Talbot makes 42 saves, shuts out Predators in 1st start with Red Wings

DETROIT -- Cam Talbot made 42 saves in his first start for the Detroit Red Wings in a 3-0 win against the Nashville Predators at Little Caesars Arena on Saturday.

Talbot's shutout was his 32nd in the NHL and comes two days after he made his Red Wings debut, relieving Ville Husso in the second period of a 6-3 loss to the Pittsburgh Penguins in the season opener.

“I will take that performance anytime,” Talbot said. “I got my feet wet in the second and third period of our first game, and I tried to carry that over to tonight. Our guys were diving in front of everything, which goalies appreciate more than anything.”

Talbot signed a two-year, $5 million contract ($2.5 million average annual value) with Detroit on July 1.

“That’s a pretty good team over there, I don’t think they will be shut out many times this season,” Red Wings coach Derek Lalonde said. “It was a great defensive effort, starting with our goalie.”

J.T. Compher, Andrew Copp and Dylan Larkin scored for Detroit (1-1-0).

“Obviously, with the way we played defense tonight and the way [Talbot] played, we can get away with scoring two goals,” Copp said. “We know we can get goals -- it is definitely going to be about the number we give up.”

Juuse Saros made 19 saves for Nashville (0-2-0). He missed the team's season-opening 4-3 loss to the Dallas Stars on Thursday with a lower-body injury.

“Talbot was great. We did enough to put some by him, but he was outstanding,” Predators coach Andrew Brunette said. “I think we let him see the puck a little too much.”

New Predators forwards Steven Stamkos and Jonathan Marchessault came into the game with a combined 34 goals in 58 games against Detroit but couldn’t beat Talbot with any of their eight shots.

“We’ve added some really good scorers, and I think we are deferring too much to them at times,” Burnette said. “We’re trying to be cuter when we need to be harder, and as we all know in this league, it is usually harder that wins, not cuter.”

Compher gave the Red Wings a 1-0 lead at 1:02 of the second period, tipping Ben Chiarot’s high shot past Saros.

Copp made it 2-0 at 6:35 of the third period, deflecting Lucas Raymond’s pass into the crease.

Larkin scored into an empty net to make it 3-0 at 19:40.

“We’ve probably had four pretty good periods in the six we’ve played so far,” Lalonde said. “I’m glad we got rewarded for it tonight. Winning in this league is hard, so it can be very rewarding when it looks like that.”

NOTES: Red Wings forward Christian Fischer left in the second period with an upper-body injury. Lalonde didn’t have an update after the game. … Red Wings defenseman Albert Johansson played 11:57 with one shot on goal in his NHL debut.