Arvidsson has hat trick in Predators win against Capitals

NASHVILLE -- Viktor Arvidsson scored his second NHL hat trick for the Nashville Predators in a 7-2 win against the Washington Capitals at Bridgestone Arena on Tuesday.

Nick Bonino had two goals for the Predators (28-16-4), who had lost two in a row. Juuse Saros made 26 saves.
"It's a great feeling," Arvidsson said. "I think we had a great team game, and we really made them pay on their mistakes. We played tight defensively. We only let in two goals against a skilled team like this, so it was a great effort."
WATCH: [All Capitals vs. Predators highlights]
Nicklas Backstrom and T.J. Oshie scored for Washington (27-14-5), which has lost three consecutive games (0-2-1). Pheonix Copley made 22 saves. Braden Holtby backed up Copley for precautionary reasons after Holtby was poked in the eye with a stick in the 2-1 overtime loss to the Columbus Blue Jackets on Saturday.
"A little bit of a difficult circumstance finding out just a few hours before the game that [Holtby] wasn't going to be able to play," Capitals coach Todd Reirden said. "So we have to go with [Copley] in that situation on a back-to-back situation, which is a very difficult situation, especially coming in playing a team that hadn't played the prior evening."
Arvidsson gave the Predators a 1-0 lead at 3:45 of the first period on a breakaway. He got behind the defense and received a pass from Mattias Ekholm and scored his 15th goal.
"I've been feeling better and better," Arvidsson said. "You get into that groove of the games every other day, just to be back for I don't know, three weeks now, it feels better and better. We played great tonight and started to get that chemistry with [Filip Forsberg and Ryan Johansen]. I thought we played great today and found each other."

Bonino made it 2-0 at 10:33 on a 2-on-1 rush. Colton Sissons led the rush and passed it to Bonino, who scored his 10th goal.
"I thought our start was way better," Bonino said. "[Predators coach Peter Laviolette] told us our record when we score first. It's pretty impressive. It's tough playing from behind in this league, teams are so good. Carolina jumped on us early and never let off the gas [in a 6-3 loss on Sunday]. I felt we did the same thing tonight."
Arvidsson extended the lead to 3-0 at 1:21 of the second period on a redirection.
Backstrom cut it to 3-1 at 7:07 on the power play with a redirection for his 12th goal.
Arvidsson completed the hat trick at 12:08 on a shorthanded breakaway for a 4-1 lead.
"He's the man," Johansen said. "The most impressive thing about his night was after he scored his third one, he went right back on the attack and was hungry to get another one and almost scored a fourth one. I've said it lots, he's the Energizer Bunny for our team. Every game he brings it, and it's contagious for our group."

Rocco Grimaldi boosted the lead to 5-1 at 14:57 on a spin-o-rama backhand shot for his fourth goal.
"I was coming up the ice and I didn't know if I had anyone with me to make it a 2-on-1, or whatever," Grimaldi said. "I saw that I didn't have anybody, so I was going to try to have a shooting lane but didn't really have that either, so I decided to try the spin move and throw it on net, and it went in."
Bonino made it 6-1 at 19:54 on the power play, and Calle Jarnkrok made it 7-1 at 7:56 of the third period. It was his eighth goal.
Oshie brought the Capitals within 7-2 at 16:11 with his 14th goal in his 700th NHL game.

They said it

"We didn't know up until really just a few hours before the game, so we weren't able to bring anybody else in at that time. So regardless of the situation we had to go with [Copley] for the game. It's a tough spot to put a young goaltender in in a back-to-back situation. Maybe things aren't going his way, and obviously we gave up too many chances, but at times you would've probably made a change and that was not something that I was able to do this evening. It was a unique situation." -- Capitals coach Todd Reirden on when he found out Braden Holtby wasn't going to start
"I don't think like [Arvidsson] and [Forsberg] too. There's a few guys on this team that can inspire guys, and that's not an easy thing to do. That's pretty nice saying that because they're both my linemates so they make my job a lot easier. But definitely when those two are going, it definitely runs through our team and our team is playing well." -- Predators forward Ryan Johansen on linemate Viktor Arvidsson

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Need to know

Arvidsson scored his other hat trick in a 7-4 loss to the Florida Panthers on Feb. 11, 2017. … Ekholm had two assists to set a NHL career-high with 36 points this season. He has 11 points (three goals, eight assists) in his past seven games. … Johansen had two assists and has six assists in a four-game point streak. … Predators defenseman Yannick Weber returned after missing 10 games with a lower-body injury. He was plus-2 in 14:29. … Capitals forward Alex Ovechkin needs one goal to pass Dave Andreychuk (640) for 14th place on the NHL's all-time goal-scoring list.

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What's next

Capitals: Host the New York Islanders on Friday (7:30 p.m. ET; ESPN+, SN1, SNE, NBCSWA, MSG+, NHL.TV)
Predators: Host the Winnipeg Jets on Thursday (8 p.m. ET; ESPN+, FS-TN, TSN3, NHL.TV)