"It's been good," Tennyson said of his stint with the Preds thus far. "Obviously, winning games is always a positive thing, and I just try to play steady, consistent hockey and play my game. Like I said, getting wins is more important, so I feel good about that."
Never drafted, the Western Michigan alum represented the United States at the 2021 World Championship and recorded four points en route to a bronze medal for his country. That experience, as well as his other contributions around the League over the past decade, was enough for the Preds to bring him in, and three goals and 11 points in 30 games with the Admirals this season has helped his cause, too.
"I'm just trying to play consistent hockey no matter where I am," Tennyson said. "I try to play the same way and not let the decisions affect how I feel or how I play. That's not up to me, so I can only control what I can, and that's just playing hard, playing the same way I play no matter if I'm in Milwaukee or if I'm here."
Tennyson, who has easily adapted to Nashville's identity since arriving last week, says that hard-working mentality is how he prefers to go about his business anyway. Others in the organization have appreciated Tennyson's contributions over the last week as well as they get another look at the depth on the backend and throughout the roster.
"Big credit to Tenny coming in here, and he's been playing awesome," Preds defenseman Mattias Ekholm said of Tennyson. "It's good to see, and it's nice to know that we have the depth that we have, both on defense and forward… Your roster won't look the same from Game 1 to Game 82, so you have to have progress within your lineup, and I think we have that. We have a competitive group where everyone wants to play as many minutes as possible, and that gives us a good advantage against other teams. That's something that's really healthy for us as players to work in that environment and to push ourselves every day."
"Very good; we weren't necessarily counting on the offensive production, but we'll take it and that certainly brings attention to him when he's producing like that," Predators General Manager David Poile said of Tennyson during a radio interview on Tuesday. "I think it was a really good signing for us. We were really happy to do that… He plays hard all the time, he plays safe, and right now what we're trying to do is look at what depth we have. The trading deadline is March 21, and traditionally, if we're a competitive team, you want to add a forward or you want to add a depth defenseman… So, with … Tennyson, we're using this time … to give Matt Tennyson a try to see whether we feel confident in our depth in this case… If you make the playoffs and have any run in the playoffs, you probably need that. So, so far so good."
Tennyson certainly wouldn't mind that opportunity if it arises, and he's finding his way to be in the mix if needed.
For now, though, he'll just keep doing what he's always done no matter where he's asked to do it. And this time, Tennyson is with a group that could have the potential to do something special.
"Just everybody's buy-in - everybody works really hard from the top line to the bottom line, all the D, everyone's bought into the system and the identity of how we need to play from top to bottom," Tennyson said of the Preds. "It's a hard way to play against for teams coming in here, so I think if we can just play that way consistently, we'll be alright."
