3 Things: St. Louis Blues @ Nashville Predators: 2/25/18

The Nashville Predators look to gain an important two points in the playoff race and Central Division when they take on the St. Louis Blues on Sunday afternoon.

The puck will drop at noon, eastern time and will be shown on NBC.

Here are three things to watch in this Central Division matchup:

1.) READY TO PLAY FROM PUCK DROP- ST. LOUIS

The Blues need to be ready to play from the start of this game. They have been struggling lately, and not playing their best hockey. St. Louis needs to make sure that they are engaged, whether it be physically or mentally from the beginning of this game. The Blues need to win the battles, get to the loose pucks and not turn the puck over. It could help if the Blues can manage to establish a forecheck early and often to get some sustain offensive zone time.

2.) START- NASHVILLE

The Predators should look to get off to a good start and set the tone early in this one. There are two huge points on the line and the home crowd will be behind their team. The Preds should look to get the first goal of the game to put some doubt in the mines of the Blues players. Nashville should establish the forecheck and cycle game early and get some shots on goal.

3.) SPECIAL TEAMS- ST. LOUIS & NASHVILLE

The Blues have mediocre special teams while the Predators have very good special teams. The Blues need to find a way to get their power play going since they have too much talent on it for it to be ranked 28th in the League. St. Louis has a middle of the pack penalty kill, but will need to be better since the Preds power play is very good. The Predators power play is ranked fourth in the League, while their penalty kill (82.4%) is ranked eighth in the League. It should be interesting to see how each team's power play does against some decent penalty killing.