Last Night's Preseason Performers (Sep 21)

The 2015 preseason kicked off with a bit of split squad action, as the Florida Panthers and Nashville Predators played a pair of games on Sunday.

It wasn't like the Florida Panthers were not bringing any good lineups to these games, as the opener was chalk-full of top end talent.  Still, the Predators side was the better of the two, earning a 5-2 win.

Like years previous, I like to highlight the multi-point players in the game and for Nashville, Filip Forsberg and Ryan Ellis got off to great starts to the preseason, picking up 3 points a piece, Forsberg scoring a pair of goals.  Defenseman Roman Josi also had a couple of assists in the win, as he asserts his claim for top offensive defender on the team.

Goalies will only get the nod in the blog, when they play a full game... for the Predators, no wins will be mentioned, thanks to a split game between Carter Hutton and Marek Mazanec, as they vie for the back-up job.

The only other two teams in action on Sunday was the New Jersey Devils and Boston Bruins, kicking off their preseason campaign in Providence, RI.

It was a big game for defenseman Matt Irwin, who stole the show and likely some hearts as well, scoring the only two goals for the Bruins in their 2-0 win.  There wasn't a great deal of coverage of the game, so Irwin gets the only nod... plus, he gets the header picture on the post as well.  That's a pretty good morning for him, right?

The Bruins couldn't come away unscathed in this one, as Seth Griffith left the game with a lower-body injury in the 2nd period.  Griffith wasn't a favourite to have a projection for, only one magazine and this blog, in my collection had anything for him and they were both in the low-20s.  He is going to make a push for a full-time job, but whether or not he gets it, is another thing altogether.

The Florida Panthers made up for their early game loss in the late one, as we had our first taste of 3-on-3 overtime at the same time.

A couple of non-projected players came up big late for the Panthers, as Shane Harper had a goal and an assist, while Kyle Rau had a couple of assists in the win.  They were the only two that came up big in the game, but it's hard to think that they have a great deal of hope for a job with the big club at this time.  They'll need a massive preseason to accomplish that.

An updated list of injuries can be found here.