Five Different Preds Find Twine to Start Trip with Victory in Detroit

Ryan Johansen, Roman Josi and Dante Fabbro each had a goal and two helpers, and the Nashville Predators defeated the Detroit Red Wings by a 5-2 final on Tuesday night at Little Caesars Arena. The result gives the Preds back-to-back wins for the first time since Nov. 11-13 to begin a four-game trip.
In addition to the trio above, Nick Cousins and Eeli Tolvanen also found the back of the net, and David Rittich made 14 saves to collect his second victory of the season as the Preds recorded their 14th win of the campaign.

The Preds got their first of the evening on the power play as Matt Duchene placed a beautiful dish across the slot to Johansen, and the centerman buried the feed for a 1-0 lead. Then, just over five minutes later, Josi tallied arguably one of the prettier goals of his career when he deked through the Detroit defense and beat goaltender Alex Nedeljkovic in tight for a two-goal advantage after 20 minutes.

The Red Wings converted on a power play of their own midway through the second stanza as Robby Fabbri beat Rittich, but less than three minutes into the third, Cousins answered when he became the final recipient of a Detroit turnover to restore the two-goal lead.
Moments later, Tolvanen scored for the second-straight game when he redirected a Fabbro point shot, and although the Wings cut the lead back to two with a goal from Michael Rasmussen, Rittich and the Preds shut the door the rest of the way before Fabbro iced the night with an empty-netter.
Josi's three-point effort was his 109th career multi-point game, and he now trails only David Legwand (120) and Martin Erat (110) for the most in Predators history.

Tuesday Storyline:

No game in the NHL is easy - especially not on the road - and prior to puck drop on Tuesday night, the Preds learned the outing might be just a bit tougher.
Goaltender Juuse Saros and defenseman Mattias Ekholm were both out due to a non-COVID illness, and Matt Benning was absent with an upper-body injury. But netminder David Rittich, as well as defensemen Philippe Myers and Ben Harpur, took over in their respective roles, and the Preds didn't seem phased whatsoever.
With assistance from all three, including 14 saves from Rittich and a fight from Harpur, Nashville still prevailed with another solid road outing to start the trip in proper fashion, and it didn't seem to matter who was dressed.

"I think it just speaks volumes to our team, and no matter if you're in or out, guys are always going to come in and make an immediate impact right away," Fabbro said. "Harps with a big fight, Myers played really well tonight, and it's going to happen. Throughout a season guys get injured, and you've got to come up and answer the bell. I don't think our mindset changed at all. I think we're just focused on taking one step at a time, one period at a time and sticking to the mindset, sticking to our identity, being hard-nosed and physical. I thought we played really well tonight."
"We feel like we have good depth, and it's nice to see [Harpur] come back after he had the conditioning stint in Milwaukee, and Myers has done a good job of staying ready and working hard," Preds Head Coach John Hynes said. "And David is going to be a guy that's going to have to play for us, whether [Saros] is out or back-to-backs or starts; we need two goalies to win in this League. So, I thought overall it was a strong team effort. We feel like the guys that we're inserting into the lineup were certainly prepared to play. They're NHL players, and they did a good job."
Those three - as well as the rest of the Preds - certainly did their jobs on Tuesday night, and that effort led to an impressive result against a young, skilled, upstart Red Wings team that had won five straight games entering the evening.
"The whole game was really good for us," Josi said. "I felt like we were in control for most of the game. Obviously, they had some times where they had a lot of pressure, but I thought we stayed calm for most of the game… We knew it was going to be a hard game, but I just thought [throughout] the 60 minutes we controlled the game for most of it. That's one thing that impressed me most of our team."
Josi certainly had the most impressive goal of the night as he drove to the net while juking through Red Wings defenders, and the captain's three-point outing helped the Preds to start the road trip just how they envisioned - with a win that helped them stay right in the thick of the Central Division to begin the week.

"It's certainly good to see," Hynes said of his team's effort. "I feel like we're really getting to our identity, and we talked with our team about it. You have training camp and your first 10 games, your first 20, you're really figuring out what your strengths and weaknesses are. How do you play to them? What gives you the best chance to win? I feel like this next 20-game segment we've talked about really solidifying the identity that we want to be able to play with, and we feel like we've been pretty consistent in that to start this 20-game segment.
"The guys are conscientious of how we need to play, they're committed to how we need to play and then we just want to continue to build on that, but then also tweak certain things that need to get better along the way, such as some of our defensive details. Tonight, we were able to do it. It's good to get off to a win on the road trip. We'll have a good practice day tomorrow, and then we'll go right into the back-to-back."

Highlight of the Night:

They Said It:

Dante Fabbro on what impressed him most about Nashville's effort on Tuesday:
"I think just how tenacious we are on the forecheck and our ability to break out of our own end. There's a lot of talk on the bench, and obviously throughout the periods, to keep striving to put our best foot forward, to have our identity with hard-nosed, physical [play], moving pucks - I thought that was to a tee tonight."

Notes:

Prior to Tuesday's game, the Predators recalled goaltender Connor Ingram from Milwaukee due to Juuse Saros's non-COVID illness. Ingram backed up David Rittich against the Red Wings.
Defenseman Mattias Ekholm also missed Tuesday's game due to non-COVID illness, and defenseman Matt Benning was absent and is day-to-day with an upper-body injury. Forward Matt Luff was the only healthy scratch for the Predators on Tuesday. Following the game, Hynes said there is no long-term health concern with Ekholm and Saros.
Defensemen Ben Harpur and Philippe Myers both rejoined the lineup on Tuesday night and played on Nashville's third defense pair.
From NHL PR: Matt Duchene joined Mikael Granlund as the second Predators player with at least 25 points this season. The 2021-22 campaign is the second in franchise history to feature multiple players averaging a point-per-game through their first 25 contests of a season. The other: 2006-07 (Steve Sullivan: 8-19-27 in 25 GP & Paul Kariya: 6-19-25 in 25 GP).
The Predators will continue their four-game road trip on Thursday night when they face the New York Islanders at the brand-new UBS Arena on Long Island. They'll then play the New Jersey Devils on Friday evening and the New York Rangers on Sunday.