Postgame Notes & Quotes Nashville Predators 3, Colorado Avalanche 2

Postgame Notes & Quotes Nashville Predators 3, Colorado Avalanche 2 Saturday, Jan. 14, 2017 Jarome Iginla skated in his 1,515th career game, surpassing Steve Yzerman to take sole possession of 15th place on the NHL’s all-time list. He’s now nine games from tying Brendan Shanahan for 14th. In matinee games this season, the Avalanche is now 1-3-0 overall and 1-1-0 at home. With the secondary assist on Gabriel Landeskog’s first-period goal, Matt Nieto registered his first point in an Avalanche uniform. Francois Beauchemin’s marker at 2:21 of the second period was his first of the season. With the assist on the play, Mikhail Grigorenko notched his first career point against the Predators (seven games). Joe Colborne registered a season-high six hits. In his Nashville debut, Cody McLeod scored on his first shot of the game, notching his first goal against his former team. With the assist on Mike Fisher’s third-period tally, Austin Watson extended his point streak to four games (three goals, one assist). Colorado D Francois Beauchemin On Tonight’s Game: “A couple of bounces went away from us. You know, I think we had a good feeling going into the third, like you said, 2-1, we kind of had the momentum of the game. Our penalty kill was huge tonight. I don’t know how many kills we got total but they did a great job, Varly (Colorado G Semyon Varlamov) made some big stops but you know, faceoff plays and one breakaway play that pretty much ended up costing us the game. Our power play didn’t create much. We had some good looks but that’s not enough.” On The Avs’ Performance: “We did a lot of good things. Like I said, going into the third, we had a good feeling. We had a big kill at the end of the second. We had three minutes to kill there which we didn’t give them much and then coming into the third, we would feel good about ourselves and get back in the offensive zone. On the first shift, Mikko (Colorado RW Mikko Rantanen) controlled the puck behind the net and then hit Tyson (Colorado D Tyson Barrie) [who] had a good shot. It was a good start for us but after that, like I said, it was just a couple of mistakes.” Colorado LW Gabriel Landeskog On The Third Period: “I don’t think we tightened up. Obviously, when Cody (Nashville LW Cody McLeod) scores the goal that makes it 2-1, obviously it gets us on the back of our heels a little bit and then they come. (Nashville C Mike) Fisher gets a break there in the third, I can’t really remember what happened. I wouldn’t say we tightened up and got nervous in any way, I feel like we played a strong game. I feel offensively we are getting better and creating a whole lot of more shots, we ended up with 30-something here again tonight. We need to keep doing that. As frustrating as this is, I mean like we talked about earlier, in my mind we tied it up at the end and we are going into overtime right now but things happen and we didn’t come out with any points.” On The Team’s Confidence: “I mean, going into the third with a lead, that has to be something that is automatic. For whatever reason, you are a fragile group that doesn’t have a lot of confidence in playing with leads. You know, they get one and I still feel like our energy is up on the bench and then obviously they get a second one off of the faceoff but that’s what happens when you are a bit fragile and you haven’t played well with leads so far. I mean, that’s what happens but offensively, I think we did a whole lot of good stuff tonight. I know it stinks telling you guys this, but we have to keep building off of this and we have to keep getting better. If we hang our heads over this one, it’s only going to get worse so we have to take the positives and move forward. Tonight, I feel like we did some good things.” Nashville LW Cody McLeod On His First Game With Nashville: “It has kind of been a whirlwind the last few hours, but I’m pumped to be here and I guess there’s no better [win] than getting it against your own team.” On His Fight: “I just thought we could just use a spark right then and I asked Iggy [Colorado RW Jarome Iginla]. Iggy’s a tough guy, no hard feelings, we both play hard. I love Iggy, we’re good friends but on the ice it’s business.” Nashville G Pekka Rinne On Traveling The Day Of The Game: “Before the game we talked about not having any excuses, it was a long day for us, leaving in the morning and all of our plans getting screwed yesterday. We went down 1-0 got back in the game and then they scored another one, 2-0 at the time. Then Cody had a huge goal by him he had a big strap with Iginla too. He was a huge spark for our team it’s just nice to have him with us now.” On Playing With Nashville LW Cody McLeod: “Without any practices or anything, he did a really good job. His line was really good with Harry and Derek. I can’t remember having one shift in my zone in our end, so they did a really good job all night and obviously [he] had a big goal. Overall we have been struggling on the road, this was an extremely big win for us, this is our playoff time already. We have to get back in the picture. I can’t remember when we had a three-game winning streak, it feels good.” .

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