In Toronto, the Maple Leafs hit two posts and had a goal waved off in the first period and that was as close as they came to scoring the rest of the way as Pekka Rinne made 18 saves in a 4-0 shutout for the Nashville Predators.
“Great game. All in all as a team, it was a great team win,” Rinne said. “Obviously defensively we played a great game, they only had 18 shots. I thought early on in the game, first and second period, they have a dangerous team but in the third period we played really solid and defended really well and were able to create more opportunities for ourselves.”
After a six-game losing streak, the Predators are now 4-0-1 in their five.
Mattias Ekholm, Colton Sissons, P.K. Subban, and Kevin Fiala scored for Nashville.
“It was a great effort. Our past two games is Preds hockey,” Subban said. “That’s the way we play when we’re playing our best. We make it tough. That’s a really good hockey team. When we came in, we thought they were a top-two, top-three team in the League, and I thought we did a good job of limiting their top players’ opportunities. The past two games, our sticks have been unbelievable in all three zones, and that’s a big part of the reason why we won this game.”
For the most part, the Maple Leafs’ defense stood around the defensive zone and seemed mired in mud.
“I thought we got a lesson from a veteran team here today,” Maple Leafs head coach Mike Babcock said. “I thought, really in the third period in particular, I didn’t know if we thought we were going to come out and race around. They just stayed patient and were right. They were heavy on the puck, heavy on their sticks, detailed, blocked shots, competed. I liked their game.”
The Maple Leafs dropped to 27-13-2.
“I thought our coaches’ message was really good to the players just about how to play it,” Predators head coach Peter Laviolette said. “You watch them move the puck around the way they do, there’s a lot of detail that goes into it, so I thought the message was great. Ultimately it’s the players; they’ve got to go onto the ice and execute and there wasn’t a lot of opportunity coming off the power play.”
The Preds improved to 26-15-3.
“They’re very selective with their shots; they don’t take long shots and try to create better chances,” Rinne said. “It still felt like in the first half of the game, I thought Toronto was really good. They created some chances and made us defend, but I think the second half the game we took over and were the better team. It was one of those games where the guys made it easy for me.”
[WATCH: All Predators vs. Maple Leafs highlights]
Michael Hutchinson made 28 saves in the loss.
“This was a real hockey game. That’s a real team over there and it’s something that going forward we’re going to need to be ready for these games and be ready to beat those teams,” Mitchell Marner said after the loss.
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