Saros Ties Career High in Saves, but Preds Fall to Panthers in Florida

Juuse Saros tied a career high with 47 saves, but the Predators were unable to find the scoresheet on Saturday afternoon, as they fell to the Florida Panthers by a 2-0 final at BB&T Center. The result brings an end to Nashville's two-game winning streak and pushes them to a 3-3-1 record through seven outings of their eight-game road trip.
"Juice was fantastic, but we weren't at our best," Preds Head Coach John Hynes said. "We need to give Florida credit - they came out, they played really hard, I thought they played a thorough game, but we weren't at the execution level, competitive level that you need to do to be able to have success. Juice kept us in the game, but we couldn't find a way to get one."
"I felt good, and it always helps when you get a few shots right from the start," Saros said. "Florida, they're a really good team and they played really well the whole game. Too bad we couldn't get any points out of this game."

The Panthers had a 1-0 advantage through 40 minutes courtesy of an Aleksander Barkov goal, but the lead could have been greater if it weren't for the magnificent play of Saros. Starting in his second-straight game after missing the previous seven with an upper-body injury, Saros turned aside shot after shot, including 22 alone in the opening frame.

The Predators only recorded 21 shots of their own on the afternoon, and after they were unable to convert with the extra attacker, Anthony Duclair added an empty-netter to seal the result for the Panthers.
"You're going to look at the shutout, and you're going to say: '[we couldn't get] things going offensively,'" Hynes said. "But to be honest with you, we couldn't get out of our own zone. We couldn't execute the passes coming out of our own zone, we didn't get through the neutral zone with any type of speed or strong puck decisions and there were a lot of turnovers in those areas that didn't even allow us to be able to get on the attack as much as we had been in past games on this trip.

"We never had any follow-up shifts - like we'd have a couple of good segments, and one line would have a really good shift, then the next group would go out and we were defending again. That's something we've got to look at and rectify going in tomorrow's game versus Dallas is getting out of our zone and then getting through the neutral zone, getting ourselves into situations where we can be on the attack."
The Preds will now head back to where they began their eight-game trip two weeks ago for one more meeting with the Stars in Texas, and a winning record on the excursion is in reach, but Nashville knows what needs to be done in order to accomplish that goal.
"We never really got traction in the game, so I think this is one we've got to put in the bank, and we've got to make sure we're ready to go against Dallas and try to continue to get as many points as we can on the road trip," Hynes said. "We've got to be a much better team tomorrow."

Notes:
The 47 saves Saros made were tied for the fifth-most made in a game by a goaltender in Preds history. It was the eighth time in Nashville history a goalie has made at least 47 stops in a game.
Nashville's lineup remained identical from Thursday's win in Florida with six Preds - Roman Josi, Ryan Ellis, Mark Borowiecki, Matt Duchene, Luke Kunin and Brad Richardson - out due to injury.
Nashville's eight-game road trip concludes tomorrow night in Dallas (at 7:30 p.m. CT) with the second and final make-up game necessary against the Stars. The Predators will then host a game at Bridgestone Arena for the first time in 17 days when the Red Wings come to town on March 23 (at 7 p.m.).