A rough start has turned into a big week for Nashville Predators' goalie Juuse Saros who was named the third star of the week this week.
A rough start has turned into a big week for Nashville Predators' goalie Juuse Saros who was named the third star of the week this week.
It's been a big week for goaltender Juuse Saros. His play in net has helped the Predators record a five game win streak. In the past week, the 28-year-old Finnish goalie recorded wins over the Colorado Avalanche, Calgary Flames, and Winnipeg Jets, and today the NHL announced Saros was one of the three stars of the week for the league.
In those last three starts, Saros has gone 3-0 and allowed just 2.35 goals against and a combined .921 save percentage. It's been a nice turnaround for Saros who struggled early in the season as the team adjusted to new systems and a new roster in front of him. While the Predators fell victim to some unfortunate bounces and struggled to close out games during a four game losing streak, confidence in Saros never wavered on the team.
After the win on Monday night against the Colorado Avalanche, Filip Forsberg addressed the faith the team has in their starting goaltender and shared what may have affected Saros' stats in some early games.
"I don't think anyone's worried [about Saros]", Forsberg said. "We've seen the way he's been playing. Obviously there's things that we definitely could have done better throughout these last few games, but he's always been there. He was there today with massive saves especially in the third."
"He's the backbone of this team."
Head coach Andrew Brunette also felt like the team had not always been playing well in front of Saros.
"It was a little bit self inflicted from our group," Brunette said of some of Saros' earlier struggles in net. "We were a little bit loose in the Arizona game and put him in bad positions."
Brunette felt the same way after the wins over the Avalanche as well.
"We've got to be a little better in front of him," Brunette said of Saros after the 29 save game. "We're playing goalie too much in front of him. We've got to be a little better at the net, but I thought he was really good."
The adjustments the team has made with a new system under Brunette may have affected Saros' starts, but this week he showed why he is one of the most valuable players on the Predators roster. In games against two Central Division teams at the top of the division, Saros made 58 of 63 saves and held the Calgary Flames to just two goals in that game on November 22.
Connor McDavid and Nikita Kucherov joined Saros as this week's three stars.
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