While it was the Swedes that did all the goal scoring on Tuesday, Roman Josi quietly had a successful night in his second game since his return from a concussion. Josi tallied two assists in Nashville dramatic 4-2 victory over Vancouver.
It seems that every game between the Predators and Canucks have been tight this season. Tuesday night wasn’t any different. Vancouver came in as a very desperate team needing a victory to help keep their playoff hopes alive. Nashville was looking to get a win following a loss where they played extremely well against Detroit.
“Yeah it was pretty tight,” said Josi. “We got a power play goal and they got one back. Pekka made a couple good saves and obviously [we] got the empty net goal. That was huge for us, but definitely a tight one.”
Josi assisted on that power play goal by Filip Forsberg at 12:03 of the third. The goal was also reviewed for a ridiculous amount of time before finally being awarded to Nashville. Another theme, aside from tight games, for battles between the two teams are disallowed goals. At first, this one was waved off, but the review went in their favor. Earlier in the game, the Canucks had a goal waved off do to being played with a high stick. Luckily for the Predators, a ruling went in their favor.
“It’s happened a couple times the last games,” said Josi, laughing. “We got one today. They overturned it on the video, so it was good for us.”
Tuesday night was also the first game back in Nashville for Vernon Fiddler since being acquired on Saturday via a trade with New Jersey. It’s apparent that General Manager David Poile has wanted the team to play with more of an edge since acquiring Cody McLeod, and now Fiddler, who is a chippy vet.
“They’re great,” said Josi. “Cody, since he came here, he’s been great. He’s a great presence in the locker room and on the ice. Fiddler, we all know how he plays. You hate to play against him, so he’s going to help a lot.”
In his first game back, Fiddler was 4 of 12 in face offs, but had two notable blocked shots that head coach Peter Laviolette pointed out in his post game press conference. Fiddler also logged 1:58 of ice time on the penalty kill. It’ll take some time for him to get acclimated to a new system, but it can easily be seen what the Predators expect out of him.
For Roman Josi, he logged 22:41 of ice time in his second game back from injury and contributed on the scoresheet. He’s making quick progress in his return and is just glad to be back.
“It’s just a lot of fun being back,” said Josi. “You obviously never want to get hurt. You miss playing. You miss the team. So, it’s a lot of fun being back.”
Nashville now travels on a one-game road trip to take on the New York Rangers before a weekend back-to-back at home. After those three games, the Predators will take their league-mandated bye week where they will be off for five days.
