Nashville Predators vs. Vegas Golden KnightsDec 31, 2025

FinalWednesday, Dec 31, 2025· T-Mobile Arena

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Goals	1	2	3	T		Shots	1	2	3	T
NSH	3	1	0	4		NSH	10	6	3	19
VGK	2	0	0	2		VGK	9	4	18	31

: NSH 48VGK 69
: NSH 2.31VGK 2.78
PP goals: NSH 2VGK 1
Hits: NSH 26VGK 26
Blocks: NSH 18VGK 11
PIM: NSH 6VGK 18
: NSH 52%VGK 48%

Fantasy takeaways

Generated from the play-by-play, shifts and season context. No opinions, just what changed.

Nashville Predators beat Vegas Golden Knights 4–2

Nashville Predators beat Vegas Golden Knights 4–2 at VGK. Pavel Dorofeyev (VGK) led the scoring with 0G 2A. NSH's first power-play unit (Stamkos, Josi, O'Reilly, Forsberg and Evangelista) scored 1 power-play goal on 8 attempts in 4:21 together.

Points
Luke Evangelista had 2 assists (2 points) on 2 shots in 17:19.Evangelista
Points
Pavel Dorofeyev had 2 assists (2 points) on 3 shots in 18:36.Dorofeyev
PP1
NSH's first power-play unit (Stamkos, Josi, O'Reilly, Forsberg and Evangelista) scored 1 power-play goal on 8 attempts in 4:21 together.Stamkos Josi O'Reilly Forsberg Evangelista
PP1
VGK's first power-play unit (Stone, Hertl, Hanifin, Marner and Dorofeyev) scored 1 power-play goal on 12 attempts in 3:36 together.Stone Hertl Hanifin Marner Dorofeyev
Usage
Brayden McNabb (VGK) played 10:24, −10:17 down on his 20:41 season average over 62 games.McNabb
Usage
Noah Hanifin (VGK) played 29:59, +7:29 up on his 22:30 season average over 70 games.Hanifin
Luck
NSH scored 4 goals on 2.31 expected goals (48 attempts), finishing well above its chances.
Usage
Kaedan Korczak (VGK) played 20:13, +4:18 up on his 15:55 season average over 77 games.Korczak

Shot map

Both teams on one rink, filtered by strength and period.

Shot map

Every attempt, sized by expected goals. Goals are rings, shots on goal dots, misses hollow, blocks crosses.

Strength

Period

Team

← NSH attacks left (bottom on phones)VGK attacks right (top on phones) →

VGK
NSH
Goal
Shot on goal
Missed
Blocked

Showing 117 of 117 attempts · VGK 69 · NSH 48

Game flow

Cumulative expected goals and shot attempts, with power plays shaded and goals marked.

Cumulative shot attempts

VGK
NSH
Goal
Power play (shaded)

Pressure Index

VGK pressure
NSH pressure
Goal
Control (|PI| > 0.25)

: descriptive only, the team with more pressure scored the next goal about half the time. In control: NSH 30% of the game, VGK 31%.

Shift chart

Every shift, grouped by line and pair; bars are coloured by strength state. Click a player to highlight.

Shifts

VGK

NSH

goals / penalties

Even strength
Power play
Penalty kill
Goal
Penalty

Head-to-head matchups

VGK skaters (rows) against NSH skaters (columns) at 5v5. Square size is time together; colour is xGF% from the VGK side.

Matchup matrix

VGK xGF% 4060square size = TOI together · blank = under 1:00

Sequence card

5-on-5 possession-chain numbers from the sequence engine (Draw Equity and control cover all situations).

Sequence card
Stat	NSH	VGK
	41	53
	1.07	1.79
	1.06	1.70
	7	12
	2	4
	22	13
	−0.036	+0.036
	30%	31%

Definitions: sequence xG, transition attempts, Draw Equity, control and the Pressure Index.

Lines used

Detected from who actually shared the ice, with time together. Percentages are the unit's share of shot attempts.

Nashville Predators

L1Stamkos – O'Reilly – Forsberg
10:4443% CF
L2Haula – Bunting – Evangelista
9:3173% CF
L3McCarron – Smith – Schaefer
9:0635% CF
L4Jost – Svechkov – Wood
6:0243% CF
D1Skjei – Wilsby
14:0844% CF
D2Hague – Blankenburg
12:2644% CF
D3Josi – Perbix
12:0535% CF

PP1Stamkos – Josi – O'Reilly – Forsberg – Evangelista
4:21100% CF
PP2Haula – Skjei – Bunting – Blankenburg – Wood
2:04100% CF
PK1FHaula – Smith
1:39
PK2FO'Reilly – McCarron
0:00
PK1DSkjei – Perbix
2:10
PK2DJosi – Wilsby
0:11

