Preds Play to Identity Once More, Return Home to Beat Sharks

Juuse Saros made 28 saves as the Nashville Predators defeated the San Jose Sharks by a 3-1 final on Tuesday night at Bridgestone Arena. The result gives the Preds their first win streak of the season with two-straight victories, and Nashville now has 12 wins in their last 14 home meetings against San Jose.
After allowing six goals on Saturday night in Winnipeg, Saros bounced back with arguably his best effort of the young season, and with three wins and six points in the standings, the Preds have found themselves right back in the thick of the Central Division in the early going.

Nashville's power play was already hot entering Tuesday's contest, and just over a minute into the game, Matt Duchene gave the Preds their fifth goal with the man advantage in the last three games when he wristed a shot from the slot past James Reimer for a 1-0 lead.
That score held through the first and into the second, and at the 12:31 mark, Roman Josi found Filip Forsberg in the slot, and the winger found twine for his third of the campaign and a 2-0 advantage through 40 minutes.
San Jose broke the shutout bid from Saros over halfway through the third when Timo Meier redirected a puck out of mid-air and over the line to bring the Sharks to within one, but that was as close as the visitors came. On another flurry in front, Preds centerman Ryan Johansen swept a loose puck off the goal line late in regulation before Mikael Granlund iced the night with an empty-netter from his own end to give the Preds another satisfying win.

Tuesday Storyline:

Nothing fancy, nothing spectacular, just a complete effort that led to a victory once more.
Two nights after Nashville produced a 5-2 triumph in Minnesota in their best game of the season, the Preds returned home to follow it up by defeating San Jose - a team that had only lost once in five tries - and they found a way into the win column for the third time this season.
"I thought we played pretty well for 60 [minutes]," Forsberg said. "They're a pretty good team. They have a lot of skill, obviously a lot of young guys that are coming up and making a difference for them, and I thought we stayed with it and played hard defensively, especially around their net. They're shooting a lot for those tips and stuff like that, so I thought our net-front's defense was good, and I thought we could have scored a couple more. We had a lot of chances that we have to capitalize on to kind of put the game away, but overall a pretty good effort."

"We got off to a really good start in the game, and we were able to play to the way that we want and to play to our identity," Preds Head Coach John Hynes said. "I think that the guys really understand how we want to play. We're getting good goaltending, our special teams are performing at a level that you need them to perform at to help you win, and then I think our 5-on-5 game, for the most part, is consistent. So, we just want to continue to build our game."
A large part of Nashville's success on Tuesday night was courtesy of Saros, who made a number of key saves early in the game to keep San Jose off the board, and the goaltender remained solid throughout, only allowing one puck past him on a play that would have been difficult for any netminder to stop.
Saros was in net for Saturday's 6-4 loss in Winnipeg, and although he was hardly to blame for the final score, the bounceback was still gratifying to see from the Finn.
"You throw any goalie in there in Winnipeg, and it would have been a lot more," Forsberg said of Saros. "I mean, he made some incredible saves despite letting in six. We kind of left him out to dry there, but we know exactly how good he is. He has shown that way too many times to think about anything else, and obviously he comes back and wins the game for us tonight."
Following Sunday's win against Minnesota, Preds Captain Roman Josi stated perhaps Nashville's record wasn't necessarily indicative of how the team had been playing. In the past two outings, the Predators feel as though they're beginning to be rewarded for their strong play, and although the sample size remains small, there is more good than bad in Nashville's game as of late.

"For most of the game, we played to our identity," Duchene said. "I think a few times we maybe got a little comfortable with the lead, but I think for the most part, it was a really strong game. The last two games - it's nice to get rewarded for what we're doing. We just want to keep building and make it three in a row hopefully on Saturday."
Now, the Preds will have a bit of a break in the schedule with three days in between games, and they plan on utilizing that time to their advantage prior to hosting the Islanders on Saturday afternoon.
The goals - and the points - are starting to come, and so are the rewards.
"We didn't win the first few games, but you don't get too high, you don't get too low, you don't have to overreact - you have to analyze where your game is at, " Hynes said. "I think we did that honestly. We assessed it, I think the players understood what we were talking about...and we felt like our game was in pretty good order… We have a good opportunity here this weekend, and hopefully [we can] get back to .500 on Saturday… but the big thing is the focus is not going to change. Let's build our game, build the identity and get to a point where we can play night in and night out where we're playing consistent enough to give us a chance to win. If we play a real strong team game, we can do that."

Highlight of the Night:

They Said It:

Filip Forsberg on being reunited on a line with Matt Duchene and Mikael Granlund:
"It was good. I think we created a lot. I know [Duchene] probably had six or seven shots on net and Granny is always creating plays, creating ice for both of us and I thought it was definitely a really good game for not playing with each other for quite a while. We want to build on that."

Notes:

After leaving Sunday's game at Minnesota with an upper-body injury, Preds forward Eeli Tolvanen returned to the lineup on Tuesday night.
Forward Rocco Grimaldi, as well as defensemen Ben Harpur and Philippe Myers were scratched for Nashville on Tuesday.
The Predators will now have a three-day break between games before they host the New York Islanders for a Saturday matinee at 12:30 p.m. CT at Bridgestone Arena.