The Nashville Predators have been dominant against the Anaheim Ducks in recent years Dylan DeMelo Jersey Womens , and the top team in the Western Conference will try to continue that trend when the teams meet Monday night at Honda Center.The Predators (13-3-0) have won two playoff series in the past three seasons against the Ducks and have gone 6-2-1 in regular-season meetings in that span.The odds appear stacked against the Ducks again Monday as the Predators have won five in a row for the second time this season to bring the NHL’s best record into the game.Article continues below ...The Ducks have dropped nine of their past 11 games (2-7-2) to erase a promising 5-1-1 start.They were beset by injuries during the early part of the season, but as key players have begun returning to the lineup, the Ducks have been unable to turn the corner and start building a winning streak.Anaheim posted emotional wins in the past week against the visiting Columbus Blue Jackets and Calgary Flames, only to lose one-sided games to the Los Angeles Kings and Minnesota Wild the next time they took the ice.After the 5-1 loss to the Wild on Friday night, some veterans on the Ducks questioned their mental approach.“We gained a little bit of momentum with how we’ve been playing, and we knew it was going to be a game that we needed to play tight. We needed to earn it,” Ducks forward Andrew Cogliano said. “That just shows we weren’t willing to do anything to win the game.”The Predators swept all three meetings against the Ducks last season.In the final meeting on March 8 in Nashville, Anaheim center Ryan Kesler and Predators center Ryan Johansen dropped their gloves late in the second period after Nashville scored short-handed to go up 3-0.Johansen said after the 4-2 victory that Kesler had been requesting a fight for most of the game.Then in August, Kesler tweeted for the first time in months, randomly asking Johansen how his summer training was going Gabriel Gagne Jersey Womens , and if he’d like to “meet me in the streets before we get going on the ice.”Johansen simply replied, “I’ll pay for your parking.”Presumably, that meeting never took place, so Monday night will be the first time they’ve faced each other since last March.The Predators were without forward Calle Jarnkrok in their 5-4 overtime victory at the Dallas Stars on Saturday because of a lower-body injury. He participated in warmups, so there’s a good chance he’s close to returning.One area the Predators hope to improve is their power play. They came into Sunday with a 13.6-percent success rate, tied with the Montreal Canadiens for 30th in the NHL. Nashville finished 12th in the league last year at 21.2 percent.Nashville defenseman Roman Josi scored a power-play goal with 42.5 seconds left in regulation against the Stars on Saturday, allowing the Predators to win their eighth straight road game to open the season, but told the Tennessean they’re not satisfied with their overall production with the man-advantage.“We’re not happy with the way it’s going right now,” He said. “It’s something we want to change as soon as possible.” Gerard Gallant didn’t consider pulling Marc-Andre Fleury as another game and perhaps the Vegas Golden Knights‘ Stanley Cup hopes slipped away.The struggles and another pile of Washington Capitals goals are on the entire team. Gallant couldn’t pull all his players at once.”There was nothing that he could have done,” Gallant said.As the face of the franchise and its backbone on the ice James Van Riemsdyk Jersey Womens , Fleury did just about everything to lead the expansion Golden Knights to the Cup Final with a .947 save percentage that made him the playoff MVP front-runner. In four games against Washington, Fleury has allowed 16 goals on 103 shots, a pedestrian .845 save percentage that speaks as much to Vegas crashing back down to earth as a team.There is plenty of blame to pass around for the Golden Knights as they face a 3-1 series deficit that no team since the 1942 Toronto Maple Leafs has overcome in the final. Vegas needs Fleury to be better and his teammates to improve in front of him in Game 5 on Thursday night or they will watch their opponent celebrate a championship their home ice.”When you’re a goalie you don’t want to get scored on,” Fleury said. ”There was a lot of that (in Game 4). It’s never a good feeling. It’s a team game. Everybody’s trying hard out there, trying to help me out. We’ll find a way to make it work.”It’s not working right now. The Capitals’ strategy of making lateral passes to get Fleury moving side-to-side is proving effective at even strength and on a power play that’s scoring at a 26.7 percent clip.Forward Alex Tuch said staying out of the penalty box is one necessary improvement, but it goes beyond that. Vegas has ridden Fleury to this point and now has to cut down on the high-danger scoring chances he’s facing and too often allowing to turn into goals.”Play better defensively,” Gallant said Tuesday. ”There’s too many guys staring at the puck carrier, and we’re leaving the back side open too much. Make sure we’re paying attention to the guys behind the puck and away from the puck. Marc will make the save on the guy shooting the puck. We’ve just got to make sure we’re taking away the passes.”Fleury didn’t make the save on Devante Smith-Pelly on the doorstep in Game 4 as the Golden Knights fell behind 3-0 despite one of their best periods of the series that featured James Neal’s inexplicable shot off the post facing a wide-open net. As Gallant pointed out, Fleury had little chance on others as Washington put up six goals in a blowout .Golden Knights players can’t help but feel like they’re letting ”Flower” down.”We have the best goalie in the league and he’s been carrying (us) the whole year along and we feel like the goals … there’s not much you can do on those,” center Pierre-Edouard Bellemare said. ”This is the frustrating part.”Fleury acknowledged falling behind 3-1 was demoralizing. But the 33-year-old refuses to say fatigue has been a factor for him or his teammates.”I think everybody’s fine Matt Cullen Jersey Womens ,” Fleury said. ”It’s the same for their team, also. They’ve been through the same season, same playoffs. Being tired is no excuse.”The Golden Knights have lost three games in a row as they near the end of an otherwise-charmed inaugural season. Perhaps Fleury has one more stand-on-his head, stop-everything game left in him in front of the home fans in Las Vegas, but the Golden Knights will need more than a singular effort from their goalie.”Not where we want to be, that’s for sure,” Fleury said. ”Nobody’s quitting. We’re going home. We’ve had some success there. We just have to focus on period at a time, you know? Don’t think too far ahead. Just play our game, see where that takes us.”—More Stanley Cup coverage: https://apnews.com/tag/StanleyCupFinals—