Current NSH line combinations →

Vegas Golden Knights

L1Stone – Barbashev – Marner
6:4136% CF
L2Smith – Howden – Bowman
5:4344% CF
L3Saad – Sissons – Kolesar
5:1256% CF
L4Hertl – Dorofeyev – Holtz
4:4675% CF
D1Hutton – Hanifin
7:4044% CF
D2McNabb – Korczak
7:2750% CF
D3Lauzon – Whitecloud
6:4332% CF

PP1Stone – Hertl – Hanifin – Marner – Dorofeyev
3:36100% CF
PP2Smith – Sissons – Hutton – Barbashev – Bowman
0:12100% CF
PK1FSmith – Howden
2:18
PK2FSaad – Sissons
2:01
PK1DMcNabb – Whitecloud
1:48
PK2DLauzon – Korczak
1:40

Current VGK line combinations →

Scoring summary

Every goal with the skaters on the ice for it.

1st period

5:35
VGKMark StonePP (Pavel Dorofeyev, Noah Hanifin)tip-in0.28 xG
NSH: Skjei, McCarron, Perbix, SmithVGK: Stone, Hertl, Hanifin, Marner, Dorofeyev
NSH 0 – 1 VGK
9:06
VGKBen Hutton (Tomas Hertl, Pavel Dorofeyev)tip-in0.09 xG
NSH: Josi, Jost, Perbix, Svechkov, WoodVGK: Hertl, Hutton, Hanifin, Dorofeyev, Holtz
NSH 0 – 2 VGK
11:20
NSHNick Perbix (Luke Evangelista)wrist0.05 xG
NSH: Josi, Haula, Bunting, Perbix, EvangelistaVGK: Smith, Stone, Lauzon, Marner, Whitecloud
NSH 1 – 2 VGK
15:37
NSHSteven StamkosPP (Filip Forsberg, Luke Evangelista)wrist0.09 xG
NSH: Stamkos, Josi, O'Reilly, Forsberg, EvangelistaVGK: Hertl, Hanifin, Lauzon, Marner
NSH 2 – 2 VGK
16:21
NSHReid Schaefer (Brady Skjei, Michael McCarron)snap0.02 xG
NSH: Skjei, McCarron, Smith, Wilsby, SchaeferVGK: Smith, Hutton, Hanifin, Howden, Bowman
NSH 3 – 2 VGK

2nd period

11:52
NSHMichael BuntingPP (Nick Blankenburg, Erik Haula)tip-in0.13 xG
NSH: Stamkos, Haula, Skjei, Bunting, BlankenburgVGK: Smith, Lauzon, Howden, Korczak
NSH 4 – 2 VGK

Box score

Skaters grouped by the line they played on; CF% is the 5v5 share of shot attempts while on the ice.

Nashville Predators

NSH skaters
Skater	Line	G	A	P	+/-			Hits	Blk	PIM		PP	SH
Ryan O'Reilly C	L1	0	0	0	0	1	0.15	0	2	0	23:13	—	—	33	35
Filip Forsberg L	L1	0	1	1	0	2	0.25	2	0	0	19:56	—	—	44	43
Steven Stamkos C	L1	1	0	1	0	1	0.29	0	0	0	19:32	—	—	41	43
Erik Haula L	L2	0	1	1	+1	1	0.20	2	0	2	18:16	—	—	69	95
Luke Evangelista R	L2	0	2	2	+1	2	0.10	0	0	0	17:19	—	—	59	42
Michael Bunting L	L2	1	0	1	+1	2	0.18	1	0	0	14:21	—	—	65	85
Cole Smith R	L3	0	0	0	+1	0	0.31	8	1	0	15:51	—	—	33	26
Michael McCarron C	L3	0	1	1	+1	1	0.34	6	0	2	12:44	—	—	39	35
Reid Schaefer L	L3	1	0	1	+1	2	0.07	3	1	0	10:33	—	—	32	26
Matthew Wood R	L4	0	0	0	-1	0	0.00	0	0	0	9:22	—	—	40	39
Tyson Jost C	L4	0	0	0	-1	1	0.08	1	0	0	9:03	—	—	35	25
Fedor Svechkov C	L4	0	0	0	-1	1	0.13	1	0	0	8:24	—	—	40	25
Brady Skjei D	D1	0	1	1	+1	0	0.00	0	2	0	24:08	—	—	48	40
Adam Wilsby D	D1	0	0	0	+1	1	0.04	0	1	0	17:00	—	—	45	41
Nick Blankenburg D	D2	0	1	1	0	0	0.00	0	1	0	18:17	—	—	50	25
Nicolas Hague D	D2	0	0	0	0	0	0.00	1	1	2	17:34	—	—	50	27
Roman Josi D	D3	0	0	0	0	2	0.05	0	4	0	20:31	—	—	38	43
Nick Perbix D	D3	1	0	1	0	2	0.11	1	5	0	19:45	—	—	39	44

