forsberg -- Ryan Johansen -- Matt Duchene

Eeli Tolvanen -- Mikael Granlund -- Luke Kunin

Yakov Trenin -- Colton Sissons -- Tanner Jeannot

Nick Cousins -- Michael McCarron -- Philip Tomasino

Roman Josi -- Alexandre Carrier

Mattias Ekholm -- Jeremy Lauzon

Jeremy Davies -- Matt Tennyson

Juuse Saros

Points: Kirill Kaprizov -- 85

Goals: Kirill Kaprizov -- 39

Assists: Mats Zuccarello -- 49

Goalie: Marc-Andre Fleury -- 28-12-2, 2.78 GAA, .912 SV%

Points: Roman Josi -- 81

Goals: Filip Forsberg -- 38

Assists: Roman Josi -- 63

Goalie: Juuse Saros -- 33-21-3, 2.57 GAA, .920 SV%