The set-up: The Vegas Golden Knights are a 17-9-1 on the season but have cooled since a blazing start to the team's first NHL season. Vegas opened 8-1-0 but head to Nashville having gone 9-8-1 over the team's last 18 games. Still, if the playoffs started now, the Golden Knights would not only be there, but would have home-ice advantage for the first round. The Nashville Predators surprised all wit the team's run to the Stanley Cup Finals, where they fell to the Penguins in six games. Nashville started slowly but has gone 13-2-1 over its last 16 games to give them a 18-7-3 record, which is one point behind the Central Division-leading St. Louis Blues.

Vegas: The Golden Knights rallied for a 4-3 shootout win Tuesday night over Anaheim to stay four points behind first-place Los Angeles in the Pacific Division, while uppingh their home recrd to 11-2-0.James Neal is preparing himself for the funny feeling he'll experience when he opens the doors to Bridgestone Arena, marking his official return to the place he called home for three seasons prior to being selected by Vegas in the expansion draft. "I really enjoyed my time in Nashville," the 30-year-old Neal said. "It's always weird going back to play the team you once played for. You have those mixed emotions and you don't know how you'll feel. I'll just try to focus on the game." Neal, who scored his 13th goal of the season and added his eighth assist on Tuesday, is on pace for his 10th consecutive 20-goal season of his career. Neal and the rest of Vegas' explosive offense (team ranks 3rd with 3.44 GPG) will have to put pucks behind Pekka Rinne.

Nashville: Rinne comes in 16-4-2 with a 2.38 goals-against average and 926 save percentage on the season. However, the bigger story here in Vegas goalie Malcolm Subban (6-2-0, 2.26, .923), who recently returned to action after missing more than a month with a lower-body injury. Subban blanked Anaheim in the shootout Tuesday night. He is the brother of Nashville's P.K. Subban and that makes it a compelling storyline. For the first time in a regular-season game, the Nashville defenseman will try to shoot pucks past his brother, while their father Karl Subban watches as part of the Golden Knights' first Fathers' Trip. P.K. logged a game-high 23:53 of ice time in a 5-2 victory at Dallas on Tuesday, marking Nashville's third straight win but his season-high point drought was extended to seven games .

The pick: There was a Subban vs. Subban matchup in a 2013 Montreal-Boston exhibition game when P.K. was playing for the Canadiens and Malcolm was a prospect with the Bruins. However, that can't come close to carrying the importance of this contest. The issue for Vegas is the team's road struggles, where the team is just 6-7-1 while allowing 3.64 GPG. Nashville is 11-2-1 at Bridgestone Arena, averaging 3.79 GPG. Make Nashville an 8* play.