NSH goalies
Goalie	Dec	SA	SV	GA			TOI
Justus Annunen(start)	W	31	29	2	.935	2.78	60:00

Vegas Golden Knights

VGK skaters
Skater	Line	G	A	P	+/-			Hits	Blk	PIM		PP	SH
Mitch Marner R	L1	0	0	0	-1	3	0.10	0	0	0	23:39	—	—	50	49
Mark Stone R	L1	1	0	1	-1	2	0.45	2	0	0	21:33	—	—	52	52
Ivan Barbashev L	L1	0	0	0	0	1	0.12	5	0	0	16:05	—	—	50	58
Reilly Smith R	L2	0	0	0	-2	0	0.17	0	0	0	14:34	—	—	62	54
Brett Howden C	L2	0	0	0	-1	0	0.00	1	1	2	14:16	—	—	38	57
Braeden Bowman R	L2	0	0	0	-1	1	0.19	0	0	0	12:36	—	—	48	61
Brandon Saad L	L3	0	0	0	0	5	0.57	1	0	0	14:46	—	—	44	69
Colton Sissons C	L3	0	0	0	0	2	0.05	0	1	0	12:21	—	—	65	68
Keegan Kolesar R	L3	0	0	0	0	1	0.12	4	1	14	7:30	—	—	69	73
Tomas Hertl C	L4	0	1	1	+1	2	0.20	4	0	0	19:03	—	—	79	80
Pavel Dorofeyev R	L4	0	2	2	+1	3	0.45	0	0	0	18:36	—	—	72	77
Alexander Holtz R	L4	0	0	0	+1	0	0.00	0	0	2	9:45	—	—	77	68
Noah Hanifin D	D1	0	1	1	0	5	0.20	1	0	0	29:59	—	—	70	86
Ben Hutton D	D1	1	0	1	0	3	0.09	1	2	0	16:19	—	—	59	73
Kaedan Korczak D	D2	0	0	0	0	2	0.07	2	0	0	20:13	—	—	68	72
Brayden McNabb D	D2	0	0	0	0	0	0.00	0	1	0	10:24	—	—	46	29
Zach Whitecloud D	D3	0	0	0	-1	0	0.00	0	2	0	19:32	—	—	42	41
Jeremy Lauzon D	D3	0	0	0	-1	1	0.01	5	3	0	17:02	—	—	52	54

VGK goalies
Goalie	Dec	SA	SV	GA			TOI
Akira Schmid(start)	L	19	15	4	.789	2.04	54:52

Goal anatomy

Animated replays from NHL EDGE tracking, with the entry, passes and shot speed for each goal.

Mark Stone (VGK PP) 1st 5:35 · assists Pavel Dorofeyev, Noah Hanifin · Deflection · 17.8 mph shot.

Mark Stone · 1st 5:35 · VGK PP

Play: deflection
Passes: 4 (royal road)
Shot: 17.8 mph
Distance: 3 ft
Type: rebound

Watch on NHL.com → · Tracking-derived via NHL EDGE

Ben Hutton · 1st 9:06 · VGK

Play: deflection
Passes: 2
Shot: 43.0 mph
Distance: 17 ft
Type: deflection

Watch on NHL.com → · Tracking-derived via NHL EDGE

Nick Perbix · 1st 11:20 · NSH

Play: rush
Entry: carry
Odd man: No
Passes: 2
Shot: 63.8 mph
Distance: 54 ft
Entry to goal: 4.5 s

Watch on NHL.com → · Tracking-derived via NHL EDGE

Steven Stamkos · 1st 15:37 · NSH PP

Play: cycle
Passes: 4 (royal road)
Shot: 64.4 mph
Distance: 27 ft
Type: one-timer

Watch on NHL.com → · Tracking-derived via NHL EDGE

Reid Schaefer · 1st 16:21 · NSH

Play: cycle
Passes: 0
Shot: 10.8 mph
Distance: 6 ft

Watch on NHL.com → · Tracking-derived via NHL EDGE

Michael Bunting · 2nd 11:52 · NSH PP

Play: deflection
Passes: 4
Shot: 15.0 mph
Distance: 5 ft

Watch on NHL.com → · Tracking-derived via NHL EDGE

Methodology

Shot locations come from the NHL play-by-play, normalised so each shooter attacks the same way, then flipped so the home team attacks right. On-ice stats and lines come from the shift charts: a unit is the exact set of skaters sharing the ice, and CF% is the share of all shot attempts while they were out. Head-to-head cells are 5v5 time against each opponent. Expected goals and the Pressure Index appear as their models are released.