Predators' Rinne, one of the best goalies in NHL, will test Flyers' offense

Having been blanked by Tampa Bay's 41-year-old Dwayne Roloson on Tuesday, the Flyers will try to solve one of the NHL's best goalies, Pekka Rinne, when they face the Nashville Predators on Thursday night at the Wells Fargo Center.

Rinne is second in the league in goals-against average (2.10) and save percentage (.929).

In host Tampa Bay's 4-0 win Tuesday, the Flyers fired 38 shots at Roloson.

"But he saw every one of them," defenseman Chris Pronger said. "We've got to do a better job of getting in front of him. In this league, if a goalie sees the puck, he's going to stop it 99 times out of 100."

Getting more traffic in front will be the Flyers' goal against Nashville, an offense-challenged team that features Rinne, all-star defenseman Shea Weber, owner of a 100-plus m.p.h. slap shot, and defenseman Ryan Suter.

Rinne, a Finland native who has a 17-13-4 record, has allowed two goals or fewer in 11 of his last 13 games.

The Predators will face a Flyers power play that went 0 for 4 on Tuesday and has scored in just four of their last 14 games.

Nashville (27-17-7) has the league's third-best penalty-killing unit, with an 85.6 percent success rate.

The Predators have averaged just 2.55 goals per game, which was 25th in the 30-team NHL entering Wednesday. The Flyers (33-13-5) were the league's highest-scoring team, averaging 3.39 goals per game.

Despite Tuesday's loss in Tampa, the Flyers have won 10 of their last 13 games. Nashville has lost its last three games.

Preds underappreciated. In a recent poll of 318 NHL players, Nashville was named the league's most underrated team, drawing 18 percent of the votes. Dallas was second at 16 percent.

In that same poll, players chose Detroit - Detroit! - as their No. 1 NHL destination with 14 percent of the vote, followed by Chicago and Vancouver (each at 11 percent), the New York Rangers (9 percent), and Tampa Bay (6 percent).

Only the top five choices were revealed, and it's somewhat surprising the Flyers weren't on the list.

Breakaways. Danny Briere, the all-star center who leads the Flyers with 26 goals, was given the day off from Wednesday's practice in Voorhees. Oskars Bartulis (flu) also missed practice. Jody Shelley returned to the ice after missing the previous two practices because of the flu. . . . Goalie Sergei Bobrovsky was pulled after allowing three first-period goals on Tuesday, so it wouldn't be surprising if Brian Boucher got the start against Nashville. . . . Before Thursday's game, Flyers legend Bob Clarke will be presented with his No. 16 banner - the one that used to hang from the Spectrum rafters - and fans will receive a replica banner. . . . Thursday will be just the teams' third meeting in the last four seasons. The Flyers and Predators have made more trades with each other (17) than they have played each other (Thursday is the 14th time), noted Brian Smith, the Flyers' public-relations assistant.