PHO vs NSHGill optimistic about return, Coyotes want traffic

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Three things you need to know:

Defenceman Hal Gill is back

The 6-foot-7, 241-pound Gill told reporters that he expects to play tonight against the Coyotes.

Gill missed the first round series against Detroit with what Nashville called a "lower body" injury.

"You get excited, you get geared up, it's nice, it's a good feeling," Gill said. "If you go to a horror movie you want to be scared. In the playoffs you want to be excited about it and that's what I'm feeling right now."

This is important for both Shea Weber and Ryan Suter. The two defencemen averaged over four minutes on the penalty kill per game in their first round series.

If goaltending is the key for both teams, the best way to beat a hot goaltender is by sending players his way and creating traffic.

That's what the Coyotes plan to do with Pekka Rinne. Nashville's netminder comes into this series with a 1.81 goals against average in the postseason and a .944 save percentage.

Traffic signs

"Obviously, we've got to get a lot of traffic on him and just a lot of shots. It's not going to take a whole lot if he can't see the puck," Phoenix forward Mikkel Boedker said. "Obviously, that's one of the things you always want a goalie not to do, to see the puck. And hopefully he'll leave some rebounds out there that we can bang in, but it's not only about him, it's about a good hockey team in Nashville that we got to beat."

Southern travels

Nashville is starting this series on the road. But it's different than last year when they played Vancouver in the second round. Though Phoenix is on Pacific time, it's closer to Nashville than Vancouver is.

Also, the Predators had home ice advantage in the first round and only took one road trip to Detroit. Because of this, the Predators are fresh and rested.

"First round we had two hours in the plane as opposed to 20 last year," forward Mike Firsher said. "Coming here isn't too bad either. We're hoping less travel will help us for sure."

Projected lines

Sergei Kostitsyn - Mike Fisher - Martin Erat
Gabriel Bourque - David Legwand - Alexander Radulov
Andrei Kostitsyn - Nick Spaling - Patric Hornqvist
Craig Smith - Paul Gaustad - Brandon Yip

Ryan Suter - Shea Weber
Roman Josi - Kevin Klein
Francis Bouillon - Hal Gill

Pekka Rinne
Anders Lindback

 

Coyotes

Ray Whitney - Martin Hanzal - Radim Vrbata
Mikkel Boedker - Antoine Vermette - Lauri Korpikoski
Taylor Pyatt - Boyd Gordon - Shane Doan
Kyle Chipchura - Daymond Langkow - Gilbert Brule

Derek Morris - Keith Yandle
Oliver Ekman-Larsson - David Schlemko
Michal Rozsival - Rostislav Klesla

Mike Smith
Jason LaBarbera

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