The Predators have wanted to see more on the offensive side of the puck, and they got it on Saturday night in Winnipeg - but they also allowed a season-high six goals against the Jets, ultimately too high of a total to overcome.
"I liked the fact that we're able to score four goals, but if you score four, you should be able to win the game," Preds Head Coach John Hynes said. "We had some breakdowns...and they had three tip goals where a couple guys are standing alone right in front of the netfront, which shouldn't happen. We've got to tighten some areas on that, but I think from the offensive perspective, it's good to be able to get four. But, I think when we score four goals, we should be able to put ourselves in a position to win."
"Defensively, we're just doing it to ourselves," Cousins said. "Through the neutral zone, we've got the puck on our stick, and we're trying to go east-west more so than north-south. They're a good team, they give you nothing in the neutral zone. It's a simple recipe for success. I feel like when we do the right thing, we put it in, when we make their D turn, that's when we have our success, and that's when we create offense and play in their zone and play to our identity. I don't think it's anything like a work-ethic thing or anything tactical, or system-wise, I feel like it's on ourselves. The more we play simple, that's the recipe for success for our team. It's not overly complicated."
The Predators did manage to find the back of the net four times on Saturday, including twice on the power play, undoubtedly the bright spot as they visited Winnipeg for the first time since February 2020.
"The offense was there, and I thought the power play was clicking tonight," Cousins said. "Obviously nice to get two goals on the power play...and I just think if we can clean up some offensive things with our game then we're going to have a good offensive attack. And then clean up things defensively, like the second half of last year, then we should be fine."
The Preds don't have much time to wait for another chance - they'll face the Wild in Minnesota at 5 p.m. CT on Sunday evening - and like after any loss, Nashville will take the positives from Saturday's outing and try to head home with a different result.
"It's going to be a quick turnaround, so we've got to take some components out of this that need to be a little bit tightened up, and then some things we did offensively that allowed us to get going," Hynes said. "It was good to see the power play get going a little bit here, but we've got to move on."
"You take the positives, and then there's obviously going to be some teaching things for us to learn from," Cousins said. "As a hockey player, when you have a game like that where things probably didn't go our way tonight, and then you have a chance to bounce back tomorrow against Minnesota, and it's another tough building - there's no better way to flush this one and get right back to it tomorrow."
