In Nashville, Juuse Saros made 31 saves in a 2-0 win for the Predators over the visiting Detroit Red Wings on Tuesday night.
“I’ve been feeling good,” Saros said. “Obviously, we’ve had a good team effort and I feel like everyone has been pulling the same rope. It’s always fun to play when guys are sacrificing. We had a good penalty kill today and a lot of big blocks, so it was a good win.”
Mikael Granlund scored in the opening period for a 1-0 lead for Nashville.
“We have guys playing the right way,” Nashville head coach John Hynes said. “I think if you look at a game like tonight and on the road trip and take our forward group, there’s relentless forecheck pressure. There’s back pressure. They’re staying on [defense]. They recover above pucks. They turn pucks over. Like, there’s no cheat. There’s just a real strong work ethic by this group of forwards right now, and they’re getting rewarded with offensive zone time, and they’re getting rewarded with opportunities to be able to score.”
Nashville improved to 15-17-1.
“It was nice,” Nashville’s Roman Josi said. “Obviously, every time you’re hurt, it’s not fun. I felt good. It’s good to be back. I thought the guys played really hard on the road trip and I was just trying to do my part tonight. It was a lot of fun being back.”
Mathieu Olivier doubled the lead with a strike in the second period.
“I think our identity is just being relentless,” Olivier said. “Working not only hard but working smart. I think our reloads in the offensive zone have been outstanding, and that’s been a big difference in our game. And also guys are getting to the net. Guys are shooting pucks to the net. We’re playing a really simple game right now, north and south. When we have those plays, guys make those plays.”
Detroit dropped to 10-19-4.
“We didn’t play our game the past two games, but that’s going to happen in a schedule like this where we play four times a week,” the Red Wings’ Dylan Larkin said. “We have a lot of hockey here, and we’re lucky we get to play these guys again Thursday to figure it out and go out there and play the way we want to play. It starts with work ethic, and I’m sure [coach Jeff Blashill] is going to talk about compete level and making it hard for their guys. We have to get back to doing what we’ve done all season.”
Thomas Greiss made 32 saves in the loss, and should renew his suit for nonsupport..
“They’re one of the best forechecking teams in the League,” Blashill said. “Statistically, we have them as the best. I thought we did a poor job of being quick out of our zone. I thought we slowed ourselves down and didn’t get pucks behind them.”
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