They Said It: Top Quotes from the Preds Ahead of Game 3 in Nashville

For the first time in two years, the Stanley Cup Playoffs are nearly back in Smashville.

While Predators fans are almost certainly counting the minutes until the puck drops for Game 3, the same excitement was felt within Nashville’s locker room on Thursday. After all, if things go the home team’s way over the next handful of days, they could fly back to Vancouver with the series up for grabs in Game 5.

Of course, in the postseason nothing is ever a foregone conclusion, and the Predators know they’ll need to spend far more time with the puck and less defending their zone against the Canucks if they hope to take full advantage of the home crowd this weekend.

Before the puck drops at Bridgestone Arena for Game 3 on Friday, click here to get tickets and dig into the best Predators quotes from Thursday’s practice availabilities below:

Roman Josi on playoffs returning to Nashville:

“We missed it last year, obviously missing the playoffs. We missed that feeling and just having so many new guys who never played a playoff game here, they're definitely in for a treat. It's going to be a lot of fun. I’ve played a lot of playoff games at Bridgestone and it's always a good time.”

Colton Sissons on bringing the tied series back to Bridgestone Arena:

“We should bring a lot of confidence coming back home here. We did our job out on the road, which is great. We still think we have some levels for our game to reach yet, so that's also exciting. It's going to be amazing. Our fans are going to be buzzing and hopefully we can take advantage.”

Luke Evangelista on the atmosphere at Bridgestone Arena:

“I'm pumped. It felt like playoff games a little bit down the stretch here when we were on that point streak and we were coming back late in games. You could feel the buzz in the rink, but that was just regular season. So, I can't wait to experience playoffs in front of our fans and the buzz on Broadway, and just be able to feed off of that atmosphere and energy. It’s going to be a ton of fun.”

Andrew Brunette on establishing more sustained offensive pressure against Vancouver:

“I think we could have the puck a little bit more and kind of get to our game through the neutral zone onto our forecheck. We really haven't sustained offensive zone time that often and we need to. And there's all kinds of variables. I thought in the second [of Game 2] we started getting to our game and in the third, you're going to get that push. And I thought we did a good job closing the game out, but [we want to be] a little bit more on our toes here for the next game.”

Gustav Nqyuist on the tight margins vs. Vancouver

“There's a couple of things we’ve talked about that we can probably do to have the puck a little bit more. But in saying that, I thought we did a great job last game of defending hard and winning the important battles. I think Juice was obviously coming up with some big saves. It's going to take that effort again tomorrow… In this series it seems, [shots] have been hard to come by. They've been low-shot games, and a lot of that has to do with blocking shots, obviously for both teams. Ice is hard to come by out there. It’s hard to get an inch out there and everyone is giving it their all.”

Juuso Parssinen on getting recalled to Nashville:

“I feel like I’ve gotten more puck touches and got that feeling back and my offensive game how it should be… It’s really nice to be back here. I've been watching and [the Predators] have been doing unreal, so I'm just trying to do my best.”

Sissons on establishing more sustained offensive pressure against Vancouver:

“I think it's just getting to our forecheck. We're probably dumping pucks to their goalie a little bit too much. We've seen that a few times, so we know how to clean that up and just really get in spots where we can get our pressure going a little bit quicker and make it harder on those guys.”

Josi on the Predators raising their compete level against Vancouver:

“We need to continue to play better. They're going to make some adjustments and they're going to play better, but I thought we did a lot of things to win [Game 2]. The sacrifice was great, we blocked a ton of shots. Obviously we spent too much time in our zone and I think that's something we can correct, and we want to play with the puck a little bit more, play more on offense a little bit. In the playoffs, all that matters is who wins, but at the same time we’ve got to continue to get better and we definitely need to [in Game 3].”

Evangelista on staying patient throughout the series:

“I think that's the word, patience, and that's something some of the older guys have kind of been preaching to us. It's not like the regular season. You look up in the third period and shots are like 12-13, 12-14. It's really tight and there's not a whole lot of chances, and patience is a big factor. You're going to get your looks at some point, maybe it's one or two looks, but you can't press too hard. You’ve just got to take advantage of the opportunities out there. So, staying patient is key for us.”

Brunette on staying patient throughout the series:

“It's going to be a muddy series, as we saw in the first two games. It's not going to be anything clean, and we’ve got to be comfortable getting dirty. And they're playing the same way. Scoring chances and creativity are at a little bit of a minimum. So, it's about patience, not trying to force things, not trying to be something that we're not. Especially at home, sometimes you can get carried away trying to be more than you are. So, I think for us it's just staying true to our identity, to who we are and putting our best foot forward. And I think the effort has been amazing in the first two games.”