Duchene, Jeannot Help Preds to Beat Kings, Earn First Win of Season

They're in the win column.
Matt Duchene and Tanner Jeannot tallied in the third period as the Nashville Predators came back to defeat the Los Angeles Kings by a 2-1 final on Tuesday night at Bridgestone Arena. The result gives the Preds their first victory of the season following another complete effort.

After a goalless opening 20 minutes, the Kings took a 1-0 lead early in the second stanza thanks to Anze Kopitar's fifth of the season.
That score held after two periods, but just 1:07 into the final frame, Duchene roofed a loose puck on the power play for his first of the campaign to get Nashville on the board. Then, less than four minutes later, Jeannot gave the Preds the only lead they'd need when he deposited a feed from Colton Sissons into the twine for a 2-1 advantage.
From there, Preds goaltender Juuse Saros continued to turn aside the Kings, stopping all nine shots he faced in the third period to help preserve the win. Saros finished with 25 saves on the evening, while Nashville registered 31 shots on the Kings.
The Preds are now 13-2-6 in their last 21 meetings against the Kings and are 8-1-2 against the Kings in their last 11 meetings at Bridgestone Arena.

Tuesday Storyline:

The 2021-22 season is barely one week old, but the difference between a 1-2-0 record and an 0-3-0 record is notable.
On Tuesday, the Predators avoided the latter option and finally got rewarded.
A 4-3 loss to Seattle on Opening Night admittedly wasn't Nashville's best effort, but the Preds felt they deserved a better fate following Saturday's 3-2 result against Carolina.
Against the Kings, however, the one-goal game went in Nashville's favor, and to earn that first win of the season? Satisfying, to say the least.
"If we hadn't won tonight, you go down 0-3, and you probably deserve to be 2-1 - it's tough," Duchene said. "Obviously, we have a resilient group and we keep coming back and keep working. But, to get that first win, now we can just keep building. I think we've gotten better every game in a lot of areas, but there's still something to get better with, and we're going to keep working. But I think it's a good start of the season.
"I think the big thing was even though we played really well against Carolina, there were no moral victories, and that didn't satisfy us. I think we were kind of pissed off that we didn't get that win, and we came in and buckled down. We started the game very well, and they had a little bit of the play in the second period, but all in all, I think for the majority of the game we were the better team."

In particular, Tuesday's third period - especially the first five minutes - made the difference. The Kings had their pushes in the final frame as well, but the Preds seemed to bump their play to another level in the period, a culmination of an impressive work ethic through much of their first three outings of the season.
"I'm just happy for the guys," Preds Head Coach John Hynes said. "We've played some good hockey here and haven't got rewarded for it. Tonight, we got rewarded for it. The work and effort that they put into training camp, and just staying with it, even down by one going into the third period, we felt pretty good about our game going in there, but it was nice [to get the win]... It was good to see. The guys have put in a lot of hard work, doing a lot of the right things, and [it's] good to get rewarded for it."
With the first win out of the way, the Predators can now turn their attention to a Thursday meeting with the New York Rangers to finish their four-game homestand, and the prospect of finishing the stretch with a pair of triumphs is much more appealing.
"We're playing hard, and I think offensively it's going to keep coming, and we'll keep working," Duchene said. "I think that's the next step here is just whenever we have teams on the ropes to be able to make that last play to get the puck in the net. We're doing some good things, and we're just going to stay with it. We want to be .500 on this homestand. It's going to be a big difference being 2-2 rather than 1-3, so huge with a game coming up."
And for Jeannot, who ended up with the game-winner on Tuesday night, his game epitomized the way the Preds want to play. Jeannot also co-led the team with four hits against the Kings - none bigger than a second-period bulldoze of L.A. defenseman Drew Doughty - exhibit "A" of the hard-working identity Hynes has been preaching.
On Tuesday, it paid off.
"It feels really good," Jeannot said of the win. "We felt like we've been playing well and that maybe we weren't getting what we deserved, but there's a lot of really good teams in this League and you've got to fight every night to win. So, it's good to get that first one, we've just got to keep it rolling."

Highlight of the Night:

They Said It:

Matt Duchene on what he thought of a video tribute shown to honor former Preds and current Kings forward Viktor Arvidsson:
"He's a guy obviously we miss, and he's one of my closest friends through my time here. Our wives are really close, and I had dinner with him last night, and I thought [the tribute] was great. I think he deserved that for what he's done for this franchise and thought he had a really strong game for them. Fortunately, we were able to keep him off the board - he was dangerous out there - but I thought it was great."

Notes:

Preds forward Filip Forsberg skated in his 500th career game, all of which have come with Nashville. He's the 14th skater and 15th player to appear in at least 500 games with the Predators.
Predators forward Tommy Novak made his NHL debut tonight wearing No. 82 in Nashville. He's the first player in Predators franchise history to wear that number in a regular-season game. Novak finished the night with two shots and one blocked shot in 9:29 of ice time.
Nashville defenseman Matt Benning made his season debut on Tuesday night; defensemen Ben Harpur and Philippe Myers, as well as forward Philip Tomasino, were scratched.
The Predators conclude their four-game homestand on Thursday night when they host the New York Rangers at Bridgestone Arena. Nashville will then take a road trip for the first time this season starting in Winnipeg on Saturday night and concluding in Minnesota on Sunday evening.