Nashville Predators coach John Hynes was impressed how his team kept a positive attitude during a four-game losing streak.
The Predators ended the slide with a 5-2 over Winnipeg on Thursday. They’ll try to make it two in a row when they host Detroit on Saturday night.
“I really liked the mindset of the group,” Hynes said. “There wasn’t a lot of panic or finger pointing [during the losing streak]. We lost different games in different ways, but it was all about solutions, and just staying focused and making sure that we understood what we needed to do better.”
What the Predators certainly did better was get off to a strong start. They were up 3-0 after the first period.
“As long as the game is there and the effort is there, we’re going to win some games,” said Mikael Granlund, who had one of Nashville’s goals on Thursday. “Obviously, it’s not always going to come in our way, but if we have the effort and consistency and the system we believe in, we’re going to be fine. … As long as we do that, good things will happen.”
Roman Josi had a memorable night, as he recorded two assists and became the franchise’s all-time leader in that category.
“We have enough confidence in the room to know what we have to do to be successful, and I think there’s some parts in our game that we didn’t like in the last four games, and we addressed them [pregame],” Josi said.
“We looked at some stuff, and I thought we did a good job of responding. I think we know what our game is and how we have to play to win, and I thought we did a better job (Thursday) at that,” Josi added.
Josi and Ryan Johansen were instrumental in Nashville’s victory at Detroit on Dec. 7, contributing a goal and two assists apiece in the 5-2 road victory.
The Red Wings will be playing the second game of a back-to-back. On their home ice, they dropped a 5-4 overtime decision to Dallas on Friday.
Detroit had a 4-3 lead in the late going but gave up a goal with 63 seconds left in regulation and an overtime goal with Robby Fabbri in the penalty box.
Tyler Bertuzzi had a goal and two assists, giving him seven goals and seven assists in nine games this month. Dylan Larkin scored his third goal in two games.
“A lot of mistakes tonight,” Larkin said. “We played good at times, but we made costly mistakes at costly times. Six on five there (late in regulation), and we’ve got to get the puck out of our zone and we don’t. And then we take a penalty in overtime and that’s the game. That’s the way it goes.”
Larkin is glad the Red Wings won’t have any time to linger on the loss.
“We get a point here and we get to play again tomorrow night,” he said. “That’s the beauty of this league. You’ve got to have a short memory. We better come focused and ready to go tomorrow night. We’re playing a good Nashville team, and we’ve got to eliminate those errors.”
–Field Level Media
