The Dallas Stars defeated the Nashville Predators 4-3 at Bridgestone Arena on Thursday, spoiling the team debuts of Steven Stamkos and Jonathan Marchessault. Mason Marchment scored twice for the Dallas Stars.
On July 1, free agency opened, and Stamkos (four years, $32 million) and Marchessault (five years, $27.5 million) both signed with Nashville.
According to Stamkos, who spent his first 16 NHL seasons with the Tampa Bay Lightning, “I thought we played very solid.” “I mean, the game was there when you looked at the shots and the chances.” Simply put, that squad is really good, and if you give them a few excellent, grade-A opportunities like we did, the ball will end up in your net. And before you know it, you’re behind a tremendously strong hockey team by three goals.
For the Stars, Logan Stankoven had three assists and Roope Hintz scored a goal.33 saves were made by Jake Oettinger.
For every squad, it was the start of the season.
Marchment stated, “I think we were a little sloppy in the first period, but after that I thought in the second period we were extremely good.” “We demonstrated our game by playing it. We did a really good job of shutting them down even in the third. They received a few looks, but strong teams will always receive those. For the first game, I felt like we played fairly well.
For the Predators, Marchessault got two assists and Filip Forsberg scored a goal.On 20 shots, Scott Wedgewood gave up four goals in his Nashville debut. Juuse Saros, who is sidelined due to a lower-body injury, was replaced by him at the beginning of play.
Wedgewood advised, “Just get ready to play if it comes to it.” So, a few days away, I just made the decision to start regardless of whether Saro was prepared or not. I didn’t really think about it until the very last minute. And then, of course, yesterday night I was kind of given the go-ahead. This morning, I got up and went about my business.
In the second half, Dallas scored all four of its goals.
At 2:05, Hintz gave the Stars the lead 1-0 with a wrist shot from the left circle following a Stankoven backhand pass.
Stankoven stated, “You want to get off to a good start.” “The season is lengthy. There will be many ups and downs as well as some difficult periods, so if you can sort of grab those wins early, that’s great. Otherwise, you want to make sure you can score every point you can.
In order to make it 2-0, Jason Robertson scored a one-timer from the slot on a rush 19 seconds later.
At 3:30, Forsberg scored a power-play goal from the slot after receiving a pass from Marchessault to reduce the lead to 2-1.
“I felt we had some excellent movement,” Andrew Brunette, the coach of the Predators, stated. “We looked pretty at times. Our entries still need a little polish, in my opinion. We made some forceful and careless moves with pucks, but I believe that was part of the overall rhythm and chemistry. But the skill was evident.
Marchment’s wrist shot on the power play at 8:03 made it 3-1. At 18:15, he scored from the left circle to make it 4-1.
The Stars’ coach, Pete DeBoer, declared, “It’s game one.” “A challenging rink to come into against a pretty good team, but a lot of things to work on for everybody.” At 4-1, I believed we had complete control of that game. In the third, we attempted to give them some life, but we are still learning from it all. They had a lot of new players in the roster and something to prove, so I thought they played with the intensity we expected they would in their home opener. We generally played a smart road game, and our goalie was excellent, in my opinion.
At 4:37 of the third quarter, Tommy Novak made a forehand-to-backhand play on the breakaway to trim the lead to 4-2.
At 18:25, Ryan O’Reilly scored a wrist shot from the right circle to make it 4-3.
NOTES: Since Daniel Sedin and Henrik Sedin (both nine games from 2008–09 to 2016–17) had a point in nine straight season opening games, Forsberg became the first player to accomplish this feat. .. For the first three goals scored by the Stars, Stankoven provided an assist. He joined Roland Eriksson (four assists on October 6, 1976) as the only other rookie in Stars/Minnesota North Stars history to record three points in the team’s debut game. .. Marchment, who also scored two goals against Nashville on October 10, 2022, became the only player in Stars history to score two goals in multiple season openers. .. Mavrik Bourque, a forward for Dallas, was sidelined due to an injury that was not reported.