The Nashville Predators faced off against the Florida Panthers in a weekend rematch after a string of games that had been unsatisfactory to both teams—chippy play, embarrassing losses, and more.
Juuse Saros started his second consecutive game since returning from IR, and looked sharp early. He needed to, as the Predators struggled to get anything going during the first long stretch, while the Panthers did not share that problem. About six and a half minutes in, Ben Harpur boarded Owen Tippett, and after a long hesitation the referee, who’d been looking right at the play, actually called it.