Steven Stamkos scored 44 seconds into overtime to rally the Nashville Predators to a 2-1 win over the Pittsburgh Penguins on Friday in the opening game of the NHL’s Global Series in the Swedish capital.
Stamkos’ fourth goal of the season helped the Predators snap a five-game skid.
Nashville pulled goaltender Juuse Saros for an extra attacker and Swedish star Filip Forsberg thrilled the packed Avicii Arena by tying the game at 1-all with 1:10 remaining in the third period, beating Pittsburgh goaltender Arturs Silovs with a high backhand shot that forced overtime.
The Predators arrived in Europe with hopes the trip could help them turn the season around. Nashville outshot the Penguins 30-17 and improved to 6-9-4.
Saros made 16 saves and defenseman Brady Skjei assisted on the winning goal.
Evgeni Malkin broke the scoreless deadlock with 6:11 remaining in the middle period for the Penguins after the puck he sent from behind the goal toward Saros ended up in the net.
It was Malkin’s fourth goal of the season and his team-leading 22nd point. The goal was the 518th of his career, tying him with Dale Hawerchuk for 40th place on the NHL’s career list.
The Predators held the Penguins to two shots on goal in the period.
The game marked a return for Malkin, together with Sidney Crosby and Kris Letang, to Stockholm where where the Penguins split a series against the Ottawa Senators in 2008 before winning the Stanley Cup that season.
Silovs stopped 28 shots and Mathew Dumba had an assist for the Penguins, who lost the third straight game.
The NHL has played games on the European continent as part of its efforts to grow the fan base in hockey-mad countries like Sweden, Finland, the Czech Republic and others. Overall, Friday’s was the 47th regular-season game outside North America and 17th in Stockholm, more than in any other city.
The Predators swept a 2022 series against the San Jose Sharks in Prague.
The San Francisco 49ers’ wide receiver corps has been battered by injuries pretty much all season. They knew they’d be waiting a while for Brandon Aiyuk to return to action, but his slow recovery from last year’s torn ACL has been worse than they expected.
In the absence of so many quality targets in the passing game, San Francisco has desperately needed someone to step up. The prime candidate many would expect would be the receiver who demanded a new contract in the offseason, but more often than not in 2025, Jauan Jennings has been nowhere to be found.
After a breakout campaign that saw him haul in 77 passes for 975 yards in 2024, one would have thought Jennings could shoulder the load, at least for a little bit, while the 49ers waited for injury luck to finally break their way.
Instead, Jennings has been erratic and untrustworthy.
His 62.4 PFF grade ranks him 62nd among 83 qualified wide receivers, and his 28 catches for 324 yards have been thoroughly underwhelming for a team that has struggled to find a non-Christian McCaffrey target it can rely upon in the passing game.
Underwhelming production and disappearing in key moments are bad enough, but Jennings has also sabotaged his own trade value and gotten into it with head coach Kyle Shanahan on the sideline.
Jennings has struggled mightily to find soft spots against zone coverage, putting him in a bad position to change the narrative against the zone-heavy Arizona Cardinals in this Sunday’s matchup. Another poor performance will only confirm that moving on after the season is the only course of action San Francisco can take.
A former seventh-round pick in 2020, Jennings had been a surprising success story, but after a while, the “grading on a curve” that occurs for late-round picks who are early in their careers comes to an end, and it becomes time to earn your keep or keep it moving.