Nashville Predators vs. Arizona Coyotes: Prediction, Preview, Picks & Odds - 3/9/2023

Time: 9 p.m. ET

Venue: Mullett Arena, Tempe, AZ

Where to watch: BSSO, BSAZ

DraftKings: Predators -175, Coyotes +145

BetMGM: Predators -175, Coyotes +145

Caesars: Predators -175, Coyotes +145

Predators: 31-23-7

Coyotes: 22-32-10

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The Nashville Predators will be playing the Arizona Coyotes on Thursday, March 9 in Temp, Arizona.

The Nashville Predators lost against the Vancouver Canucks last Monday, March 6 at Rogers Arena in Vancouver with a score of 4-3 resulting from a shootout. The Nashville Predators currently rank 5th in the Central Division.

Luke Evangelista's first two NHL goals tied it in the third period, and Juuse Saros made 26 saves for Nashville (31-23-7), which lost for just the second time in seven games (5-1-1).

The Predators are five points behind the Colorado Avalanche for the second wild card into the Stanley Cup Playoffs from the Western Conference.

"We would have liked to get two [points], but in a tight playoff race, we'll take any point we can get," Evangelista said. "So, it was cool, the second one, to tie it up late, and it was a huge adrenaline rush. I was just happy to get the point."

Elias Pettersson gave Vancouver a 1-0 lead at 4:28 of the first period with a wrist shot over Saros' glove-side shoulder from outside the left dot.

Colton Sissons tied it 1-1 at 4:55. After Cole Smith deflected Jeremy Lauzon's shot off the post, it bounced out to the other side and left Sissons with an open net.

"I managed to get lost on the backside and just got a gift on the backdoor," Sissons said. "It was very easy for me to put that one in, so I'll take it."

Vancouver scored two more goals, giving them the lead with a score of 3-1.

Evangelista, who was robbed in tight by Silovs on a backdoor chance late in the first period, scored his first NHL goal in his fourth game on a rush rebound at 8:31 of the third to cut it to 3-2, then deflected Tyson Barrie's slap shot with 3:05 left to tie it 3-3.

"A lot of shock. Pretty big relief," Evangelista said. "I had a lot of chances and I just wasn't able to bury [them], so to finally see one go in the net was a big relief. It was pretty calming."

Pettersson scored his 30th goal of the season and the shootout winner in the third round for the Vancouver Canucks.

Pettersson also got his 300th NHL point (127 goals, 173 assists) in 306 games, making him the second-fastest player to reach the milestone in Canucks history behind Pavel Bure (246 games) and just ahead of Alexander Mogilny (307).

"That's obviously something I'm very happy with," Pettersson said.

The Nashville Predators have won six of their last 10 games.

The Arizona Coyotes won against the St. Louis Blues on Tuesday, March 7 at Mullett Arena in Tempe, Arizona with a score of 6-2. The Arizona Coyotes currently rank 7th in the Central Division.

Karel Vejmelka made 40 saves. Travis Boyd scored twice in the third period, Clayton Keller had a goal and two assists, and Nick Schmaltz and Christian Fischer each had a goal and an assist for the Coyotes (22-32-10), who had lost five of six.

"The first few minutes, I didn't know what we were getting into," Fischer said. "But `Veggie?' I almost don't know what to say. And a lot of guys stepped up tonight."

St. Louis had six odd-man rushes or breakaways in the first two periods, but scored only on Buchnevich's backhand off Justin Faulk's stretch pass for a 1-0 lead at 2:12 of the first period.

"You don't want to always rely on your goaltender, but you need some big saves," Fischer said. "I think this game goes a completely different way if [Vejmelka] doesn't stop those. If we go down by a couple [of goals], it's hard to crawl back."

Fischer then tied it 1-1 at 12:53, jamming in the rebound of Connor Mackey's shot from the right point that deflected off the end boards.

Schmaltz's power-play goal made it 2-1 at 16:25, just after Robert Thomas couldn't score on a 2-on-0 breakaway created by Schmaltz's giveaway. Schmaltz has five goals in three games against St. Louis this season.

"[Vejmelka] had another crazy, unbelievable stop and then we came down 40 seconds later or so and score," Fischer said. "You have to have goaltending to win."

Coyotes coach Andre Tourigny said Vejmelka's save on Thomas "was a momentum-changer for both teams."

"Wow," Tourigny sad. "That killed [their momentum] and gave us some jump, some energy. … I think they had more breakaways than we gave up in the last three months."

Arizona is 15-11-3 at Mullett Arena, the 4,600-seat arena at Arizona State University, where it will play for at least three seasons. The Coyotes play 12 of their final 17 games here.

"I wouldn't say we really had this kind of home-ice advantage last year [at Gila River Arena]," Boyd said. "At the end of the day, this is a tough place to come in and play, and I think our record speaks to that. We're excited for the stretch run … and hopefully we can [mess] up some teams trying to make the playoffs."

Boyd made it 3-1 at 2:01 of the third period with the first of Arizona's four goals in the period, shortly after the Blues couldn't score on the 5-on-3.

Pavel Buchnevich cut it to 3-2 at 8:18, going from his forehand to his backhand before Boyd pushed it to 4-2 at 10:59 with his second goal.

Keller extended the lead to 5-2 at 12:49, and Lawson Crouse scored at 17:54 for the 6-2 final.

The Arizona Coyotes have won four of their last 10 games.

Prediction

Playoffs for the Preds? Maybe. Predators 5, Coyotes 2

Predators:

Kiefer Sherwood -- Luke Evangelista - Tommy Novak

Rasmus Asplund -- Cody Glass -- Matt Duchene

Yakov Trenin -- Mark Jankowski -- Philip Tomasino

John Leonard -- Colton Sissons -- Cole Smith

Roman Josi -- Dante Fabbro

Ryan McDonagh -- Tyson Barrie

Jeremy Lauzon -- Cal Foote

Juuse Saros

Coyotes:

Clayton Keller -- Barrett Hayton -- Nick Schmaltz

Matias Maccelli -- Jack McBain -- Lawson Crouse

Jean-Sebastien Dea -- Travis Boyd -- Christian Fischer

Liam O'Brien -- Laurent Dauphin -- Zack Kassian

Juuso Valimaki -- Josh Brown

Patrik Nemeth -- J.J. Moser

Connor Mackey -- Victor Soderstrom

Karel Vejmelka