In Nashville, the visiting Seattle Kraken picked up their first franchise win, 4-3, over the Predators on Thursday night.
Brandon Tanev struck twice for the Kraken.
“[Little details] and energy and the emotion that he brings to our team, not only on the ice, but on the bench as well,” Kraken head coach Dave Hakstol said of Tanev. “Those things are extremely important, so it was nice to see him get rewarded. Right at the end of the power play, scores a big goal for us off of the face-off and then is able to finish it with the empty netter.”
Philipp Grubauer made 27 saves for his first win.
Eeli Tolvanen scored in the first period to give the Predators an early 1-0 lead.
“I thought in the first period we didn’t get off to the start we wanted,” Nashville head coach John Hynes said. “I thought in the second period there were more pockets of how we wanted to be able to play, and then I really liked the third period where we were able to get to our game. So I think there’s some things we can take out of the first. The penalties don’t help, where you wind up having to kill so much right off the bat.”
Alex Wennberg and Jared McCann added single markers for Seattle.
“I feel like it’s just big for the franchise,” Wennberg said. “Obviously, it’s so new and to get that first win, I feel like it’s a big accomplishment. I don’t know if we celebrate it any differently, I think it’s just really good for the team and for us as an organization. It’s just like, ‘Hey, that’s the first one.’ Hopefully there’s many more to come and that’s where we’re aiming at.”
Mikael Granlund scored late to make the final more respectable.
“It’s huge,” McCann said. “It’s something we’ll always remember. We’ve got the puck right now and are going to do something nice with it. Every guy on this team deserves to be here. I’m just proud to be a part of this.”
Roman Josi also scored for Nashville.
Juuse Saros made 22 saves in the loss.
“I feel like we didn’t get enough (offensive) zone time,” Josi said. “Especially in the neutral zone, we didn’t get it in as much as we would like to. Once we were in there, we were in there for a short time and they got back out. I think in the third we obviously got more pressure and was more the way we wanted to play, but I think the first two periods (we) couldn’t get in enough in the offensive zone and were playing too much defense.”
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