Hynes loses debut as Predators coach to Bruins

NASHVILLE-- John Hynes lost his debut as coach of the Nashville Predators on Tuesday, 6-2 to the Boston Bruins at Bridgestone Arena.

The Predators (19-16-7) fired coach Peter Laviolette on Monday and hired Hynes hours before this game.
"The message was to come back here tonight ready to play, ready to compete," Hynes said. "We weren't able to make any adjustments, and it's difficult sometimes coaching these games too. I don't necessarily know the players as well. They don't really know me as well. But I give the guys a lot of credit, I thought they handled the day very professionally. I thought this was a game, although we don't like what the result was, I think it gave everybody a good feel of how things are going to be, and it certainly gave the coaching staff a clear vision of what we need to move on and do tomorrow."
WATCH: [All Bruins vs. Predators highlights]
The Bruins (25-8-11) won for the first time in four games. David Pastrnak scored his NHL-leading 32nd goal to extend his point streak to 11 games (16 points; six goals, 10 assists).
"We got the lead, we extended the lead and had a lot of penalty kills (2-for-7)," said Bruins goalie Tuukka Rask, who made 33 saves. "We battled hard in front of our net, and I think everybody contributed."

Pastrnak gave the Bruins a 1-0 lead at 1:36 of the first period on a slap shot from the right circle on the rush. Danton Heinen made it 2-0 at 8:21 of the second period on a wrist shot from the slot.
Filip Forsberg scored for the Predators to make it 2-1 at 10:54 on a 5-on-3 power play. Roman Josi extended his point streak to 11 games with an assist (19 points; seven goals, 12 assists).
"I thought we competed," Predators forward Matt Duchene said. "Kind of the same story of the season though, the wrong mistakes at the wrong times."

Patrice Bergeron gave the Bruins a 3-1 lead at 17:42 on a shot from in front of the net on the power play.
"It's been a while since we've played as a team like that," Bergeron said. "Assertive and on the puck for 60 minutes throughout the game without stopping. There's going to be some breakdowns. We're playing some good teams. Obviously it's a great league and those points don't come easily, but I thought the way we competed and the way we played, good things will happen every time if we do that."
Chris Wagner made it 4-1 at 2:51 of the third period, and Mikael Granlund got Nashville within 4-2 at 18:06.

David Krejci gave the Bruins a 5-2 lead at 19:05 of the third period with an empty-net goal, and Charlie Coyle pushed it to 6-2 with 33 seconds remaining.
"I don't think we've ever considered ourselves a one-line team," Bruins coach Bruce Cassidy said. "There's some nights that obviously [the Pastrnak-Bergeron-Brad Marchand line] does a lot of the scoring for us, but we've always felt that we're a group of 20 guys that have to pull their weight every night. If not, we're not going to win every night. That was a good example of it tonight."

They said it

"That's who he is. He's a competitor. It doesn't matter which game of the year it is, what time of the year. He's always at his best and focused, and he wants the best for the team. It's an amazing milestone coming up, and I think he's been the captain the whole time too, which I don't think many people have done that in an organization." -- Bruins forward Patrice Bergeron on Zdeno Chara approaching 1,000 games with Boston (he is at 997)
"It's tremendously exciting, but there's a lot of things going. You're on a flight. You're doing all kinds of press and different things, and you don't have an opportunity to spend a lot of time with the players. You want to go out, see them play, see what they do, see what they can bring. And I thought it was really valuable. Hopefully get a good night's sleep tonight, get up early [Wednesday] and come back to the rink energized." -- Predators coach John Hynes

Need to know

Rask is 5-1-2 in 10 games against the Predators. ... Hynes is the third coach in Predators history (Barry Trotz, Laviolette). He was fired by the New Jersey Devils on Dec. 3. ... Josi's point streak is the longest by a defenseman in the NHL this season and the longest point streak by a defenseman since Tyson Barrie had an 11-game streak for the Colorado Avalanche in 2017-18.

What's next

Bruins: Host the Winnipeg Jets on Thursday (7 p.m. ET; TVAS, NESN, TSN3, NHL.TV)
Predators: At the Chicago Blackhawks on Thursday (8:30 p.m. ET; NBCSN, FS-TN, NBCSCH, NHL.TV)