New York. The Åkerö cannon thundered in Manhattan as Nashville sank the New York Rangers in Manhattan last night.
With a powerful shot, Filip Forsberg broke the scoring charts.
“I had a good shot and it was time,” he told Sportbladet after the 4-1 win.
It was just 14 minutes into the second period that one of the NHL’s most reliable Swedish snipers put on a little personal show at Madison Square Garden and scored his first goal of the season.
He dribbled across the middle zone, got knocked down just inside the blue line, but kept the puck, got up, stepped out into the right drawing circle — and sledgehammered it so that Igor Segestyorkin in the penalty box didn’t have enough time to react.
“The sea opened up, so it was a good position and I got a good hit,” says Philippe when we find him on an exercise bike outside the guests’ dressing room afterwards.
– The time has come and it was nice to see him come in. I had a lot of chances in previous matches as well.
“We were a little shocked”
The 29-year-old Maas was also responsible for the assist in a game the Predators dominated from start to finish.
The Rangers looked like they didn’t quite know how to work in coach Peter Laviolette’s new “trap” system and did almost nothing, but according to Mika Zibanejad – who was credited with the assist on the consolation goal – it had more to do with the opposition.
– We were a little shocked by the way they played, unlike all the other opponents we faced this year, and we couldn’t do anything about their pressure, he says.
Gustav Nyquist, another Swede in Nashville, nodded approvingly.
“We have a very strong press and it can be difficult to play against,” he says.
– Overall, I think we’ve done a good job so far. Not all results were in our favor, but we didn’t face bad teams either. Someone said it this morning, four of the five teams we played had over 100 points last year.
However, the Preds now have four points and are in the early race at the top of the Central standings.
