Nashville Predators at San Jose Sharks
Wednesday, February 28, 2007 10:30 EST

2* San Jose +105 (Regulation Only)


Two of the winners that emerged from the Trade DeadLine's Western Conference Arms Race take on each other tonight at HP Pavilion in what could be a playoff series preview.

The San Jose Sharks, as expected, dealt for a veteran defenseman in Craig Rivet to sure up a young, vulnerable defense but on Tuesday they made the deal that made headlines. The Sharks acquired Bill Guerin from St. Louis and will reunite him with his former Bruins linemate Joe Thornton. This may be looked back on at the end of the season as the best acquisition of the deadline.

"I'm thrilled," said Guerin " This is one of those teams that was on my radar. I am very happy to be going there."

The Guerin-Thornton combo should improve a Sharks offense that has been slumping lately scoring only 13 goals in their last seven games. They scored two in their last game against Anaheim falling to the Ducks 3-2 despite getting 42 shots on goal. Tonight they could very easily generate a shot total the same or higher against a Nashville team that is among the worst in giving up shots.

Nabokov will get the call in net tonight despite the return of Vesa Toskala from IR. This is partly due to giving Toskala an extra day to practice but probably more importantly due to Nabokov's success against the Preds, a 2.18 GAA and a .918 save percentage.

The Preds also made a splash with the acquisition of Peter Forsberg earlier this month. The Preds are 3-1-1 since the trade eventhough Forsberg has not had much of an impact scoring only one goal and one assist thus far. Getting a win tonight in San Jose without a contribution from him will be hard. Nashville has won two of three this year against the Sharks, both wins at home, but have dropped five straight in San Jose.

The Predators have one of the best records in the league but their record can be deceiving. Nashville is a good team but they have issues including allowing a ton of shots and generating few. They also have a record of 19-5-1 in their division which contains three of the bottom five teams in the West. Subtracting these division wins would bring the Preds outstanding record down to a more humbling but respectable 23-13-3 instead of the astronomical 42-18-4, there is a reason two of the best overall records in the NHL belong to teams in this division. (Detroit is 14-4-3 in division)


Game Notes

- Sharks are 9-0 when revenging a loss of three or more goals. Nashville beat them 5-0 in their last meeting.

- Don't read too much into the Sharks last two games one was the last of a two week road trip while the last one vs Anaheim came in their first home game after the long trip which has historically been a very rough spot for NHL clubs. Look for 200% out of the Sharks tonight.


League Notes

- Captain Canada, Ryan Smyth, was traded yesterday to the NY Islanders. For many, ecspecially in Canada, this was a shocker but if you look at the history of the Oilers this is common. For God's sake Gretzky, Messier, Coffey and most of the 80's dynasty finished their careers outside of Edmonton. It is a fact that the Oilers were, are, and probably always will be shrewd businessmen when it comes to players contracts no matter how great or popular they are.



Good Luck