'It was awesome' – Nashville Predators players revel in opening night win in Prague

Nashville Predators coach John Hynes was impressed by the seamless fit of his new signings as they contributed in a major way during the 4-1 win against the San Jose Sharks in the opening game of the NHL season on Friday night.

After signing as an unrestricted free agent in the offseason, Nashville's Kiefer Sherwood opened the scoring just 61 seconds into the action at Prague's O2 Arena. He was assisted by Ryan McDonagh, who arrived from the Tampa Bay Lightning in a trade.

Fellow free agent signing Nino Niederreiter also found the back of the net late in the second period to make it 2-1, before Matt Duchene finished things off with an empty-netter.

Speaking after the game, Hynes said it was nice to see the new faces hit the ground running.

"I thought all the new guys to our team obviously contributed," he said. "A lot of them contributed on the scoreboard, but I thought also just the style of game they played really fits the identity, so it's nice. It's nice for those guys to get off to a good start."

Despite the lopsided score, the Sharks only attempted one less shot (31-32), but Predators goaltender Juuse Saros was sharp, and earned praise from teammate Mattias Ekholm.

"He's that kind of goalie, and he's always our best penalty killer," he said. "On most nights, he's our best player.

"Usually that happens when we win. He's just standing in there for us, and he did tonight. Super excited for him. 

"He's a heck of a goalie, and he makes it a lot easier for us defensemen coming back there."

Ekholm also gave a shout out to the Czech crowd for their enthusiasm in the first regular season game to be played outside of North America since 2019, and looked forward to Saturday night's rematch.

"[The atmosphere] was great," he said. "Sold out. I mean, it was awesome, and that was Friday night. I can't wait for Saturday night."

It was also a memorable night for San Jose's Tomas Hertl, who was born and raised in Prague and used this same arena for his home games when playing for Slavia Praha HC.

Hertl scored the Sharks' only goal, with coach David Quinn shining a light on the achievement after his first game in charge.

"It was a pretty special moment, obviously," he said. "He's been thinking about that for a long time. 

"Obviously happy for him, and the team, I thought, got a little bit inspired by that. I thought they played better after that. Unfortunately, we only got one.

"For the most part, I thought, up until they made it 3-1, we were hanging around. I liked some of the things we were doing. 

"But once they made it 3-1, I really thought there was a huge disparity in the way they played compared to the way we played.

"I thought the last 25 minutes, they really took it to us, and I thought we got a little bit demoralized. We've got to toughen up a little bit mentally in that department."