The two teams remaining in the NHL who bolster the best blue lines are squaring off in their second game of the Western Conference Final on Sunday.
The Nashville Predators stuck it to the Anaheim Ducks to the tune of a 3-2 overtime win in Game 1 on Friday and will try to steal another one on the road in Anaheim.
vs. 
Game 2: 7:30 p.m. ET on Sportsnet
Which high-octane defence will prevail?
The Predators, who have arguably the better defence corps, won this category handily on Friday.
Three Nashville defencemen combined for four points on the team’s three goals in Game 1 with Mattias Ekholm doing the majority of the damage notching a pair of assists. Only Ryan Ellis and Roman Josi recorded a plus/minus in the negative (both were minus-1), while the Ducks rearguards did the opposite: four registered a minus-1 while only two, Hampus Lindholm and Brandon Montour, managed to get in the positive.
Throughout the playoffs so far, three Predators have played themselves into the top five in points among defencemen. Ellis (four goals, five assists), Josi (four goals, four assists), and P.K. Subban (one goals, seven assists) are the predominate reason that the Predators lead the playoffs in scoring from the blue line among the four teams remaining with 31.
The Ducks are currently second in the same category with 28 points. Shea Theodore is leading Ducks D-men in that category with a pair of goals and five assists, but they have been getting underwhelming production from their big three: Cam Fowler, Hampus Lindholm and Sami Vatanen, who have combined for just 11 points so far in the playoffs.
If the Ducks hope to take this series, they are going to have to outduel Nashville’s lethal blue line, and in order to do that Fowler, Lindholm and Vatanen have to get going.
Will Preds power play capitalize on chances?
The Predators had a pretty poor showing on the power play in the opening game of the series. The teams were a combined 0-for-10 with the extra man on Friday, but the Predators were worse of the two as they failed to capitalize on their five chances, including a two-man advantage for nearly 1:30 in the waning minutes of the third period.
If Nashville can find a way to convert on the power play during this series, then the advantage could swing strongly in its favour. The Ducks have been heading to the sin bin more than any other team in the playoffs this year. With only 12 games played, they have picked up a league-most 55 minor penalties and are averaging 14:45 in PIMs per game.
The Predators are going to get the chances on the power play throughout the series, but if they really want to run away with it they will need to improve on the 16.7 per cent conversion rate they are currently at.
Will Fisher finally get on the board?
The Predators have now played in 11 playoff games in 2017, and somehow their captain Mike Fisher has managed to keep his name off the scoresheet.
It’s not often that you see a captain of an NHL team with a zero in both the goals and assists columns of a statistics page while they are in the middle of a deep playoff run, but that’s just whats happening. With the exception of a plus-2 and 14 shots, Fisher has zeros across the board.
Even though he is getting up in age, the 36-years-old’s pointless streak has to an end sooner or later. In 125 career playoff games, Fisher has 23 goals and 24 assists while converting on his shots 8.7 per cent of the time. This year, however, he has remained off the board despite firing the seventh most shots on net among his teammates.
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