“We needed somebody,” Brunette said. “I knew we’d be low on gas here today. We need somebody to make plays, to make something happen, and he grabbed it. We were kind of waiting for parts of the game, somebody [to take over], and he said, ‘You know what, I’m going to take it.’ So, he took it. And obviously, ‘Juice’ was outstanding and got out of here with the W.”
Just 24 hours ago, the Preds jumped into a playoff spot, and on Sunday, they only solidified that position. Now, with just 12 games to go and a three-game homestand ahead, they’d love nothing more than to extend the streak on Tuesday against a San Jose team that will be challenging them for that postseason berth the rest of the way.
“Massive match, obviously, on Tuesday against one of the teams that are hunting us,” Forsberg said. “We’ve just got to keep making these kinds of efforts. It’s not going to be smooth water the whole time through, but doing a lot of good things right now and getting rewarded for it, so we’ve got to keep that.”
“We want to move up [in the standings],” Brunette said. “We want to keep moving forward. We don’t want to look back. And we’ve been a resilient group that has a lot of belief in ourselves, and we’re just going to keep moving forward. We haven’t dwelled on where we were once all year, even when we’re kind of at the bottom looking up. And we’re going to keep that same attitude here going forward.”
Notes:
Goaltender Juuse Saros returned to the Nashville lineup on Sunday after missing two games with an upper-body injury. As a result, the Predators reassigned netminder Matt Murray to Milwaukee.
Defenseman Adam Wilsby returned for the Preds on Sunday after missing time with a lower-body injury. Forward Joakim Kemell also appeared for Nashville against the Blackhawks with Ozzy Wiesblatt and Justin Barron serving as healthy scratches.
With their back-to-back weekend now complete, the Predators will begin a three-game homestead on Tuesday night when they host San Jose – the first of three contests against the Sharks before the end of the season.