The Nashville Predators defeated the Chicago Blackhawks on Tuesday night, but head coach Andrew Brunette didn't love everything about the 3-1 win.
The Nashville Predators kicked off their January schedule with a home win over the Chicago Blackhawks in a game that Andrew Brunette described as having "a little bit of everything in it".
"Lots of good, lots of bad, some ugly, and some great," Brunette said of the 3-1 win. "It was kind of a strange game but was good to solidify with the big power play goal at the end to kind of settle in a little bit."
What constituted "the ugly" in this game for Brunette was that while the team played very well in the first period, the Predators only had a one goal lead and didn't play in the second period like a team that needed to continue to battle with just a one goal lead.
"It's a little frustrating that as a group that we're not holding ourselves at that accountability," Brunette said. "When we do the right things we play really well. The standards that have to be set here — that was not one of them. That was a little bit unacceptable."
"I thought in the third you could say it was good for the most part," Brunette said. "Wasn't great, but we made some great plays at the right time and got out of it."
One of those great plays was the power play goal scored by Ryan O'Reilly on a five on three at 15:23 in the third period. Filip Forsberg's cross ice pass to Ryan O'Reilly in the low slot gave Nashville that important second goal. Luke Evangelista added an empty net to make it a 3-0 final score.
Gus Nyquist opened the scoring in the first period with a power play goal, extending his point streak to six games. Nyquist has scored five goals and nine points in his last six games.
"I feel like he's been playing great all year," Roman Josi said of Nyquist. "He's so good on the power plays. He's great. He's very patient with the puck. He makes some really, really good plays. He's an awesome leader in the locker room."
"He's been nothing but great since he came here."
Juuse Saros was more of the "good" that Brunette saw in the game. Saros recorded his second shutout of the season making 21 saves on the night. Brunette acknowledged the challenge it can be for a goaltender to not see much action for stretches of a game and then face brief moments of repeated offensive pressure.
"As a goalie, that really hard to do and kind of hard to stay in the game," Brunette said. "And then you get peppered. I thought tonight he hung in."
Nashville's special teams came up big for the team. The Preds went 2/4 on the power play, and the penalty kill was able to kill off all three of Chicago's chances on the man advantage.
While it was certainly not a perfect game, it was a win that gave the Predators two valuable points over a Central Division team and gets them back on track with a win on home ice. Nashville will hope to continue that as they face the Calgary Flames at home on Thursday night.
Nyquist Continues Point Streak, Saros Earns Shutout as Predators Defeat Blackhawks