The set-up: The 33-12-9 Nashville Predators are in first-place in the Central Division (75 points) and tonight will host their Central Division rival for the first time this season when they open a four-game homestand on Tuesday against the St. Louis Blues. The 34-21-3 Blues (71 points) are inside the current playoff cut line in third-place in the division. Not only are the Predators two points clear of the second-place Jets and four ahead of the Blues, they also have played two fewer games than Winnipeg and four less than St. Louis, they also have a game in hand on Vegas, which is a point ahead of them for the conference's best record.

St. Louis: The Blues appeared to take a 2-1 lead early in the third period in their last game but Paul Stastny's tip-in was overturned by the Situation Room when they ruled he played it with a high stick. The Penguins scored 34 seconds later and never looked back in a 4-1 win. "It wasn't our worst game we played," Blues captain Alex Pietrangelo said. "I thought we battled hard. It's 1-1 until obviously the third and a couple of mistakes. You've got to find a way to win a hockey game. But if you look at the overall effort, it was there." St. Louis out-shot Pittsburgh 34-23 but appeared to wear down in the third period as it played its third game in four days. The Blues held an optional practice Monday that most of their top players skipped. Jake Allen (19-16-2, 2.74 goals-against average, .908 save percentage) is the No. 1 goalie or former Nashville backup Carter Hutton could draw the start in goal against his former team, after making 23 saves in a 6-1 rout of Colorado on Thursday. He owns a sparkling 15-5-1 mark with a 1.70 goals-against average and .944 save percentage this season, although he was saddled with the hard-luck loss despite turning aside 26 of 27 shots in a 2-0 setback versus Nashville on Nov. 24.

Nashviile: Mike Fisher skated on a line with Colton Sissons and Miikka Salomaki on Monday in his first practice session since he announced he was coming out of retirement on Jan. 31. "I think like anything else, it's a little bit of muscle memory and getting back in shape and feeling good," the 37-year-old Fisher said. "It just takes time. Because it's been so long in the past however many months, I actually feel better than I thought I would at this point." Fellow veteran Scott Hartnell followed up his two-assist performance at Ottawa on Thursday with eighth goal, moving him within one point of 700 for his career. Goaltender Pekka Rinne silenced the St. Louis Blues earlier this season by recording a pair of victories after turning aside 63 of the 64 shots he faced. Rinne aims to keep the Blues under his thumb as the first-place Predators. Rinne (28-8-4, 2.30, .927) has ceded just one goal to the Blues in 2-0 and 2-1 victories during the 2017 portion of the season and in Nashville's 4-2 series victory over St. Louis last year, Rinne permitted only 11 goals.

The pick: Hard to buck the Preds right now and the fact that the St. Louis owns the 28th-ranked power play at 15.9 percent (has mustered just one goal this month), hardly inspires confidence for the road team. A visit to Bridgestone Arena. will be a real test, as the Preds come in having gone 10-1-3 in their last 14 games overall and are 18-5-3 at home where they average 3.35 GPG. Make Nashville an 8* play. .