The Nashville Predators picked up their first win of the 2023-24 season last night against the Boston Bruins. The Predators entering play last night were 0-5-0, which was a surprising start for the team that had claimed the offseason title bringing in Steven Stamkos, Jonathan Marchessault, and Brady Skjei. The team had looked slow to start the season but last night they turned in one of their best games of the season and obviously so as they came away with two points. Here are some takeaways from the game.
Juuse Saros
Saros had started the season 0-4-0 with a 3.64 goals against average, and an .875 save percentage. Last night against a good Bruins team he turned aside all 33 shots he faced recording his first shutout since March 23rd. Saros was a Vezina favorite entering the season and the way he played last night may just be what get’s things turned around and locked in going forward.
Zachary L’Heureux Debut
The Predators 5’11” 197 lb forward made his debut last night and despite not showing up on the scoresheet he made his presence felt in other ways and provided a spark to Nashville. He played in 13 shifts recording just under one minute of ice time, he had one shot on goal and led the team with four hits.
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Goals
Ryan O’Reilly got the scoring started as he deflected a shot from Roman Josi past Jeremy Swayman to get Nashville on the board, now the question was could they hold it, and they did leading 1-0 following the first period. In the second period, Tommy Novak found the back of the net as he scored off a rebound on a shot from Luke Evangelista. Gustav Nyquist added the third goal on a beautiful two-on-one shot that beat Swayman. The final goal came from Luke Evangelista his first of the year on an empty net to secure the 4-0 win. Brady Skjei was only one of the three new additions to find the stat sheet recording an assist on Novak’s goal.
Stats
The Predators had a great night in the faceoff dot winning 56.7% of the faceoffs, they also scored on the power play going 1-6 but they held the Bruins to 0-4. They also managed 42 shots on goal which is tied for a season-high, in that other game they had 42 shots they were shut out. The Predators were also flying around recording 32 hits and outhitting Boston 32-17.
Next Up:
The Predators have a back-to-back coming up first on Friday they will face the Chicago Blackhawks in Chicago and then on Saturday they will face the Columbus Blue Jackets at home at the Bridgestone Arena.
ITR 44: We Have A Champion…Again – Inside The Rink
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