In Nashville, the Predators’ Juuse Saros made 23 saves n a 3-0 shutout of the Seattle Kraken on Thursday.
“I feel good,” Saros said. “I just try to keep building my game. In games, there’s always something where you might be a little bit rusty in some situations, so I try to be the best I can. I take reminders of all of the situations that are going on, stay humble and work hard.”
After a scoreless first period, Colton Sissons scored midway through the middle frame for a 1-0 lead to the Predators.
“It was really cool,” Nashville coach Andrew Brunette said. “The introductions and the start of the game reminded me of a different time when I was way younger and less gray. I got more gray as the game went on. Once you’re a player and you’ve put on a Predators uniform, even though you’re not a player, you always feel like you’re still a player. You still have all of the jitters and the excitement. It was fun to be part of tonight for sure, and to get a win makes it extra special.”
Sissons’ goal came on a shorthanded breakaway.
“I thought we did a good job of carrying the momentum and not giving it back to them too many times there,” Nashville defenseman Ryan McDonagh said. “We had to play a little patient game too. We did a lot better job not forcing plays and feeding their transition. That’s a fast team over there with a lot of skill, so if you feed them with some turnovers, they can make you pay. But I think we learned some lessons playing against [the Tampa Bay Lightning on Tuesday, a 5-3 loss]. We stayed out of the box a lot better, managed the puck a lot better and you could see our forechecking game take over.”
At 10:03 of the third, Gustav Nyquist scored to push the advantage to 2-0 for Nashville.
“You try not to hurt yourself by taking penalties and turning pucks over,” McDonagh said. “We talked about just staying within our structure, staying fast, being aggressive. When there’s a play to be made, try to make it, but if not, just play a little bit more high percentage. You could see us doing that tonight, getting more [offensive] zone time with the forechecking game. It was a lot more fun to play tonight than the other night.”
Juuso Parssinen added an empty-net goal for the 3-0 final at 18:19 of the third.
“It was a tight hockey game,”Seattle coach Dave Hakstol said. “The turning point at the middle of the game was giving up the short-handed goal. They took a lot of momentum out of that for the second half of the second period. In terms of, I wouldn’t say ‘chaotic’ is the word, but on the offensive side, a few too many missed nets.”
Philipp Grubauer made 32 saves in the loss, and has been supported with one goal in the Kraken’s two losses to start the season.
“[Grubauer] has been solid both nights here,” Hakstol said. “He’s given us good opportunities and has played very well. He’s been sharp. He’s seeing the puck well. I’ve really liked his competitive level. He played a good hockey game tonight.”
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