The Nashville Predators can clinch a playoff spot on home ice Tuesday night when they face the Winnipeg Jets.
Any point gained by Nashville or lost by St. Louis would earn the Predators a playoff berth, but they don’t want to leave it up to the Blues when St. Louis hosts Chicago on Wednesday.
“You know, it’s every kid’s dream to play in the Stanley Cup playoffs … to feel that buzz and get a little taste of it,” Nashville rookie forward Luke Evangelista said when asked about the excitement surrounding the postseason. “We’re right on the edge… We’re right there and hopefully we can clinch up.”
One of the best things going for Nashville (45-29-4, 94 points) is that the team is healthy with four games remaining in the regular season.
When the Predators book their ticket, it’ll be another opportunity at a title for veteran forward Ryan O’Reilly, who won a Cup with the Blues in 2019.
“Guys have worked so hard for this and we’ve got a few games left here to tune up,” O’Reilly said. “… It would be great to start preparing for the playoffs.”
It’ll be the fourth meeting between these Central Division rivals. Despite Winnipeg (47-24-6, 100 points) already clinching a playoff spot, Nashville has taken two of three so far in their season series.
The Jets enter on a three-game winning streak. They started a tough final road trip with a 4-2 victory Saturday over the Minnesota Wild. After Tuesday’s game, the Jets will roll into visiting barns to face the two top teams in the Central — Dallas on Thursday and Colorado on Saturday.
The Jets enter Tuesday seven points back of Dallas and two behind Colorado with five games remaining.
“This is a dress rehearsal for everyone,” Jets forward Morgan Barron said. “We see another runway here before playoffs start, so we’re just trying to treat everything like a playoff game right now and really hit our stride at the right time.”
It remains to be seen if Nino Niederreiter will play on this road trip for Winnipeg. He continues to recover from a serious gash he suffered from a skate blade on the back of his leg last week. The initial report from head coach Rick Bowness was that he would be out for about a week.
Niederreiter is a huge piece of the Jets’ competitive balance up and down their forward group and is sorely missed, but will likely return for the playoffs if not sooner.
“You want to win the Stanley Cup? You need all four lines going and playing at their best,” said Bowness, not willing to look an inch past the Predators. “We’re going to get ready for Tuesday in Nashville.”
Four different players scored for the Jets against the Wild, one game after Gabriel Vilardi netted a hat trick in a 5-2 win over the Calgary Flames.
