NASHVILLE Cody Eakin Jersey , Tenn. (AP) — Pekka Rinne is off to an even better start than last season when he finally won the Vezina Trophy as the NHL’s best goalie, and backup Juuse Saros ranks among the league’s top 10 for victories.With both goalies now signed to contract extensions, the Nashville Predators may have the best goalie situation both on and off the ice.“There’s tandems that are much better than others, Nashville has one of them,” said Martin Biron, a former NHL goalie and now Buffalo broadcaster. “And I think if you’re Peter Laviolette, if you’re the goalie coach and the staff, your job and your challenge is to keep them at the highest of levels for the whole season.”So far, the defending Presidents’ Trophy winners are doing just that.The Predators went into Tuesday night’s game in San Jose atop the league standings while also first in the NHL both in goals allowed (37) and 2.12 goals-against per game with Rinne and Saros (7-2-0) splitting the first 18 games. Rinne has been “ImPekkable” with a 6-1-1 record, leading all goalies with at least eight starts with a 1.47 goals-against average and .951 save percentage.“Every day he is and continues to be the backbone of this organization and team and has probably had the biggest impact on this organization,” Laviolette said.Rinne is 3-0-1 with a .740 goals-against average and .976 save percentage and a shutout, stopping 121 of 124 shots faced since returning from injured reserve on Oct. 31. The Predators signed Rinne to a two-year extension taking him through 2020-21 on Nov. 3, and the goalie celebrated both the contract and his birthday with his second shutout of the season.Biron said Tuesday that he doesn’t see a big competition for the starting job in Nashville.“It’s Pekka’s job Youth Colin Miller Jersey , and Nashville giving him that two-year deal I think is basically saying that ‘We want Pekka, and it’s going to be like that,'” Biron said.Rinne has been a Vezina finalist four of the past eight years, making the seven-year, $49 million contract he signed on an earlier birthday in 2011 worth every penny. That deal ties him for the fourth-priciest contract among goalies with Marc-Andre Fleury (33) of Vegas and Boston’s Tuukka Rask (31). Fleury is under contract through 2021-22, and Rask hits free agency after the 2020-21 season.The Predators signed Rinne to a two-year extension worth $10 million on Nov. 3. General manager David Poile also signed Saros, 23, to a three-year extension in July worth $4.5 million. That means Nashville is projected to drop from seventh with $8.5 million of its salary cap invested in goaltenders to ninth next season with a $6.5 million average annual value, according to Sportrac.com.Rinne could’ve pushed for more money. Montreal’s Carey Price, 31, is getting $10.5 million a year, while Henrik Lundqvist of the Rangers is being paid $8.5 million a year through 2020-21.Biron calls Rinne one of the hardest-working goalies he’s ever seen who’s in unbelievable shape. He also sees Rinne simplifying his game as he got older, like Patrick Roy Womens Deryk Engelland Jersey , Dominik Hasek and Eddie Belfour. Rinne still can scramble and react, which Biron thinks will keep Rinne playing at a high level for possibly four more years like Lundqvist.“Pekka can play at least through this next contract, and then after that we’ll see,” Biron said.It’s up to Nashville to make that extra cap space pay off after losing the 2017 Stanley Cup Final in six games and then in seven games in the second round last May. Poile persuaded defenseman Ryan Ellis to take a bit less money with an eight-year deal for $50 million in August, and his next task will be trying to get captain Roman Josi to agree to an extension next summer before the final year on the defenseman’s current deal.“Hopefully this helps in a way that makes this team stay together moving forward,” Rinne said. “I think we have an opportunity to keep this same team. And I think that’s David’s goal and obviously I like the sound of it. I love this group, and I really think we have a chance this year and years to come.”EARLY RETURNSTom Wilson of the Capitals returned to the lineup Tuesday night at Minnesota after arbitrator Shyam Das reduced the forward’s suspension by six games to 14 for his illegal check to the head of St. Louis forward Oskar Sundqvist at the end of the preseason.He made an immediate impact, scoring a first-period goal in a 5-2 victory.Nashville forward Austin Watson is eligible to return to the ice Thursday night when the Predators wrap up a road trip in Arizona after Das cut his suspension from 27 games to 18 after he pleaded no contest in July to a domestic assault charge.Das is the same neutral arbitrator fired by Major League Baseball in 2012 after he overturned