NHL Season Overture – 4-1 vs. San Jose: Niederreiter scores in 1st game for Nashville – Sport

At the start of the NHL season, Roman Josi and Nino Niederreiter beat their Swiss colleague Timo Meier from San Jose with Nashville.

Nino Niederreiter’s debut with the Nashville Predators was more than a success: The native of Graubünden scored his first goal in the NHL opener against the San Jose Sharks and was able to celebrate the 4-1 win with his Swiss teammate Roman Josi. On the other side, Appenzeller Timo Meier was left behind.

The opening game, which took place in Prague as part of the “NHL Global Series”, started immediately with an exclamation mark. Kiefer Sherwood, like Niederreiter also a Nashville newcomer, scored after just 61 seconds after a rebound to make it 1-0.

Meier with assistant

The Sharks found an answer a little later: Tomas Hertl scored – on an assist from Meier – to make it 1:1 and started to celebrate. The Czech was allowed to be extensively celebrated by his compatriots during the game in his home country.

However, Hertl was not allowed to celebrate after the final siren. This was partly due to San Jose’s lack of evaluation of chances. In the end, the shot ratio was even, but only Nashville got the puck behind the goal line more times.

First, Eeli Tolvanen scored in the corner (22′), and Niederreiter made his debut in the middle third. The 30-year-old, who switched to Josi’s team from Carolina, moved towards the goal together with Dante Fabbro and scored the 3-1 (35th) on the Canadian’s pass.

Matt Duchene finished the game with an empty netter 33 seconds from the end. Meier and the Sharks already have a chance for revenge on Saturday: the two teams will compete against each other again in Prague from 8 p.m. For the first time since the pandemic, the best league in the world is outside of North America.