Who is favored in Minnesota Wild at Nashville Predators?

Minnesota Wild is favored on the moneyline.

Who is predicted to win Minnesota Wild at Nashville Predators?

Our pick is Minnesota Wild. Brock Faber's day-to-day tag is the one open question on Minnesota's side, and a camp-season knock like that usually ends with the player in the lineup. When he's cleared and the Wild name a starter, the case for Kaprizov, Boldy and Eriksson Ek against a Nashville team that closed last season with 2 straight losses only gets firmer, and the Wild price should shorten with it.

Minnesota Wild at Nashville Predators

Thu Oct 1·7:00 PM CT·Nashville, TN

By JR·2 min read

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NSH(0-0)

Thursday 10/017:00 PM CT

TLDR: The preseason is over for both clubs, and the first real read on Minnesota's post-Gustavsson crease comes in Nashville. The Wild are road favorites against a Predators team that beat them the last time these two met.

FRI OCT 2, 7:00 PM

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Minnesota visits Nashville for the first game that counts after both teams wrapped up the preseason. The Wild's forward group is intact, but Filip Gustavsson is out until around November and Brock Faber is day-to-day. The Predators are healthy at home and beat Minnesota 2-1 the last time the two teams met. The Wild are road favorites, and how that holds up depends mostly on who ends up in Minnesota's net.

Minnesota Wild

Kaprizov, Boldy, Eriksson Ek all in camp
Wallstedt and Pickard give 2 NHL options
Gustavsson (hip) out until around November
Faber day-to-day, top-pair minutes uncertain
Scored 3 or fewer in 4 of last 5

Nashville Predators

Clean injury report heading into Thursday
Beat Minnesota 2-1 in last meeting
Wood scored twice late to steal preseason win
Ended last season losing 2 straight
Allowed 6 to Carolina in preseason

This is a Central Division game with some history behind it. When these two last met on April 11, Nashville won 2-1 at Bridgestone, a tight, low-event game, and neither club has changed enough since to suggest the rematch looks much different. Puck drop is 7:00 PM CT on Thursday, October 1.

The biggest question for Minnesota is in goal. Filip Gustavsson is out with a hip injury and isn't expected back until around early November, so the net belongs to Jesper Wallstedt and offseason pickup Calvin Pickard. The Wild haven't said who starts this one. Brock Faber, Minnesota's minutes-eating defenseman, is also listed day-to-day. Up front the core is intact: Kirill Kaprizov, Matt Boldy, Joel Eriksson Ek, Ryan Hartman and Marcus Foligno all came to camp. Even with all that uncertainty, the board still has Minnesota as the road favorite.

Nashville comes in with a clean injury report and a camp roster already trimmed to 28 after Felix Nilsson, Cole O'Hara, Tanner Molendyk and Matt Murray went to Milwaukee. The most encouraging preseason sign was Matthew Wood scoring twice late in the 3rd against Tampa to erase a 2-0 deficit before Nilsson won it in overtime. The less encouraging one was a 6-5 loss to Carolina that looked more like a track meet than anything the Preds want to play in October.

Those last-5 strips are from last spring, and they're worth reading with that in mind. Minnesota's are all from the Colorado series: 1 win in the 5 games shown, a 9-6 loss to open that stretch, and the offense shrinking to 2, 2 and 3 goals in 3 of the last 4. Nashville closed the season 2-3 in its last 5 and dropped its last 2, including a 5-4 home loss to Anaheim. Neither team finished strong. The Wild at least finished while still playing in May.

Minnesota's preseason didn't settle much either. The Wild dropped a 4-3 overtime game in Chicago after Bowen Byram scored a hat trick, and with Gustavsson out, every goal against for the next month will be pinned on the tandem. Thursday comes down to 2 things: whether Faber is cleared and who Minnesota puts in net. Nashville has no such questions, which for a home underdog is a real advantage in a game that has usually been decided by a goal.

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