Nashville Predators 3, New York Rangers 2
Madison Square Garden
New York City, New York
Game 1 of 82
* A lot of local media members (myself included) have spent the summer talking about how Filip Forsberg is primed for an 80-point season. He tallied the season opening goal for the Predators.
* With Forsberg’s goal, he surpassed Coyotes forward Alex Galchenyuk for most points among the 2012 NHL Draft class with 256.
* The top line of Forsberg, Ryan Johansen and Viktor Arvidsson were buzzing all night long. They dominated the Rangers for most of their shifts and that’s the way it should be all season.
* For the second time in his three seasons with the Preds, PK Subban scored a goal on opening night.
* And, for the third time in his three seasons in Music City, Subban tallied a point on opening night.
* Craig Smith may have only finished with an assist and a plus-1 rating but he was one of Nashville’s best skaters on Thursday. He finished with a team-high six shots on goal and was a force to be reckoned with all night.
* If Smith can play like that more often than not this season, he’ll have quite a campaign.
* After a disappointing playoff, it was nice to see Kyle Turris impact the score sheet (he assisted on Forsberg’s goal).
* At least for now, Colton Sissons (1g, 1a) and Mattias Ekholm (2a) lead the team in scoring with two points.
* Until Turris and Subban took penalties in the final six minutes of the contest, Nashville — the most penalized team in the NHL last season — had yet to give up a power play opportunity.
* Arvidsson, Miikka Salomaki, Ryan Ellis and Dan Hamhuis were the only Preds skaters without at least one shot on goal.
* Pekka Rinne made 34 saves to notch his 312th career win.
* For not factoring into the scoring, Rangers defenseman Kevin Shattenkirk had a whale of a game. He registered a game-high seven shots on goal, a game-high four blocked shots and a team-high 20:41 of ice time.
* Rangers center Brett Howden didn’t seem like a guy making his NHL debut. He was 6-of-8 in the face off dot, good for 75 percent.
* With Ryan Hartman being activated off the injured reserve before game time, fan favorite Freddie Gaudreau was the healthy scratch.
And, finally, your Tweet of the Game:
Lmao the Rangers sent an extra skater on a delayed penalty even though they had the extra skater out for a pulled goalie.
— J.R. Lind (@jrlind) October 5, 2018
