Predators at Senators
THE STORY: Recent meetings between the Ottawa Senators and Nashville Predators have been quite different depending on the locale. If history repeats, fans can expect a high-scoring affair when the clubs face off Thursday night at Scotiabank Place. The road team has won the last four games in the series, with Nashville earning identical 6-5 victories in its last two visits to the Canadian capital. The Senators claimed a pair of low-scoring affairs in their previous two trips to Music City, winning by scores of 2-0 and 2-1.
TV: 7:30 p.m. ET, Fox Sports Tennessee, Rogers Sportsnet East
ABOUT THE PREDATORS (32-17-5): Nashville has points in 12 of its last 14 games, but missed a chance to gain a measure of revenge in Tuesday's 4-3 overtime loss to Vancouver. The Canucks knocked the Predators out of last year's playoffs. Nashville faces a stiff test over the next 10 days, playing four of its next five games away from Tennessee. That stretch includes games against the defending champion Boston Bruins and the Central Division-leading Detroit Red Wings.
ABOUT THE SENATORS (27-22-7): Whatever good feelings Ottawa fans had enjoyed heading into the All-Star break have long been forgotten. Tuesday's 3-1 defeat at the hands of the St. Louis Blues extended the Senators' losing skid to seven games, during which the club has earned just a single point. That lowly stretch has dropped Ottawa into eighth in the Eastern Conference, just two points ahead of Florida. The Panthers come into Thursday with four games in hand.
OVERTIME:
1. Nashville was the last team in the series to win a home game, trouncing the Senators by a 6-0 score back on Dec. 14, 2006.
2. Predators forward Mike Fisher will face his former team for the first time Thursday. Fisher was a second-round pick of the Senators in 1998 and spent parts of 11 seasons in Ottawa.
3. Ottawa and Nashville both have six wins this season when trailing after two periods, tied with Boston and Colorado for the most in the NHL.