A couple of hours before Saturday’s tilt with the visiting Boston Bruins, Pekka Rinne got a birthday present for his 36th birthday in the form of a contract extension.

How’d he celebrate? With a shutout.

Nashville (11-3) won its third consecutive game and remained in front of the league standings, while Boston fell to 7-4-2 with the 1-0 loss.

Roman Josi opened the scoring 14:49 into the first period, curling into the slot and beating Jaroslav Halak low for his 300th career point.

At the end of the first period, Brad Marchand was called for a high stick and on the way to the penalty box, added an unsportsmanlike penalty to his list of accomplishments.

On the way back to the dressing room after just four seconds in the penalty box, Marchand was given a 10-minute misconduct for his continued chirping at the referees.

The Preds’ power play struggles continued, while the penalty kill not only held its ground, but generated a couple of strong shorthanded chances in the second period.

Random Observations

• Screw cancer.

• It just hit that notorious licker Brad Marchand is in the house tonight.
• On a happer note, happy birthday Pekka! Here’s a contract extension.
• Playing the Yogi Bear theme song to introduce the Bruins lineup is a solid choice.
• Fiala with Forsberg and Johansen? Let’s see what a little time on the top line could do for him.
• Also, get well soon, Arvy.
• Totally forgot that Jaroslav Halak was in Boston.
• Hartman setting up Turris for a very nice chance...aaand he shoots high.
• No Zac Rinaldo in the lineup tonight, and that’s a shame because he’d be the guy you’d want to deal with Brad Marchand.
• Quite a bit of falling so far...Josi ate it early on, then Rinne and Fiala have both hit the deck too. Ice is slippery.
• Roman Josi just made Torey Krug look plain silly on his way to that goal.
• Preds’ pressure is forcing Boston into some mistakes. Three hooking penalties so far. Does that make them a bunch of hookers?
• It has not, however, helped with the power play. More tinkering needs to be done.
• Brad Marchand went all drama queen after getting a high-sticking call and the Preds will start the second period with nearly four minutes of power play time.
• Oh, and just for fun, Marchand gets to sit for an extra 10 with a misconduct penalty tacked on as well.
• That was four minutes of not much with that “power play.”
• Flipping the special teams switch as Boston gets the man advantage.
• Ryan Hartman is playing out of his mind lately. Who cares if he got a hooking penalty?
• Preds power play is still MIA, but the penalty kill has been good tonight.
• The entire crowd sung Happy Birthday to Pekka Rinne. Nice touch for the birthday boy.
• Fil and Joey get a shorthanded 2-on-1...and it gets broken up. Would have been a blow the roof off Bridgestone moment.
• Subban sets up Hartman for a shorthanded breakaway...and no dice.
• For the second straight period, Boston gets a penalty in the final five seconds. Weird, but true.
• So apparently Forsberg was off for some patchwork. Handsome/60 takes a hit tonight, if only slightly.
• Forsberg has gone three games without a goal. Sound the alarm. (kidding)

Super Duper Stars of the Night

1. Rinne. A birthday present of a new contract, followed by a shutout.
2. Josi. He had one whale of a move to net the game’s only goal. The captain also tied a franchise record for shots on goal for a defenseman with 10.
3. Hartman. Did he switch bodies with Filip Forsberg?

Tweets of the Night