Morning Skate: Detroit Red Wings vs. Nashville Predators Preview, How to Watch

Time: 7:30pm ET

Place: Little Caesars Arena, Detroit, MI

TV: FSD, TSTN, SN

Radio: 97.1 FM The Ticket, 1270 AM

Predators blog: On the Forecheck

The Wings are back at it looking for their first win of 2019 after another blown lead and a loss to the Calgary Flames on Wednesday. It doesn’t get any easier tonight, as Detroit welcomes the 24-15-2 Nashville Predators into town for their only trip to the LCA. The Predators currently sit 2nd in the Central, nestled solidly between Winnipeg (two more points and two games in hand) and Dallas (four points back with no games in hand).

The Preds are once again a solid team, looking like they have very little drop off from previous years’ contention for the cup. I don’t know if they have all the pieces for that this season, but they’re definitely a better team than Detroit. They haven’t been as hot of late, going 4-5-1 in their last ten, but the streak for them is currently two wins and their last game was a 4-0 shutout of the Flyers.

On the Wings’ side, we’ll be seeing Anthony Mantha back in the lineup tonight, as announced yesterday. Wade Megan was reassigned to Grand Rapids to make space for Big Tony to rejoin the land of the living. He was skating on a line with Vanek and Nielsen yesterday in practice, but I’m not certain that’s the way it will look tonight because yesterday’s practice also didn’t include Andreas Athanasiou (personal day), who will be playing tonight.