Ryan Braun’s drug suspension. The NHL fired arbitrator James Oldham in 2016 after his decision to reduce Dennis Wideman’s 20-game suspension to 10 for striking and injuring an official, and either the NHL or NHLPA can fire the neutral arbitrator after each season.NWHL ALL-STAR GAMEThe Predators, who hosted the 2016 NHL All-Star Game, will be hosting the 2019 NWHL All-Star Weekend capped by an NHL-NWHL doubleheader on Feb. 10. This is the third straight year the NWHL has held its All-Star Weekend in an NHL market, starting with Pittsburgh in 2017 and Minnesota in 2018.Nashville will host St. Louis with a morning faceoff, and fans will be invited to stick around for the NWHL All-Star Game starting soon after the NHL matinee. The All-Star game will feature a pair of 25-minute halves with Shannon Szabados James Neal Jersey , goalie for the Buffalo Beauts and a three-time Olympian with Canada, captain of one team and Minnesota defender Lee Stecklein, a U.S. Olympic gold medalist in February, captain of the other team.GAME OF THE WEEKPatrick Marleau and the Toronto Maple Leafs visit his old team in San Jose on Thursday night with Erik Karlsson still settling in with the Sharks.LEADERS (through Tuesday)Goals: David Pastrnak (Boston), 16; Assists: Mikko Rantanen (Colorado), 20; Points: Mikko Rantanen, (Colorado), and Connor McDavid, (Edmonton), 26; Wins: Frederik Andersen (Toronto), 10; Goals-against average: Pekka Rinne (Nashville), 1.47; Save percentage: Pekka Rinne (Nashville), .951. MONTREAL (AP) — Ben Bishop turned away Artturi Lehkonen on a potentially game-changing penalty shot Jonathan Marchessault Jersey , and Devin Shore and the Dallas Stars rolled from there.Shore had a goal and two assists, Bishop stopped 34 shots and the Dallas Stars beat the Montreal Canadiens 4-1 on Tuesday night.Esa Lindell and Miro Heiskanen also scored, and Alexander Radulov added an empty-netter for Dallas, which won on the road for the first time this season. This was the second stop on the Stars’ six-game road trip.Brendan Gallagher scored for the Canadiens, and Carey Price stopped 18 shots.In the second, Lehkonen was awarded a penalty shot after John Klingberg slashed him on a breakaway. Lehkonen tried going five-hole, but Bishop made the easy save.“I was just trying to read his body language,” Bishop said. “I kind of had a sense that he was going to go five-hole. I just had a sense when he was coming down and what he was doing with the puck. I guess I was right that time.”With the Stars leading 2-1 in the third, Shore added a short-handed goal at 9:27 — Dallas’ first short-handed score of the season. A bad giveaway by Lehkonen behind his own goal gave the puck right to Shore, who chipped a backhander past Price.The 24-year-old Shore had five points in 10 games this season before Tuesday.“I tried to just skate and win as many battles as I could today,” Shore said. “In the game of hockey, sometimes you’re doing everything right and you can’t buy one. Sometimes you play like crap and you get points. You try not to look at your points as a measure of success.”Bishop improved to 12-4-3 against the Canadiens, though he had help from his posts in the first period. Mike Reilly fired a slap shot off the iron just two minutes into the game Marc-Andre Fleury Jersey , fooling even the goal-light operator, before Karl Alzner hit the post later in the period.“We came out well, hit two posts and we had that penalty shot before they even scored,” Canadiens coach Claude Julien said. “That was our chance to play with the lead. … It’s too bad because we worked hard. The effort was there but the result just wasn’t.”Lindell made Montreal pay for its missed opportunities when he scored on Dallas’ fourth shot of the game at 1:49 of the second. With Phillip Danault in the box for slashing, Shore faked a shot then fed Lindell on an odd-man rush to give the visitors a 1-0 lead.The Canadiens got caught on a line change and Dallas took advantage at 7:24 of the second. Heiskanen, the third overall draft pick in 2017, found himself unmarked near the blue line before beating Price.Gallagher scored his team-leading seventh three minutes into the third. Bishop stopped Tomas Tatar’s initial shot from the point but Gallagher was on the doorstep to knock in the rebound.Dallas coach Jim Montgomery challenged the goal for goaltender interference, but the referees determined Klingberg had knocked Gallagher into Bishop.NOTES: Jason Spezza played in his 1,000th career NHL game. … Radulov, who played with the Canadiens two seasons ago, was back in the Stars lineup after missing four games with an undisclosed injury. He scored an empty-net goal with 2:37 left in the game.UP NEXTStars: Play at Toronto on Thursday night.Canadiens: Host Washington on Thursday night.