Wild Visit Nashville as Both Teams Open 2026-27 Slates
Opening night carries a particular electricity — no baggage, no deficits, just 60 minutes and a blank slate. Minnesota travels to Bridgestone Arena on Thursday at 8:00 PM ET for a game that matters precisely because nothing has been decided yet.
Both the Minnesota Wild and Nashville Predators arrive at Bridgestone Arena sitting at 0-0-0, which is the only honest equalizer the NHL calendar offers. Every team looks the same on paper tonight, and that makes the goaltending matchup the most compelling lens through which to read this one. Jesper Wallstedt is expected to start for Minnesota, and if you want a storyline to anchor your evening, this is it — a young netminder getting the nod on opening night is a statement of organizational trust, and how he handles the pressure of a road environment in Game 1 will set a tone that echoes well beyond tonight.
In net for Nashville, Juuse Saros is expected to start, and that's a known quantity the Predators lean on heavily. Saros has been one of the more quietly elite goaltenders in the Western Conference for years, and Nashville's identity tends to run through him. On a night when skaters on both sides are still shaking off the rust of a long preseason, goaltending often decides early-season games before the offense finds its rhythm. That dynamic makes this matchup particularly worth watching — two very different profiles between the pipes, with Wallstedt representing the future and Saros representing proven, consistent production.
As for a prediction, we don't have a validated model read on this game, and I'm not going to manufacture confidence where none exists. What I will say is this: opening nights on the road are hard. The crowd at Bridgestone will be loud, Nashville will be energized, and Minnesota will need Wallstedt to be sharp early to keep this from turning into a statement win for the home side. Tune in on ESPN+, Scripps Sports, or MINNHL at 8:00 PM ET — this is exactly the kind of game that looks routine on the schedule and ends up being anything but.