NASHVILLE, Tenn. -- Three hours before face-off, the Predators walked the gold carpet into Bridgestone Arena. It has become a ritual for the team as it opens the season, this time coming Thursday against the visiting Senators.
As Predators players and coaches departed limousines to the cheers of fans, you could hear one fan ask, "Who's that?" on several occasions. Hey, that's new coach Peter Laviolette, who replaced Barry Trotz, the only coach the franchise had known until now.
And that's James Neal and Mike Ribeiro and Derek Roy and Olli Jokinen, all new forwards obtained either by trade or free agency. Their job is to provide an offensive infusion for a team long dependent upon stellar defense and goaltending, but scoring challenged.
But the fan also would soon say, "I know those guys," referring to star goaltender Pekka Rinne and defenseman Shea Weber, along with fellow blueliners Roman Josi and Ryan Ellis. And there's forwards Craig Smith, Colin Wilson, Gabriel Bourque, Paul Gaustad and Eric Nystrom.
New coach, new players, no problem, but it was three familiar Predators -- Smith, Weber and Nystrom -- who provided the Predators with three third-period goals for a thrilling 3-2 win in front of a raucous sell-out crowd of 17,113.
Indeed, the Peter Laviolette coaching era for the Predators began with a bang.
"I am happy for the guys and I am happy for Nashville and the Predators and the fans," Laviolette said of winning his first game as Predators coach. "You want to come to your home opener and be successful for everybody. It's a special night because it's the first game. It's in our building. There's new players here.
" ... You talk to the fans, and they've been waiting for this first game and wanting this first game to happen."
After making the playoffs seven times in eight years, the Predators missed the postseason the last two seasons. Enter Laviolette, whose hiring promised a more aggressive and uptempo offense deemed to produce more goals.
Through the first two periods, though, that wasn't the case, although the Predators held a robust 23-14 edge in shots on goal that would balloon to 37-20 by game's end. But the Senators still held a 1-0 lead through two periods before the Predators broke through with three goals in the third.
Smith, last year's top goal scorer for the Predators, tied the game with a power-play goal early in the third period assisted by Roy and youthful forward Filip Forsberg. Weber put the Predators ahead 2-1 on a nifty wraparound assisted by Ellis and Gaustad.
"We did a lot of good things on our forecheck and running our systems," said Smith, who scored a career-high 24 goals last season. "As we get better and learn more about what we need to do and come together as a group, especially individual lines and guys getting more familiar with each other, we're going to get better and be a tighter unit."
Nystrom put the Predators ahead 3-1 with the game-winner midway through the third period on a goal assisted by Gaustad and Forsberg.
"We just stuck to it," Nystrom said of the constant offensive barrage on net. "We want to shoot pucks and get pucks in that area. We did a good job of that. We stuck to it. It took longer than we wanted it to, to get that break. But we got a couple timely ones and won a big one in the home opener."
The Senators closed the gap to 3-2 with 6:12 remaining on a power-play goal by forward Alex Chiasson to make it interesting down the stretch. That was especially so when the Senators went on a power play with 1:47 remaining to play after Smith was penalized for hooking. But Rinne and the Predators kept the Senators from finding the net, including going some 40 seconds at a two-man disadvantage after goaltender Craig Anderson was pulled.
"There was a lot of good things that we did out there tonight," said Laviolette, whose team returns to action Saturday at home against the Stars before hosting the Flames on Tuesday. Six of the Predators' first eight games are at Bridgestone Arena.
"We weren't seeing the results that we wanted to as far as the scoreboard goes," Laviolette added. "We made a couple of mistakes, and I think we can fix those. But overall, there was a lot of positives to take from the game. Even though the results weren't there from the attempts that were going at the net and the opportunities we had, our guys stuck to it."
The teams skated to a scoreless tie in the first period, although the Predators had eight shots on goal in the first seven minutes and held a 13-9 advantage by the first intermission. But the Senators took an early lead in the second period on a goal by center Kyle Turris assisted by left winger Clarke MacArthur.
What impressed Laviolette most about the win was that the Predators kept the pressure on the Senators on both ends of the ice and eventually broke through down the stretch with the three goals in the third period.
"I think it is important for a team to establish that they can win in the third period," Laviolette said. "That was probably the most important thing. They battled back. They didn't surrender. They just kept pushing through, and you've got to give them a lot of credit, because they just kept their foot on the gas."
