Vasilevskiy stopped 36 of 38 shots (.947 SV%) as he snapped a three-game winning streak in a hard-fought loss vs. Toronto in his last start. The 28-year-old has been his usual solid self this season, with his 13-9-1 record, .917 SV% and 2.53 GAA. He will face the struggling Montreal Canadiens, who have lost five of their last six contests after a 4-2 loss to Dallas in their last game.
Vasilevskiy stopped 36 of 38 shots (.947 SV%) as he snapped a three-game winning streak in a hard-fought loss vs. Toronto in his last start. The 28-year-old has been his usual solid self this season, with his 13-9-1 record, .917 SV% and 2.53 GAA. He will face the struggling Montreal Canadiens, who have lost five of their last six contests after a 4-2 loss to Dallas in their last game.
Johansson is 9-6-0 with a .929 SV% and 2.15 GAA with the Colorado Eagles (AHL) and was recalled Tuesday after it was announced that Pavel Francouz was day-to-day with an injury (lower body). He has yet to play in the NHL in 2022-23, but in his previous 32 career games, has a 9-13-4 record, .883 SV% and 3.42 GAA.
McDonagh has not played since Dec. 2nd due to an upper-body injury but will return to the Predators' lineup vs. the Blackhawks Wednesday. The 33-year-old will be a welcome addition back as he joins Roman Josi on Nashville's top pairing and hopes to add to his six assists, through 23 games played he had picked up prior to the injury.
Katchouk will head to the press box as the odd man out as Sam Lafferty (back) returns after a six-game absence. Katchouk will hope to be back in the lineup soon so that he can improve on his one goal, one assist, 25 SOG and 9:18 ATOI.
Vasilevsky stopped 36 of 39 shots (.923 SV%) winning his sixth game in eight starts as he beat the Toronto Maple Leafs 4-3 in his last time out. It's been an off-year for the usually stellar 28-year-old thus far, as he has a 10-7-1 record with a .909 SV% and 2.78 GAA. He will face the Detriot Red Wings who won 4-2 over Columbus in their previous game and rank 15th in the NHL in goals per game (3.17).
McDonagh is expected to miss 2-4 weeks with an upper-body injury, so he was placed on IR to open up a roster spot for Jordan Gross to be recalled from Milwaukee (AHL). McDonagh has picked up just six assists in his first 23 games with the Predators.
Cirelli, who is recovering from offseason shoulder surgery, removed his non-contact sweater last week and could play Saturday vs. the Maple Leafs. Expect Cirelli to start to work into the mix at practice over the next few days if he's going to make his season debut on December 3rd.
