In Nashville Thursday night, the Predators welcomed back Ryan Ellis who scored once and assisted on two others goas in a 5-1 drubbing of the Anaheim Ducks.
“Sitting out a game, I got my legs back and obviously felt good out there,” Ellis said. “The couple days’ rest, or whatever it was, worked. Overall with the team, I thought that was probably our best game of the year, and we needed it tonight.”
Pekka Rinne made 27 saves for the Preds who improved to 6-1-0 on the season.
“I thought the first period was very good,” Ducks coach Bruce Boudreau said. “I thought when they scored the first goal [early in the second period], it was like everybody’s shouldered sagged. When you’re having trouble scoring and the other team gets that first goal, you’ve got to dig deeper and we sort of felt a little sorry for ourselves for the next little bit, and the next thing you know it was 3-0.”
Nashville scored three times in the second period period and once early in the third to build a 4-0 lead before the Ducks were able to put a marker up on the board.
Eric Nystrom opened the scoring in the second period.
“I think we’re starting to get better,” Nystrom said. “There have been games that maybe we shouldn’t have won in those six [wins], but we’ve found a way. I think tonight’s game was an example of the type of team we are.”
It was his second goal of the campaign.
“You want to have that confidence going and get everything in the right direction, and we are right now,” Nystrom said. “Winning hockey games and playing well is what you want as a team. Maybe early on in the first few games, we kind of had a false sense of confidence because we weren’t playing our best but we were still winning. Now it’s moving in the right direction for us. We’re playing the way we’re supposed to play.”
After winning their first game against the Wild, the Ducks fell flat in Nashville.
“The only way you get out of it is work harder and stay with your structure and stay with doing the right thing,” Boudreau said of Ducks’ early-season struggles. “Eventually you get some puck luck, and you start feeling better about yourself and you don’t make those mistakes because you’re making passes with confidence. You’re making plays with confidence. You’re coming back to the spots with confidence.”
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