Tampa Bay Lightning vs. Nashville Predators Prediction, Preview, Picks & Odds - 2/26/2022

Time: 7:30 p.m. ET

Venue: Nissan Stadium, Nashville, TN

Where to watch: TNT

DraftKings: Check back later

BetMGM: Check back later

Caesars: Check back later

Lightning: 33-11-6

Predators: 30-18-4

Welcome back to the stadium series, NHL. One of the premier events on the hockey calendar is back after a year hiatus due to COVID and normally when we get this kind of a game, sometimes there will be one really good team playing a very bad team, but it gives the very bad team all the exposure it needs that they would otherwise not get.

We don't have that for this one period we've got two really good teams facing off in a very pivotal matchup for both of them, with the Tampa Bay Lightning taking on the Nashville Predators in what essentially will be the largest home game for Nashville in its history.

Tampa Bay is coming in on a 3 game winning streak after defeating the Edmonton Oilers 5-3 on Wednesday. Corey Perry scored his 400th career goal, and Steven Stamkos scored again for his team-leading 24th goal of the season to offset Connor McDavid’s two goals for the victory.

It hasn't been all roses for Tampa Bay since coming out of the All-Star break, with a loss to Colorado on the Ledger and only a one goal victory against the Arizona Coyotes. But I feel like the more we doubt Tampa Bay when the time gets going, we find ourselves eating our own words when they're playing at their absolute best. The lightning will continue to be such a force when it comes to their forecheck, and their goaltending. And this game is going to be probably one of the best goaltending battles we're going to get this season.

Andrei Vasilevsky is coming in on a tear at 27-8-4 with a .921 save percentage and 2.29 GAA. Even after all the hockey that he has played over the last few seasons, he remains the best goalie in the league without question. So long as he is on top of his game, that will open the door for Tampa Bay to really do some damage from all 18 skaters. You could not ask for a better goaltending display then what we're going to get with this game.

The reason why the Nashville Predators are where they are in the standings right now, surprising everyone going for a playoff spot, it is also due to their goaltending. Nashville, one day after retiring the jersey of the greatest goalie in its history, Pekka Rinne, Shirley looks at everything around them and sees that the possible Vezina Trophy winner lies within their crease.

Juuse Saros enters this clash of titans (pun absolutely intended because it’s in the Tennessee Titans’ stadium) with a 25-15-3 record with a .924 save percentage and 2.45 GAA. He has been everything and more that Nashville could have asked for. It also makes their goalie situation in the future that much more enticing, but we'll get to that another day.

Nashville comes into this epic event having won consecutive games, but it's against who they did it that makes it more impressive. Nashville defeated the Florida Panthers 6-4 on Tuesday in Sunrise, and then followed that with a 2-1 win against the Dallas Stars on Thursday.

Saros made 27 saves and Mikael Granlund scored the lone goal in the shootout in the fourth round to deliver Nashville an impressive victory. Not bad for defeating the emotional night narrative that would have been the case given Rinne’s retirement night, and it was against a quality opponent in Dallas.

The thing that I'm very intrigued at with Nashville is that they are playing so well, and yet could blow everything up within a snap of a finger. Filip Forsberg is reportedly on the trade block, there top offensive weapon for the last few years, and I'm not sure really how to feel about that given how well Nashville has exceeded expectations this season.

Forsberg is an unrestricted free agent heading into the summer, which makes me want to believe that they want to move on from him because they don't think that they will be able to resign him, but moving on from Forsberg when you have a legitimate good playoff team right in front of you just does not seem like a good idea.

I have no idea what Nashville is going to pull, and it really frightens me that things could just implode out of nowhere, but watch Nashville over the next few weeks especially if they start to lose games. There might be some shenanigans afoot with this group.

I have no doubt that this is going to be a great goalie battle, but if the winter classic taught us anything it's that the outdoor games could result in too less chippy ice and more goals on the horizon. And if both of these goalies even have a remotely bad goal allowed at some point in this game that might open the door for some crazy things to take place. We saw the weird goals with St. Louis and Minnesota in that one I have no doubt that this could be something else in the mix. This kind of game has me drawn to the home team, and I think Nashville will pull out a very good win. Predators win 3-2

The Lightning are 19-9 off an over this season.

The Lightning are 10-15 off three straight overs.

The Predators are 7-1 this season after losing four or five of its last six.

Lightning:

Ondrej Palat -- Brayden Point -- Nikita Kucherov

Alex Killorn -- Steven Stamkos -- Anthony Cirelli

Pat Maroon -- Pierre-Edouard Bellemare -- Corey Perry

Mathieu Joseph -- Ross Colton -- Taylor Raddysh

Victor Hedman -- Mikhail Sergachev

Ryan McDonagh -- Erik Cernak

Cal Foote -- Jan Rutta

Andrei Vasilevskiy

Predators:

Filip Forsberg -- Mikael Granlund -- Matt Duchene

Luke Kunin -- Ryan Johansen -- Philip Tomasino

Yakov Trenin -- Colton Sissons -- Tanner Jeannot

Eeli Tolvanen -- Michael McCarron -- Matt Luff

Roman Josi -- Dante Fabbro

Mattias Ekholm -- Matt Benning

Alexandre Carrier -- Philippe Myers

Juuse Saros

Points: Steven Stamkos -- 56

Goals: Steven Stamkos-- 24

Assists: Victor Hedman -- 39

Goalie: Andrei Vasilevskiy -- 27-8-4, 2.29 GAA, .921 SV%

Points: Roman Josi -- 53

Goals: Filip Forsberg -- 26

Assists: Roman Josi -- 39

Goalie: Juuse Saros -- 25-15-3, 2.45 GAA, .924 SV%