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- Utah Hockey Club lost 4-0 to Nashville, struggling offensively with only three shots in the first period.
- Nashville capitalized on Utah's penalties, scoring twice on power plays, including a two-man advantage goal by Marchessault.
- Utah's attempts to generate offense were thwarted, with Nashville's Juuse Saros making key saves and Forsberg's individual effort sealing the win.
NASHVILLE — It hasn't been the start of the season Nashville expected.
After making a big splash in free agency by signing forwards Steven Stamkos, Jonathan Marchessault and defenseman Brady Skjei, the Predators were expected to be one of the most improved teams in the NHL — if not a dark-horse contender for the Stanley Cup.
However, heading into Saturday's game against the Utah Hockey Club, Nashville was the last-placed team in the league.
Not anymore.
The Predators had a get-right game against Utah, topping the Hockey Club 4-0 Saturday at Bridgestone Arena.
Utah committed three penalties in the first period (including one double-minor) and Nashville pounced. The Predators scored twice on power plays to open the game.
Filip Forsberg and Jonathan Marchessault both scored on the man advantage in the first period to give Nashville the early advantage.
"They had the three shots on their first power play, and they scored on one of them, so that gives them the momentum," head coach André Tourigny said.
The second goal came after Utah was penalized on a delayed penalty — a high stick that sent Olli Määttä to the penalty box for four minutes — giving Nashville a two-man advantage for two minutes and then a standard power play for an additional two minutes.
Utah was able to kill off the 5-on-3 but couldn't survive the full four minutes. Marchessault tipped in a shot from the point to give Nashville a 2-0 lead.
"That's a little bit tough," Tourigny said, who said the high stick was a bit of bad luck, "but after I don't think we gave up a lot. I think defensively we played good enough."
Utah gave up another in the second on an impressive individual effort by Forsberg, who got the puck in the Nashville defensive zone and skated through multiple Utah defenders before berating Utah goalie Connor Ingram on the other end. The fourth goal came on an empty net late.
Utah's offense wasn't able to keep pace.
And the ugly first period set the tone for the night. The Hockey Club had a total of eight penalty minutes and just three shots on goal. While the shot numbers did improve as the game progressed — Utah finished with 26 on the night — high-quality chances were still hard to come by.
"It was tough to get to their slot and generate quality chances," Tourigny said. "We try to have some broken play, but I think on our side, we need to find a way to generate more offense from our ozone play."
Utah had some chances — Nick Schmaltz was robbed by Nashville contender Juuse Saros in the first and the Hockey Club generated some dangerous looks on power plays later in the game — but for the most part, there wasn't a lot of offensive momentum for the visitors.
"They were a little bit harder than us today, won more battles," Utah forward Kevin Stenlund said. "They are just frustrations."
The closing moments showed how frustratingly the night had gone for Utah. Utah forward Lawson Crouse dropped his gloves and fought Nashville's Michael McCarron.
Was it an attempt to blow off some of the frustration? Or at least try to spark the team moving forward? Maybe, but it didn't end well for Utah either with McCarron landing some clean blows and taking Crouse to the ice.
In the end, that served as a pretty good encapsulation of the night.
"It's still a long season," Stenlund said. "We got a new one on Wednesday. Just got to focus on that one and try to get two points."
