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The Nashville Predators are only being fair to their soon-to-be former Central Division rivals in Detroit and Columbus.
Not to be rude to Chris Mason, but this NHL season has not been kind to him. He's 1-6-1 with an .852 save percentage and a 3.97 goals against average. He's given up at least three goals in all of his last four starts. He's given up five in both of his last two starts, including on Thursday night in Detroit.
The Predators will go with Mason again Saturday in Columbus, where the Blue Jackets desperately need a win, while the game means nothing to Nashville. Now, they could just be resting Pekka Rinne and not risking their franchise goalie over two meaningless games, but it's fun to see that they're throwing a bit of a wrench into what we were all assuming would happen.
Who knows, though? Maybe Chris Mason comes in and outplays Sergei Bobrovsky and eliminates the Blue Jackets on their home ice. It should be a lot of fun.