Nashville Predators coach Andrew Brunette used perfect imagery to describe his team’s recent performances before embarking on a seven-game road trip.
“I saw a great effort,” Brunette said after the Predators posted back-to-back wins over the weekend. “I think everybody’s paddles were in, and they’re paddling hard.”
That is particularly appropriate, given the fact that the Predators’ next stop is in the “Land of 10,000 Lakes.” The Predators will face off against the Minnesota Wild in St. Paul, Minn., where the lakes and rivers are plentiful but mostly frozen over in late December.
Nashville is coming off a 2-1 win over the New York Rangers on Sunday, which followed a 5-3 win over the Toronto Maple Leafs on Saturday. The Predators are going for their first three-game winning streak of the season.
Predators forward Ryan O’Reilly said he and his teammates are feeling good. In addition to winning back-to-back games, Nashville has won three of its past four and five of its past seven.
“We’re crawling back into this thing, and it’s a lot more fun,” O’Reilly said. “Everyone’s contributing. It’s exciting. It’s fun coming to the rink.
“It was pretty dark there for a while, it wasn’t fun by any means. It was tough. But give credit, everyone’s been working hard, (and we’ve) got a lot of work left. The focus is let’s get this next one before the break. It’s going to be a heck of a challenge.
“But we’re building something. It took a lot longer than we thought, but it’s starting to come. We’re still in this fight, and we’re going to keep going.”
The Wild are looking to bounce back from a rare setback in what has been a red-hot stretch over the past month and a half. Before losing 5-1 against the league-leading Colorado Avalanche on Sunday, the Wild had won their previous seven games in a row. They had scored 21 goals in four consecutive convincing victories until only Ryan Hartman could dent the net on Sunday.
Minnesota is 19-4-2 since Nov. 1 but was humbled on home ice by the Avalanche. Their matchup Tuesday against the Predators will conclude a three-game homestand and serve as the team’s final contest before the holiday break.
Wild forward Nico Sturm said he and his teammates needed to focus more on special teams, including the penalty kill.
“(Colorado has) five shooting options on the power play, and they were able to convert on some of those,” Sturm said. “Ideally, we’d like to kill one more of those. Just overall, those details matter. You might get away with it against a different team, but obviously not (Sunday night).”
The Wild feature a talented pair of goaltenders. Filip Gustavsson is 12-8-3 with a 2.47 goals-against average and a .913 save percentage in 23 starts, and Jesper Wallstedt is 10-2-2 with a 2.10 GAA and a .933 save percentage in 14 starts.
Gustavsson is 5-2-1 with a 2.97 GAA and a .904 save percentage in eight career games against the Predators. Wallstedt never has faced the Predators in his brief career.
Nashville’s netminders include Juuse Saros and Justus Annunen. Saros is 13-11-3 with a 2.95 GAA and an .897 save percentage in 27 starts, and Annunen is 2-5-1 with a 3.43 GAA and an .866 save percentage in 11 games (eight starts).
Saros is 9-3-2 with a 2.30 GAA and a .926 save percentage in 14 games against the Wild. Annunen is 1-1-1 with a 3.39 GAA and a .907 save percentage in three games versus Minnesota.
–Field Level Media
