Nov 29, 2024; Nashville, Tennessee, USA; Tampa Bay Lightning center Brayden Point (21) celebrates his game winning goal with his teammates against the Nashville Predators during the overtime period at Bridgestone Arena. Steve Roberts-Imagn Images The Nashville Predators [https://thehockeynews.com/nhl/nashville-predators]took the ice on Thursday for the third annual Gold Star Showcase presented by Ticketmaster, an intrasquad game between Predators players benefiting the Special Operations Warrior Foundation, at F&M Bank Arena in Clarksville, Tenn. The club will embark on a two-game road trip with back-to-back games against the Tampa Bay Lightning [https://thehockeynews.com/nhl/tampa-bay-lightning]Saturday and Carolina Hurricanes [https://thehockeynews.com/nhl/carolina-hurricanes]on Sunday for their only two away games of the pre-season. In their last pre-season game [https://thehockeynews.com/nhl/nashville-predators/latest-news/3-takeaways-from-nashville-predators-preseason-shootout-loss-to-tampa-bay-lightning]Tuesday, the Preds fell to Tampa 3-2 in a shootout at Bridgestone Arena. Here’s everything you need to know ahead of this weekend’s matchups. ROSTER CUTS The pre-season roster is now down to 52 players after the Predators made two cuts Friday. Defenseman Cameron Reid was assigned to the OHL’s [https://thehockeynews.com/ohl/]Kitchener Rangers. The Predators also released defenseman Scott Harrington from his professional tryout agreement. Following his reassignment to the OHL, Reid recorded two assists to lead the Rangers to a 5-2 victory over the Erie Otters. PLAYER STATUS UPDATES Apr 14, 2025; Nashville, Tennessee, USA; Nashville Predators right wing Matthew Wood (52) skates with the puck against the Utah Hockey Club during the third period at Bridgestone Arena. Steve Roberts-Imagn Images [https://deweb-519a7.b-cdn.net/post-images/14134499-20fb-41ff-a916-3df7a8efe345.jpeg] Apr 14, 2025; Nashville, Tennessee, USA; Nashville Predators right wing Matthew Wood (52) skates with the puck against the Utah Hockey Club during the third period at Bridgestone Arena. Steve Roberts-Imagn Images Matthew Wood left Thursday’s Gold Star Showcase after taking a fall in the second period. He is still being evaluated and an update on his status has not yet been announced. Nicolas Hague will miss 4-6 weeks after suffering an upper-body injury during last Sunday’s split-squad doubleheader against the Florida Panthers. Luke Evangelista is still away from the team while negotiations between him and the club on a new contract continue. 3 BIG MOMENTS FROM SHOOTOUT LOSS TO LIGHTNING Jun 27, 2025; Los Angeles, California, USA; NHL Commissioner Gary Bettman announces Brady Martin is selected as the fifth overall pick to the Nashville Predators in the first round of the 2025 NHL Draft at Peacock Theater. Mandatory Credit: Kirby Lee-Imagn Images [https://deweb-519a7.b-cdn.net/post-images/c0ffc4f9-accf-40a1-aa2f-8aae08440d62.jpeg] Jun 27, 2025; Los Angeles, California, USA; NHL Commissioner Gary Bettman announces Brady Martin is selected as the fifth overall pick to the Nashville Predators in the first round of the 2025 NHL Draft at Peacock Theater. Mandatory Credit: Kirby Lee-Imagn Images * Brady Martin (two goals) continues to impress since being drafted fifth overall by the Predators. He scored both his goals in the middle frame of the Preds’ 3-2 shootout loss to the Lightning. Both goals came from the slot, and his second was on a power play. * Matthew Wood chipped in with two assists after collecting three points last Sunday. His first helper came on Martin’s first goal that put the Preds ahead 1-0. Wood picked up a secondary assist on Martin’s second goal after feeding a pass to Michael Bunting, who found Martin on the opposite slot from his first tally. * Nashville’s special teams were busyTuesday, converting on one of five power-play opportunities and successfully killing off all six of its penalties. SCOUTING THE LIGHTNING AND HURRICANES Tampa Bay remained perfect on the pre-season after a 6-5 home victory against the Carolina Hurricanes Friday night. The game was played at the newly renamed Benchmark International Arena, and the Lightning moved their exhibition record to 3-0-0. Forwards Wojciech Stachowiak and Zemgus Girgensons each scored twice in the contest. Lightning goalie Jonas Johansson played the first two periods, stopping 16 of 17 shots before giving way to youngster Harrison Meneghin, who made 10 saves in his NHL pre-season debut. In Tuesday’s shootout victory over the Predators, the Lightning overcame a 2-0 deficit, and Boris Katchouk scored the lone goal of the shootout with a backhander to win the game in round three. The Canes attempted to overcome multiple deficits before ultimately falling short. Bradly Nadeau, Joel Nystrom, Justin Robidas and Givani Smith had multi-point nights, and Amir Miftakhov, making his first pre-season start as a Hurricane, stopped 22 of 28 shots and played all 60 minutes. GAMETIME Puck drop for both matchups this weekend: 6 Pm CST Saturday and Sunday Where: Saturday at Benchmark International Arena, Tampa, Florida. Sunday at Lenovo Center, Raleigh, North Carolina. Streaming: NashvillePredators.com [https://www.nhl.com/predators/] Radio: ESPN 102.5 The Game [https://www.thegamenashville.com/]and the Preds Radio Network [https://www.thegamenashville.com/player/?playerID=220]
