Filip Forsberg and Jonathan Marchessault tallied for the home team, but the Nashville Predators fell to the Ottawa Senators by a 5-2 final on Monday night at Bridgestone Arena. The result sees the Preds drop their fifth straight outing with another tough finish.
“It’s frustrating,” Preds alternate captain Ryan O’Reilly said. “Good word for it again... [We tied] it up there [in the third period], felt like we got some momentum and little mistakes… So it's tough. I think there's two big mistakes that I don't normally make but gave them life, and big goals at big times, and it’s tough because the guys were working tonight. We did some good things, but again, it's frustrating, and another tough loss.”
“Probably the last two games have been as disappointed as I've been with our group,” Preds Head Coach Andrew Brunette said. “I understood tonight was a hard night, it's [four games in six nights] and travel and back-to-back, but at the end of the day, where we're at, it was a little disappointing. And how we played, I don't think we really gave ourselves a chance to be in the game, between the penalties and some of our puck plays, especially in the first period, leaving pucks in bad spots, and then some missed assignments repetitively down the stretch. So it was a disappointing game.”
The opening period finished without a goal thanks to a lengthy video review for goaltender interference that went in Nashville’s favor, and the Preds struck first as Forsberg neatly placed a Roman Josi feed through the legs of Senators goaltender Anton Forsberg in the second stanza.
However, Ottawa tallied two of their own in the middle frame as Adam Gaudette and Jake Sanderson both beat Juuse Saros, but the Preds began the third period on a power play where Marchessault one-timed a dish from O’Reilly into the twine to even the score at 2-2.
But that was as close as Nashville came as the Senators scored three unanswered to finish out the night - including Ottawa’s fourth goal that deflected in off of Adam Wilsby’s helmet - to leave the Preds disappointed in the result once more.
“It wasn't good enough overall,” Forsberg said. “I thought we put ourselves in a spot to be in the game. I thought [Saros] played great going into the third…[but that puck] goes in off of [Wilsby]... I think that's just kind of how things are going, sadly, at the moment.”
“It hasn’t been easy by any means,” O’Reilly said. “Whether it's the mindset or something that… we just get tighter in these tough situations and things get tighter. I know myself, I get tighter. And again, I said, I made mistakes, and that cost us. That's tough. I think we lost that excitement… obviously, that winning mindset, because we have been finding ways to lose games. It's frustrating, we have to keep fighting to get it back. Yeah, this last little stretch has not been fun by any means. We have to shift our mindset and build something.”
Notes:
Prior to Monday’s game, the Predators recalled defenseman Kevin Gravel from Milwaukee. Gravel dressed against the Senators, but Luke Evangelista, who returned two games ago from a lower-body injury, did not play Monday and is day-to-day with a lower-body injury once more. Defenseman Justin Barron was Nashville’s lone healthy scratch on Monday.
Roman Josi skated in his 957th career game to pass David Legwand (956 GP) for the most in Predators franchise history.
With his goal, Filip Forsberg recorded his eighth career 50-point season (19g-31a), tied with Roman Josi for the most in Predators history.
Nashville will now have a few days between games - they’ll start a back-to-back set on Friday night in Chicago before returning home to host Buffalo on Saturday in their final outing before the NHL break and the 4 Nations Face-Off.
