After pushing their preseason record to 3-1 with a win last night at RBC Center, the Nashville Predators open their home preseason schedule tonight with a tilt against the Winnipeg Jets. Tonight’s game will feature a few activities including a blood drive from 4-8pm, plaza activities starting at 4:30pm and a collection drive for the Andie and Alex Scholarship Fund.

If the story of the rookie games last week was the emergence of Craig Smith, the story of this week’s preseason slate has to be Chris Mueller. He has played in three games, has a goal in each and is impressing the Predators coaching staff. Mueller was with the big team for 15 games last season and is making his bid to stay in Nashville come October.

Winnipeg comes into town with a split squad, the roster is as follows…

6 Ron Hainsey
9 Evander Kane
14 Tim Stapleton
16 Andrew Ladd
18 Brian Little
19 Jim Slater
20 Troy Bodie
22 Chris Thorburn
26 Blake Wheeler
28 Patrice Cormier
29 Johnny Oduya
31 Ondrej Pavelec
32 Edward Pasquale
36 Mark Flood
38 Paul Postma
39 Tobias Enstrom
40 Kendal McArdle
45 Mark Scheifele
46 Spencer Machacek
47 Derek Meech
48 Carl Klingberg
49 Ben Maxwell
50 Chris Mason
57 Jason Gregoire
59 Zach Redmond
61 Mike Forney
63 Ben Chiarot
64 Cody Sol
67 Akim Aliu
71 Julian Melchiori

It will be nice to see former Predator goaltender Chris Mason in town again, one of the genuine good guys of the sport. Game time is 7pm. TV coverage is on TSN, also, the Predators will have a live stream available on predators.nhl.com for those in the normal FS-TN viewing area. We’ll have complete coverage tomorrow including exclusive photos.

See you tonight at the Bridge!

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Random Notes

- Josh Cooper in the Tennessean is reporting that Mike Fisher will probably not be ready for the opener in a couple of weeks. Skating is ramping up, but the shoulder still isn’t ready. He also reports that Francis Bouilon is skating as well… no effects yet as he attempts to get back from his concussion.

- Expect some cuts to be announced tomorrow… Milwaukee’s camp begins Monday.

- San Jose has some goaltending issues as the injury bug has hit their net hard.

- Hold on a second… if you can’t get a new arena built on Long Island… where are you going to come up with $350 million to renovate Nassau Coliseum???

- The LA Times is reporting that hard ball being played in Los Angeles as the Kings have given away Drew Doughty’s locker. Wow…

- Puck Daddy has a very good call out of the Vancouver Canucks for circumventing the CBA in their camp this year through their liberal use of PTO contracts.

- An interesting take from Roy MacGregor in the Globe and Mail, start the season earlier… he forgets one major problem with that scenario… having the Stanley Cup Finals during May rating sweeps. There is no way a network carries the finals during this time. It’s why the NBA and NHL have moved their finals away from this time.

- Another interesting factoid from MacGregor… the Coyotes were about 10 minutes away from being announced as moving to Winnipeg until the City of Glendale announced their next $25 million support package.

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You are invited to follow me on Twitter. Search for @PredPAPaul… Not only will I be updating when I get news or updates, but we are having a bit of fun by getting your input on Gnash introductions, weigh in on Twitter and who knows, we may use your introduction for the best mascot in the NHL at the next Preds game!

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SlapShot Radio is on the move… Our season premier is Wednesday October 5th at 6pm on our new home 102.5 the Game! Join the voice of the Predators Pete Weber and I for the fastest hour on radio… SlapShot Radio… same day, same time, new station! 102.5 the Game.

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